Your abs high and low

I've been reading a great series of articles by Emma Colson from Bicycling Australia (http://www.topbike.com.au/physio.htm) and came across one on the pelvic floor and the transversus abdominus muscle in particular. Is her exercise a Kegel exercise re-packaged in terms that won't scare away the men?

http://www.topbike.com.au/pdfs/bic-aust-jan-feb05.pdf

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseas...e_ez/index.htm

Interesting that she says the muscle can lose its "feedforward mechanism."

I have had numerous discussions with physiotherapists and athletic therapist on proper activation of TA. I have learned that it is about the Kiegel. Yep, hold in that pee. Most people can't do this properly it seems, mostly sucking in from the belly button and above, something that has come from the lack of full understanding on how to activate the TA.

I have a funny story on this. One of my clients explained to me, a male client, that he wanted me to know how hard it was NOT to fart while doing this, and how much i should appreciate it. it was too funny. :D

Pretty much. In Pilates they cue it as "activating the pelvic floor", but for beginners they'll sometimes describe it as a kegel or "stopping the flow of urine".

I always thought the pelvic floor muscles referred to the levator ani and the coccygeus. It's all connected of course and difficult (and probably pointless) to isolate in practice, but the TA connects the pelvis with the ribs all the way to the pubic symphysis - holding the organs in, where the pelvic floor muscles are between your legs - holding the organs up.

Did you read Colson's description of the muscle? That's what it sounds like to me.

Yes - as well as my own anatomy textbooks - she says the TA is "intimately associated with" the pelvic floor muscles, not that they're identical. And that she trains people to find their TA by instructing them on Kegels - since in practice the muscles are difficult to isolate.

Personally I have a much easier time finding the TA than the pelvic floor muscles - but that's just me.

Ah. :)