Are You Helping or Hurting Your TVA Muscle with Your Hollow Body Hold?

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Hey, everybody!  We had to cover some serious content last week about why it’s a godawful idea to rig aerial equipment at home, but now that we got that out of the way, let’s return to our segment on the transverse abdominal (TVA) muscle.  As promised, this week’s blog post is all about the hollow body hold exercise.  This one’s a biggie in the world of Circus; in fact, we do this exercise in almost all of our classes’ warmups.  What exactly IS a hollow body hold, you ask?  I’m so happy to tell you!  The hollow body is the shape one’s body makes when it is hollow or concave, when lying on the back.  Both the feet and shoulders (and thus the legs and head) come up off the ground so that only the core is working to stay grounded and keep everything lifted.  When we hold that position for time, it’s called a hollow body hold, and in Circus class, we try to get our kids to hold that position for 30-60 seconds.  

Here’s the thing, we want the TVA muscle to be doing the heavy lifting in this exercise, and unless you’re doing the exercise properly, your TVA muscle won’t reap the benefits like it should.  Remember, the transverse abdominal muscle lives under the rectus abdominis (ya know, your sought after six-pack muscle), so if you’re not engaging that lazy transverse abdominis, that six pack muscle is going to take over and be happy to do all of the work.  How do you know if you’re doing it right or wrong?  You know what loaf of bread looks like, right?  Well, when you’re lying in your hollow body position, if your six pack muscle is doing all of the work, your stomach will look rounded/convex, just like a loaf of bread.  If you’re doing the exercise correctly and using the TVA muscle, your tummy will look completely flat.   That all sounds well and good, but how do you actually achieve this correct position and start reaping the benefits of a strong, tight transverse abdominis?  Again, I’m so glad you asked!

  • Lie on your back with your head off the ground, gazing at your belly button.  Arms are extended straight over the head and are also off of the ground.
  • Lift your straight legs up to the ceiling.  Squeeze your ankles together and point your toes.
  • Make sure ALL of your lower back is in contact with the floor.  Wanna make sure you’re not cheating here?  Try to slide a hand under the small of your lower back; if you can, your using your rectus, not your transverse abdominis.  Flatten that back to the ground, baby!
  • Slowly, oh so slowly, lower your legs down, keeping your lower back pressed down to the ground the entire time.  If you feel your lower back start to lift off of the ground, bring your legs back up just a smidge until your can plaster your lower back into the floor.  
  • A true hollow body will be held with the legs about 6-9″ off the floor; however, I would rather have myself and my students keep their legs up higher off of the ground if it means keeping that lower back on the ground the entire time.
  • Lastly (and this is the most important part), squeeze the ribs/belly button in to engage that TVA muscle.  Don’t know how to do that?  Just cough or laugh and then squeeze your tummy.  The exhalation of air is one of the ways that the TVA muscle works, remember?  This is the most approachable way to engage it or make it “fire”.  
  • Now that you’ve got your hollow body position in line, ya just hold it for as long as you can retain that position properly.  Again, we try to get our kids to hold that in class for 30-60 seconds.  

Okie doke, that about wraps up our segment on the transverse abdominis.  Now get going on that hollow body hold so you can have a rock solid core!

See you next week, 

Angelica  0=)