The Cue That's Quietly Throwing Off Your Neutral Spine Work

At some point, most of us were taught to “pull the navel to the spine” . . . and never really questioned it. 

It sounds right, it feels like you’re doing something useful, and it’s been the go-to abdominal cue for a long time.

And to be fair, it can feel like it’s working. The client feels their stomach tighten. Everything pulls in. There’s effort there, so it seems like they’re creating support.

That’s why it sticks.

But if your goal is to teach and maintain a neutral spine, this is where things start to go off.

The client feels like they’re doing it right because they’re “engaging their core.”

But if you watch closely, you’ll start to notice things that don’t match what you actually want. You’ll see their stomach pull in hard, their lower back flatten (or even round), and their breathing get kind of shallow.

At first glance it can look like they’ve got it, but then you notice they’re not really moving well. Everything starts to look tight and held instead of supported.

So even though they’re trying harder, the movement actually gets smaller. It’s more restricted, not more supported.

That’s the issue. Everything is pulling in one direction instead of working together.

Neutral spine isn’t about sucking everything in as hard as possible. It’s about the body working together so there’s support and movement at the same time.

If you want your clients to feel that difference, the cue has to change. Inside the article, I break down why “navel to spine” often leads to lumbar flexion and share three simple cues you can use instead that your clients can actually feel and respond to.

>>> Read the full article here.

P.S. Inside Pilates Encyclopedia, you don’t just get general cueing advice. Each exercise includes specific cues you can use, common mistakes to watch for, and simple ways to adjust when something isn’t working.

>>> Join Pilates Encyclopedia and start refining how you cue and what you look for in each exercise.