It all seems so obvious. As a child you take the first steps, staggering and uncertain. About 3 years and older, walking has developed to such an extent that shoulders, arms, torso and legs move smoothly. The shoulders do not form a single block with the torso. The arms are moved in the opposite direction to the contralateral leg. The hips hereby form the pivot point with the legs and the feet remain within the hip width. It´s so beautiful to see how children from this age (3-5 years old) effortlessly turn, accelerate, jump and brake.
As we grow older, many of us lose that effortless flexibility. This is mainly because we do not move enough and because the tensions build up in our bodies. The tensions arise because the environment (family, school, company, society, etc.) has demands and expectations that regularly go against our feelings; so, we literally brace ourselves and hold back. This results in an increase in muscle tension in the body, especially the back and abdomen.
With a little exercise it´s easy to solve by itself, but the right way is a bit more difficult. To explain it we will focus on the core of the body, lower back and pelvis. These give support and stability to the rest of the body. In order to get a better understanding of the inner and outer muscle layers around our waist, we are going to call them inner and outer corset. The inner corset is formed by a broad horizontal layer of muscles around the intestines. It provides support and stability to the outer corset that is responsible for the actual movement of the body. The working of the inner corset is difficult to monitor, and therefore often ignored by gyms and trainers. A good exercise to become aware and train the inner corset is, to tense the muscles we normally use to hold pee and poo.
Due to the excessive tension in the external corset, (caused by stress, physical strain or overtraining) it blocks the proper functioning of the internal corset. As a result, the part of our back is not supported properly: causing it to hurt and get stuck. For example, most of us have learned to ride a bike and can remember that we braced ourselves as protection against a possible fall. The bracing is done by our outer corset. This causes immobility and stiffness, preventing the inner corset to do its proper job. After learning to relax our outer corset, the inner corset is able to keep the bike in balance by subtle movements of our lower back and bottom.
Flexibility and balance are very important qualities of our bodies. Therefore is wise to listen to our body and invest in it. This little kid still runs around in you somewhere!
Natural breathing is strongly linked to natural moving. (see topic)