My Favorite Muscle

I studied dance in school and learned a lot about the muscles of the body. One muscle I had never heard of before was the transversus abdominis (also called the girdle muscle). I LOVE this muscle! If you already know all about this, awesome! If not, I hope it will help you!

This muscle is beneath your abs and your external and internal obliques, and is the muscle that holds all of your organs in. If you want a nice flat belly or to lose inches around your waistline this is the muscle you need to learn to use! It can be tricky to find (it took me a while) but once you do it's a great addition to your normal workout routines. So, here's how to find it:

1. Lay down on the floor on your back with your knees up. You can relax them into each other if you want. Your arms resting either behind your head (like your going to do crunches) or long on the floor by your body.

2. Try to draw your hip bones toward one another. Not in towards your body or out away from your body but as if you were really sliding them toward the middle of your body.

3. After you have that down try to draw your belly button and your spine together. Again, really bring both toward the middle of your body.

4. Once you have those two things down you have discovered how to contract your transversus abdominis! To exercise this muscle contract the transversus abdominis and hold for 10 seconds, release and do that again 10 times total.

Once you have this down try holding the contraction while you do your ab workout, while standing, walking, etc. The more you can do it in your everyday activities the better.

A few tips: if you feel like your using the muscles you use to have a bowel movement then you are using the wrong muscles - don't worry, everyone does that at first. ;)

If you can do planks that is a really good way to use this muscle.

My sugar intake update: I did really good all day yesterday but I did eat a slice of my husbands egg pie after dinner before I remembered that I wasn't supposed to eat sugar. I did stay away from the M&Ms though! The extra water did really help. Today I am going to take Rachael's advice and decrease my carbs intake as well as my sugar intake. I would love to do a no sugar challenge with everyone next week. I'll make sure to post about it ahead of time.

Today is weights and Pilates again and tomorrow is Zumba.

I wish you all success on your goals!