Flatter Abs in 10 Seconds

Part 111 of the Alignment Chronicles – Aligning your lower ribs directly above your pelvic bones for maximum health benefits and consistent abdominal toning.

If someone told you that by simply aligning your ribcage over your pelvis you could tone your abdominals, trim your waistline and improve your health, would you be excited?

How exciting also to know that we can keep our abs toned and flatter with consistent ribcage and pelvis alignment and no extra ab training required!

The position of your ribcage, relative to your pelvis, dictates how toned your abs are regardless of how many sit-ups, crunches or even Callanetics pulses you may do each day.

Our goal is to have our abdominals switched on and engaged while we’re standing, walking, moving and even sitting.

How to line up for flatter abs

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve lined up our feet with our pelvic bones and we’ve also added an external rotation of our thighs.  If you didn’t read last weeks blog click here 

What are we aligning?  The pink markers on the lower ribs need to be aligned directly over the pink markers on the pelvic bones/ASIS and these need to be aligned directly over the pubic symphysis.

Get these straight and you’re on your way to flatter abs, a smaller waistline,  increased core strength, increased blood flow throughout your abdominals and an overall improvement in wellness.

Exercise

Stand in front of a full-length mirror and first check the natural resting position of your ribcage. Do you look like this with your rib cage lifted and in front of your pelvis?

Notice how my chest is lifted and it looks like I have a sway back.  Look also at the strap that I’m holding.  It shows that the strap is stretched but it’s on an angle weakening all four layers of the abdominals.

The more my ribcage is forward of the pelvis the weaker my abdominals become along with weakening my core strength.    My muscles become slack and no longer able to adapt to force.

Let’s do it

• With your feet aligned with your pelvic bones and weight back on heels, lower your front ribs down toward your pubic bone until you feel your abs engaging.
• Slide your ribcage back so that it’s directly above your pelvis so now diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles are aligned.

The sensation you will have is your lower ribs moving back towards your spine and moving deeper into your torso.

Feeling uncomfortable?

As you do this you may also notice stiffness and tension around the shoulders; they may round forward and you may feel an increased tension in your neck which may have jutted forward.

This is normal and is just revealing how tight these muscles have become over the years of perpetual rib thrusting,  rib lifting and throwing your shoulders back to ‘appear’ straight.

The application of aligning your ribcage over pelvis can dramatically change your Callanetics workout.  As you align your feet, ribcage and pelvis, along with the other concepts we call the Foundation Series in The Callanetics Studio you’ll continue to make new discoveries about where you are right now in your body.

We’ve found a way to avoid training our bodies out of alignment.  As the Callanetics exercise program focuses on such tiny, delicate movements it’s so easy to apply correct alignment to enhance and accelerate the results.

Have you just discovered you’re a rib thruster?  Let us know in the comments below.