06/19/2026
Have you ever heard a yoga or exercise instructor say, “Engage your core” and not known what to do?
I was a yoga teacher who myself had no clue, and I ended up with a severe case of postpartum diastasis recti (abdominal separation) as well as an umbilical hernia.
While the topic of core engagement is complex, here’s a good baseline: Imagine blowing out birthday candles.
Inhale through your nose. Then, as you slowly exhale out the mouth with pursed lips, feel a corset-like wrapping around the abdomen.
This is your transversus abdominis, or TVA, the deepest of your four abdominal muscles. It wraps around your torso like a corset to stabilize the spine and pelvis.
Essentially, it is important to engage the TVA while exerting, but not to overdo by squeezing too tightly on a regular basis. Lifting heavy weights or groceries you would need to engage more than in a yoga class.
In yoga, you’d engage more in a weight-bearing position like plank than in, say, a seated forward bend.
When I do deadlifts at the gym, I begin with a birthday candle breath, hold at the bottom of the exhale where my TVA is fully switched on, and then keep that engagement while lifting the weight.
In any situation, you need to make sure that your abdomen isn’t bulging or jutting forward with exertion, which can happen when the TVA is not engaged.
While sedentary I find the birthday candle breath quite calming as a prolonged exhale tends to activate the body’s relaxation response. It is optimal to breathe in and out your nose for most of the day, but I love birthday candle breath exhaling out the mouth for a few minutes a couple of times a day.
Comment CORE for a link to my 21-minute class, “What I Wish I Knew Sooner About My Core.”
