u/Double-Attitude7810

So, I’ve been doing Pilates on and off for 5 years (and yoga for 10), but I switched to a new studio this year. For the first time in my life, an instructor actually explained the TVA to me.

Wild, right? But to be fair, my previous studio was quite “relaxed”, so I’ve been basically flying blind for half a decade. Shoutout to my current instructor and bless him for cluing me in!! It explains so much, like why I’ve always had super tensed shoulders and occasional bout of tendinitis. I was clearly working hard, just in all the wrong places.

Now, my classes are just a constant loop of me trying to “zip up” my core while he reminds me to stop wearing my shoulders as earrings. It’s a lot of mental gymnastics!

Does this ever actually become instinctive? Or am I destined to be reminded to relax my shoulders for the rest of my life?

Just sharing the struggle! Cheers to the instructors who find the foundations we missed! 🥂

EDIT: Wow, thanks for all the input! I didn’t realize how many of us were in the same boat. To answer the most common questions. TVA is the Transverse Abdominis (the deep "corset" muscle). My instructor didn’t actually use the technical name, only found that out after doing some of my own research and deep-diving into YouTube videos.

For everyone asking about how it was explained that it finally made sense, he told me to imagine zipping up jeans two sizes too small, but the hard part is you still have to breathe! He also has me focus on "closing" my scapulae (shoulder blades) so they don't hike up toward my ears. It’s been a total game-changer for my shoulder tension and tendinitis.

It’s interesting to see in the comments how many people only hear about this from a Physio. A friend also told me she only learned it because her first instructor was a physical therapist. My previous studio was lovely, but it had a very heavy flow and was relaxed, and since we frequently alternated classes and instructors, I think some of those technical details just got lost in the shuffle.