The Use of Imagery to Help Your Client Find Lift Through the Core

Many clients struggle with accessing the muscles necessary for core engagement and postural alignment. The use of imagery or metaphors can help your client find the proper form. Instead of taking a client through the specific steps of muscular activation, try suggesting that your client concentrate on images, such as a diamond, marble or golf ball, for example. You can easily refer to these chosen images later and your meaning will be understood without excessive verbiage.

To begin, have the client sit on a chair in a neutral pelvis position with weight slightly forward on the ischial tuberosities (sitbones) and the weight solidly on the feet. Ask your client to find the feeling of being a chair with its weight distributed equally between the sit bones and the feet as a chair would have four points of equal contact against the floor. Then suggest that your client imagine that an arrow has been shot sideways (coronal plane) through the pelvis and another one from front to back (sagittal plane) about 2-3 inches below the navel (umbillicus). Where those arrows intersect in the center, ask your client to visualize a diamond as if it were cradled and held up between prongs like in a ring. Keep the diamond lifted and suspended from all sides.

Then have the client lift the chest away from the pelvis and notice the space where her ribs meet at the bottom of her breastbone (sternum) at the xiphoid process. Ask her to visualize a marble has been inserted here and to give it a squeeze, pulling it up off the diamond below. Finally, suggest that your client continue to lengthen up the spine to where the bottom of the ears connect to the neck lifting her head as if it were a golf ball suspended on a tee. Tell her to breathe expansively through the chest and continue to lift her diamond, marble, and golf ball away from each other. Ask your client to release any excess tension so that she could hold the lifted position for an extended period of time. Remain in this position several (costal) breath cycles and then have her reach toward the floor to relax the back.

Finding lift through the core can be a challenge for many clients, but using imagery can help your client “see” what should happen and find the proper form.