What it really means to “swim from your core.”

by JULIE FRIEDEBERGER

The defining distinction of Total Immersion from traditional swimming is in swimming with the body, rather than the arms and legs. TI style draws power efficiently from the core by engaging the kinetic chain, which involves our deep stabilising muscles, whose function is core stability.

Indeed, all human movement – lifting weights, pushing a stalled car, rising from a chair, doing a demanding yoga posture – should be done from a stable core. The spine needs to be supported and stabilised. The muscles that should support and stabilize the spine are the transversus abdominis and the multifidus. Together with the pelvic floor and the diaphragm, these constitute the body’s “inner unit”, its core of strength and stability.

After almost 40 years of practising and teaching yoga, I began to understand my TA muscles when I turned to Pilates two years ago after surgery for a ruptured lumbar disc to help prevent anything like that happening again. Besides a more stable core, my Pilates practice has also given me new awareness to integrate into my yoga practice and teaching… which is now being reinforced by my TI swimming practice.

Meet your deep stabilising muscles…

The transversus abdominis muscles (hereafter TA) are the deepest of three layers of abdominal muscles. The middle layers are the internal and external obliques, and the most superficial layer the rectus abdominis (hereafter RA). The horizontal fibres of TA wrap the torso like a corset from front to back, and from pubic bone to sternum to support and stabilise the spine, most importantly the lumbar spine, which is so vulnerable to overuse and injury.

The multifidus muscles are the deepest layer of the back muscles. They are small, short pairs of muscles that attach to each of the individual vertebrae and ensure that it doesn’t shear too far off its neighbours. TA and multifidus work together to hold the lumbar spine stable, preventing injury by limiting excess movement between vertebral segments.

Because TA muscles are deep-lying, they're difficult to locate or feel, so it's helpful to use imagery when trying to engage them: the engagement is a "drawing-in" movement, like tightening a corset, or wide belt. The best position for feeling them draw in is lying on the floor, with your hands on your abdomen or around your waist. You can also visually observe this action: Stand in front of a mirror with your hands on your waist, and if you've "got it" you'll be able to see your waist drawing in and growing smaller as the deep muscles engage. (Women will love this.)

Drawing in the TA muscles is a gentle, subtle action – the instruction given in most Pilates material is to use about 30% of total effort. This is different from the strong pulling in (navel-to-spine) of the RA muscles. When the TA muscles are working well, they hold the vertebrae, and the discs between them, stable, snug, and safe.

Most abdominal exercises target the RA muscles; but the familiar "crunches" can overwork them. When that happens the deeper, more subtle TA let the RA take over. But RA muscles are movers” not stabilisers. Overworking them with the intention of “strengthening your abs”, at the expense of TA: (1) leaves the spine unsupported and more vulnerable to injury, and (2) produces an imbalance between the front and the back of the body, which also increases the potential for injury, especially for those with poor posture or faulty movement patterns.

… and a few other muscles that help you swim with
your body

The pelvic floor muscles fire the TAs, so it helps to draw them up before engaging TA. The oblique abdominals are integral to rotation. The trapezius and rhomboid muscles support the shoulder blades. When stroking movements originate from your shoulder blades, you have a stable shoulder joint. When they don’t, the result is a long, heavy object pulling on a small, crowded joint via smaller and weaker rotator cuff muscles creating an unstable shoulder – the most frequent cause of swimming injuries.

Pilates exercises work explicitly on these muscle groups; yoga postures involve them, but (having more holistic aims) don't work them with the same specificity. But having become aware of and having the importance of using them, I've been able to bring them into my yoga practice and teaching…and my swimming.

Three effective exercises

Pelvic tilts and lifts This Pilates exercise will help you engage the core muscles that can aid your rotation while swimming for better rotation. It will also be good for your spine, creating openness between your vertebrae, and gently stretch and lengthen your lower back muscles.

Lie in alignment on your back, with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, hip width apart, and close to your buttocks. As you breathe out, pull up on your pelvic floor, draw in on your TA muscles, and lift your tailbone an inch or two from the floor. Hold this lift as you breathe in. Then breathe out, engaging your deep stabilising muscles again, and lower your tailbone. As you lower it, direct it towards your heels, lengthening your lower back. Visualise a laser beam shining from your tailbone: follow it towards your heels. Once your lower back has reached the floor, let go of the pelvic tilt and let your lumbar spine return to its neutral position.

When you've done five pelvic tilts, begin to increase the lift. Don’t come up too high: this isn't a full back arch. Keep your shoulder blades in contact with the floor. Take about four or five lifts to reach that point, and then five more at full expression.

Lower back rotation This works the obliques as well as the TA. It’s a simple spinal twist movement – with a difference. To do it effectively, you need to switch off your leg muscles.

Same position as above, but with feet a bit wider than hips. Breathing out, engage PF and TA, and roll your knees gently to the right. Keep both shoulder blades anchored. Your knees won’t go to the floor. Hold your position as you breathe in. Then, breathing out, engage PF and TA and let your pelvis roll back to the centre, and your knees follow. Focus only on returning your pelvis to the centre. Your legs will follow, but try to keep them passive.

Because you want your TA and obliques to do all the work, you need to disengage your leg muscles. This is harder than it sounds. Your hamstrings, quadriceps, and gluteals are used to working hard, and they'll want to get involved, but don’t let them. This is a very “examined” exercise – do it mindfully, five times to each side.

The Arrow This strengthens the multifidus muscles.

Lie on your front with forehead on the floor and arms by your sides. Draw your shoulder blades down your back and your tailbone down towards your heels to lengthen your lower back. Breathe out as you pull up on your pelvic floor and engage your TA, and raise your chest and arms. Lead the movement with the crown of your head, looking down to keep your neck/spine long. Think more of lengthening your spine than of coming up high. Keep your gluteals soft (harder than you might think). Hold the lift as you breathe in. As you breathe out, engage your pelvic floor and TA, and slowly lower your head, chest, and arms. (This exercise also heightens your awareness of the shoulder blade/arm connection.

These three basic exercises (of many) have been the core of my practice since I started Pilates. Since learning how to isolate, engage, and use the deep stabilising muscles, I've brought them into my yoga practice and teaching. And my swimming.

Swimming with your core

After a lifetime of swimming – and nearly a lifetime of yoga and a couple of years of Pilates – discovering TI last year was an epiphany for me: swimming with the whole body, getting power from the core, swimming mindfully, swimming with relaxation unified all the activities I love into a seamless whole. I've been enjoying learning TI for a year now, and expect to go on enjoying it forever.

While writing this article, I spent time in the pool using the core muscles as my sole focal point in drill practice, alternating between consciously engaging them, and not doing so. I discovered that when my core is engaged I experience better alignment, and propulsion. When it’s not, my lower back arches, my body line becomes “floppy,” and I lose the sense of connection between my legs and upper body. This is noticeable in all drills, but especially in Switch drills. If we’re to get power from the core, the stabiliser muscles need to be fully engaged. Without that “spinal corset” there’s less power to tap.

Some swimmers are able to recruit and use their core muscles instinctively. I’m sure this applies to elite swimmers, and to the most mindful TI swimmers. But others may need to learn how to use them, as I did. My experience of disengaging those muscles suggests that may be at the root of some of the problems I see reported on the Discussion Forum: poor balance, difficulty maintaining a long, clean line, inefficient kicks, ineffective propulsion and thus a high SPL. So if you aren’t yet acquainted with your core muscles, you might do the suggested exercises to become acquainted with them, then make core stability a focal point in some of your drill and swim practice.


Julie is a yoga teacher, trainer, writer, and TI student, who has practiced and taught yoga as a healing therapy since 1970. Julie works with cancer patients and trains other teachers in that specialty. She has published three books: A Visible Wound: A Healing Journey through Breast Cancer; The Healing Power of Yoga; and Office Yoga. Julie discovered TI in February 2006 and has been hooked ever since. She lives in London with her husband, the painter Klaus Friedeberger.

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