I have spent the majority of my life holding my belly in. I thought that I had to. I thought that it made me look better. I thought that it meant I was strong. If only I had known earlier that none of those were true.
I have since spent the last year teaching myself to let go. It has been tough! Stress and habit often cause me to tighten up. Then I remind myself to take a deep breath, to relax, to let go.
But what is so wrong with constantly pulling in your tummy? For starters it is unnatural. It’s not how our abdominal muscles were made to function. It restricts our diaphragm, which means we are not getting the right breath and oxygen to our bodies. It changes our posture, causing our pelvis to tilt and our shoulders to round forward.
Most significantly for me I found that whenever I pulled in my tummy, I would tighten my pelvic floor unnecessarily! And with an overactive pelvic floor comes pain and dysfunction. For me that translates to constipation and hip/SIJ pain.
Now whenever I see a pelvic pain patient, or someone battling constipation I always start by checking for abdominal bracing. Those overactive tummy muscles are big contributors to pain in the pelvis, hip and low back area.
How are your tummy muscles? Do you carry tension in them? Are you able to let them go?