Want a firm & toned core?

Now you’ve tackled a healthy eating plan so you can beat the bloat, there’s another trick we want to share. It’s the secret to a firmer, leaner core: making every inhale and exhale count.

The secret is to make the most of every breath

Take one look at Jill Miller’s core, and you’d guess that the 46 year-old mum of two spends hours at the gym taming her abs into submission. Her secret, however, has nothing to do with intense exercise and a lot to do with the way she breathes. “On average we take 20,000 breaths a day but most of us never pay attention to the muscles that make it happen,” says Miller, who used her background as a trained singer and yoga therapist to create the ‘Coregeous’ method.

This breathing-based approach, which has improved the health and bellies of thousands of women, marries deep abdominal breathing with gentle movements to train the core muscles from inside out. “In order to have a healthy core that provides a slim silhouette, we need to stop focusing on the visible six-pack muscles and instead develop our innermost abs first,” Miller says.

And the best way to do that is through our breath. Miller is talking about intentional, deep abdominal breathing that engages a hidden muscle we rarely think about: the respiratory diaphragm. “The respiratory diaphragm lives inside the lower rib cage,” Miller says. Using your breath to stretch it causes all the deep muscle in your trunk to fire up.

Understanding why breathing this way can transform your core requires a short anatomy lesson. Your torso is like an elastic, muscular cylinder, explains Miller, and the inside is lined by the respiratory diaphragm at the top, the pelvic floor at the base, and your deep abdominal muscles wrapping around the back and sides. Breathing with your diaphragm – so that your belly expands outward like a balloon filling with air – increases pressure in the cylinder, and your innermost ab muscles lengthen and shorten as the diaphragm contracts and relaxes; and so each breath improves both strength and pliability throughout your inner trunk. “A strong and functional core is resilient like a rubber band,” Miller says. “If your abs are always tense – say, from sucking in your belly to look thinner – you can lose a range of motion, and your muscles can’t be used to their full potential.”

Plus, once you learn how to train the core through your breath, you can breathe your way to better abs anywhere, anytime. “When you turn on your abs through the breath, sitting and standing become toning moves,” says Miller. “And rather than holding your abs tight during exercise, breathing this way will power up your core while improving your health.”