“Feel the burn!”
“If you’re not burning you’re not working!”
“Chase the burn!”
We’ve all heard these phrases and most likely you’ve been convinced that to have a great workout we must feel our muscles burn. However, muscle burn is not necessarily indicative of a good workout.
What?! Why?! Well, for a variety of reasons.
- The higher the rep range the more burn you feel which does not equate to muscle growth or strength.
- Bands and light weights can burn more than other forms of resistance.
- Some muscles burn more than others.
The burn that you feel in your abdominals while doing core work is most commonly and almost solely your rectus abdominis. This is the most superficial core muscle. Your lower abdominals (transversus abdominis–TVA for short) most likely will never “feel the burn”. But you can feel them, and you will know when you do. These muscles are your deep core muscles.
So what should we focus on instead?
Focus on linking your breath with your movement, instead of holding your breath, gasping for breath, or grunting. Then the magic happens. We like to call it your “Internal Furnace.” Have you ever been a smooth 15-20 seconds into an ab exercise and sweat starts dripping from your armpits, wondering, “Why aren’t the fans on?!” That’s your Internal Furnace kicking on.
“Feeling the Burn” vs. the whole body heating up–core is your internal furnace
Unfortunately, our TVA doesn’t just stay engaged. We wish it did! Instead, we will need to continue to bring our attention to it, and use our breath to reinvigorate that engagement.
Where the mind goes, the energy goes. (Say that to yourself 3 times.)
When we work on a muscle engagement we want to engage our muscles just enough as is required for the movement. So, lifting something fairly light requires a lot less muscle engagement than lifting something heavy.
Let’s Move: Feeling our Transversus Abdominis (TVA)
- Place hands on your lower abdominals, heels of your hands on your hip bones, and fingertips in between your hip bones.
- Cough or Laugh, feel the area engage. These are your lower abdominals! (Transversus abdominis)
