Free Your Pelvis

Strengthening your side waist muscles may not eliminate your love handles, but it will unlock your pelvis and protect your lower back.

By Julie Gudmestad

Recently a student asked me how to strengthen his side waist muscles. It is a good, and perennial, question, even if his motives are suspect: What most people asking this question really want to know is how to reduce the "love handles" at their side waists. Unfortunately, research has shown that spot reducing just doesn't work. My student's question is still a good one, though, because the side waist muscles (also called the flank muscles), along with the front abdominal, lower back, and buttock muscles, are crucial in supporting and stabilizing the lower back and pelvis.

Sometimes people try to strengthen the flank muscles by weight lifting. Standing and holding dumbbells, they side-bend to the left, use the right flank muscles to lift the torso back up, and then repeat the action to the other side. I'm not very enthused about this exercise because it creates compression in the lower back. With so many people past the age of 40 showing at least the beginning stages of arthritis in the lower back, further compressing it really isn't a good idea.

However, I can enthusiastically recommend strengthening the side waist by the practicing of Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). But, you might ask, isn't Trikonasana a side stretch? Actually, when properly done, no. (At least, not with the Iyengar approach that I teach; some other yoga styles regard Triangle differently.) In fact, the line of the torso from the side waist to armpit should be flat, not rounded up toward the ceiling, and it is the contraction of the flank muscles that keeps it flat.

Engaging the Side Waist Muscles
Let's take a look at the muscles that comprise the flank. The quadratus lumborum sits deep in the back waist, attaching to the top of the pelvis and traveling up to the last rib and the sides of the lumbar vertebrae. When the quadratus lumborum contracts, it pulls the pelvis and rib cage on the same side closer together. The abdominal obliques also help this action. The external obliques originate on the lower ribs and insert on the pelvis and the abdominal connective tissue; the internal obliques originate on the pelvis and insert on the lower ribs and abdominal connective tissue. Some of the obliques' fibers are nearly vertical between the pelvis and ribs, so they perform a similar action to quadratus lumborum except on the front side of the body. (For more information on the obliques and also an illustration, see the "Anatomy" column on twists in the January/February 2003 issue of Yoga Journal.)

When you bend to one side, your flank muscles on the opposite side must lengthen. To feel this action, stand up and place your hands on your waist. If you bend to the right, you can feel with your right hand that the right waist is shortened so that your ribs and the top of your pelvis nearly touch. You can also feel that the left waist, ribs, and flank muscles are lengthening and curving, and that quite a gap has opened up between your ribs and the top of your pelvis.

As you practice Trikonasana, the two sides of your spine should lengthen nearly evenly, so there is no curve in your torso. For example, if you do Trikonasana to the right, your left ribs should stay flat and the space between your right ribs and right side of the pelvis should stay open, which helps prevent compression of the right side of your lower back.

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