Do you think toddlers think about engaging their abdominal muscles? I’m going to say no. But what toddlers have that most of us don’t is proper posture and joint mobility. Over time, we wind up sitting more, and remaining in static positions for hours at a time. If you have experience with toddlers, you know they don’t sit still for long — if ever!

As we age, our fascia literally starts to grow itself together and we get stuck in poor postural positions, which creates inefficient movement patterns, immobility, and eventually injury.

When we are in true proper posture, our abdominal muscles engage automatically, when they need to, and when they’re supposed to. If we’re not in proper posture, we have to cognitively engage our abdominal muscles, which is inefficient, in order to support and protect our spine. Does this mean we don’t need to train abdominal strength and endurance? Absolutely not, especially if we’re doing activities that require heavy lifting, or movement out and away from our base of support.

That abdominal strength and endurance can help us get out of sticky situations in sports and activities where we may not be in correct alignment. Notice what I said there: “correct alignment.” As mentioned previously, when the body is in proper posture, the abdominals engage automatically. So, when protecting the spine and developing stability in the spine, alignment and posture is paramount. Toddlers do it, but they don’t think about it.

Stay tuned next week where we’ll learn a little bit more on what constitutes proper posture.

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our clients in establishing healthy movement patterns that help maintain strength, flexibility and mobility. If you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.