08/05/2026
This is performance training, built for your life.
Your Transversus Abs, or TVA for short, are your stabilizing core foundation. Their job is to create a stable base so your mobilizing muscles can move your trunk, with or without extra weight, think holding a baby, a bag, a stroller, or all of it at once while climbing stairs and bending over.
Isolating your TVA is a new ask from your body. It takes a minute to learn how to do well and accurately. Here's why it matters: without your TVA doing its job, strengthening your external abs and back doesn't really work. You end up fighting yourself, feeling more tension than functional strength.
So take a minute to try this move. Learn and feel the subtlety of your TVA turning on well. Then next time you're in a plank, see if you can translate this inner layer into the 360 degree brace of your core, and feel how much better your body responds (you might even feel it shake).
Here's how:
1. The ball (or grab a throw pillow) creates a dynamic reflex between your stabilizing side and your working side, training the weaker muscles to catch up to the dominant ones. That coordination is the baseline of balanced, functional strength and long term core performance.
2. 5 to 10 reps, one breath per rep. Brace the ball side, let the working side move your leg, not your hip flexor.
3. Keep your pelvis still and shoulders flat to the ground, so your neck and low back or groin can't take over the work you're training your core muscles to begin doing.
This crosses the mid brain barrier: better focus, balance, and left right coordination. A few minutes just for you.