Stop Pulling Your Navel to Your Spine - That's Not Core Engagement

Why this common cue is messing with your breath, your core, and your pelvic floor and what to do instead

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times: “Pull your navel to your spine!”

But what if I told you that cue might be the very thing keeping your core from working?

When most people think of the core, they picture crunches, planks, or some kind of “ab workout.” What rarely gets mentioned? How you breathe, how you manage pressure, how your pelvic floor responds, and whether your deep core is actually doing its job.

I was a classically trained ballerina. I was disciplined, strong, and doing 100 crunches a day from the time I was a kid. And I still wasn’t engaging my core correctly.

Because pulling your navel to your spine is not the same thing as core activation.

Why That Cue Misses the Mark

Pulling your belly in might look right but it often recruits the wrong muscles, like your outer abs or hip flexors. It can actually shut off the deep support system your body needs to function well.

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When you suck in:

• You limit your breath

• You create rigidity instead of reflexive support

• You disconnect from your body’s most powerful stabilizer, the diaphragm

• You may also trigger jaw clenching, neck and shoulder tightness, back pain, and even digestive issues from constantly compressing your abdominal space

And worst of all? You may be training dysfunction into your system every time you work out.

Why Isn’t Your Core Engaging Naturally?

Blame it on modern life.

We sit too much. We slouch. We hold stress in our jaw, neck, and shoulders. We forget how to breathe deeply. Our posture pulls us out of alignment and our nervous system gets stuck in fight or flight.

In that state, your breath becomes shallow. The core locks up. The pelvic floor clenches. And the body starts compensating with tension, pain, or just total disconnection.

I see it in everyone. Though if your body has gone through pregnancy, this is even more crucial.

The Truth About Core Work

Doing core exercises doesn’t guarantee core activation.

In fact, if you’re doing the right exercises with dysfunctional breathing and poor engagement, you may be making things worse:

• Neck and shoulder tension

• Low back pain

• Pelvic floor tightness or leaking

• A belly that won’t flatten no matter how hard you try

This is why I created my prenatal and postnatal programs. But this work is for anyone whose core isn’t supporting them. Whether you’ve had a baby or not, if your abs feel offline, your ribs are flaring, or your breath is shallow, you’re not broken. You’re just disconnected.

So What Does Proper Core Engagement Look Like?

It starts with the inhale. The inhale is the setup.

It should move down and out, expanding your ribs, your waist, and your pelvic floor like an umbrella opening. That’s how your diaphragm contracts and creates stability.

Then on the exhale, everything gently recoils.

Imagine blowing bubbles through a straw into a cup. You’re slowly and completely emptying the lungs. As the air leaves your body, your core draws up and in equally from all sides.

The ribs glide inward, the deep abs wrap in, and the pelvic floor lifts reflexively.

This is 360-degree, reflexive core engagement. And it changes everything.

Some people suck their stomach in so tightly they can’t breathe, while others are upper ab grippers who end up bearing down on the exhale. Both patterns disrupt core function. When you bear down, bracing or pushing into your belly instead of lifting up, you create downward pressure that lands on the pelvic floor. Over time, this can lead to symptoms like heaviness, leaking, or even prolapse. Core engagement should feel like a gentle lift up and in, never like you’re pressing down into your abdomen or the floor beneath you.

📹 Watch these videos on Instagram — it’s some of the many ways I teach people to engage their core through breath.

How To Engage Your Core Video

How To Engage Your Core Video 2

This work isn’t about forcing. It’s about reconnecting to how your body is designed to function.

Don’t get frustrated if this feels unfamiliar at first. Change is hard, especially on such a deep, unconscious level. It takes patience. It takes letting go of old patterns and the stress they hold. And it takes consistency.

But your body remembers.

You just have to give it the chance to relearn.

With love,

Regan

Check out other classic workout cues that might be wrong HERE