The Backstory

What Happens When You Stop Drawing Your Belly Button In

I spent most of my formative years in the gym, training as a gymnast. I was eager to achieve, and I hung on every word my coach said.

I have a vivid memory of him walking around the gym and using the back of his hand to hit us on our bellies - his intention wasn’t to hurt us - he was cueing us to draw our belly buttons in and be in a constant state of braced core.

Coaches (and society) preach this to us, no? And I bought into it for most of my life.

I remember the first time a yoga teacher suggested that when I breathe, my diaphragm should go down and my belly should get bigger. Not only was I horrified at the thought of my belly getting bigger, I was literally incapable of making it do so. After decades of drawing my belly button in, my diaphragm was pretty well stuck up in my rib cage. At the time, when I couldn’t make my diaphragm descend upon inhale, I made a snap judgement that the yoga teacher was crazy and there couldn’t possibly be a benefit to what she called belly breathing so I conveniently ignored her teachings and carried on with my way.

It’s fascinating how good our bodies are at compensating for our dysfunctions. I breathed with my diaphragm stuck up in my rib cage for the vast majority of my life. And, I had some reasonable success in athletics (and life) along the way. So, it’s definitely possible to do - for a long time - and not even really know what you’re missing.

For me, dysfunctional breathing eventually expressed itself in the form of anxiety and random feelings of panic. I also had a tendency to ‘snap’ and fly off the handle at random times, my patience was limited, and I commonly felt like I was in a hurry and had no time. And sleep? It was a constant battle. I was on alert and on edge most of the time.

Anyway, fast forward to me being diagnosed with anxiety and high blood pressure in my 40s (as a lifelong endurance athlete). My Dr tried to put me on meds and I just really really didn’t want to be on that path. Enter Lawrence Van Lingen, an online influencer/guru/teacher who was teaching about how important it is for overall health to understand how your diaphragm should work and how to practice functional breathing. I was finally desperate enough to pay attention.

In hindsight, I wish I would have been more open to this decades ago, when that first yoga teacher tried to teach it to me… Alas, we all come to these things in our own time.

I proud to say that now at 50yo, I have zero issues with anxiety or blood pressure. I cured myself not by taking medications, but by learning how to use my diaphragm, and practicing that until it became my default. I let go of that false belief that drawing my belly button in was important and learned to let go of those deep desires to protect myself by bracing and guarding. Enter: vulnerability. It’s not as scary as it sounds. ;)

The fact is, drawing your belly button in prevents your diaphragm from expanding and going down when you inhale. Drawing your belly button in promotes dysfunctional breathing, because the only place for your diaphragm to go when you inhale is up. Understanding (and then practicing) this key point about your physiology is potentially life changing in many ways.

A functional diaphragm allows for more optimal flow of oxygen, and an overall calmer, more relaxed state of being. From that space, the opportunities that open up are endless.

Given that Lawrence was 100% right about the breathing thing, I started to really pay attention to what he was teaching about running form. He was always talking about letting go, opening your heart, learning how your pelvis should move, using your whole foot, learning hip extension, accessing posterior chain, stacked joint posture, rotating with a connected torso, moving with length and space, feeling free.

I heard these concepts over and over but was definitely not experiencing them when I went to run. When I would run, it felt like me vs gravity, and gravity always won. Pictures of me running rarely showed both feet off the ground. More likely it was a picture of me sinking into my quad while gravity pulled my whole body down… or me striving and reaching forward with my head and my hands and my feet. Running was hard.

It took me years to figure it all out, so it’s a good thing I’m persistent! I am getting it now, and it feels amazing. My running feels open and free in a way it hasn’t since I was a kid.

Along the way, I’ve been attempting to teach what I’ve been learning to athletes I work with 1:1. Teaching a concept helps us learn it (!) so the more I taught, the better I understood. And I was definitely experiencing those breakthroughs in my own running, so I knew it was possible. Oh this must be what he meant by moving with length and space! And listen, if it was possible for me to open up my movement patterns, it’s possible for you, too.

My challenge, really, was that to get all these moving parts right, it’s essential to start from the beginning and develop posture and movement patterns in a systematic way. It starts in your living room. Unfortunately, I found that teaching it in bits and pieces wasn’t very effective. So, with Lawrence’s permission (and blessing!), I put all the concepts together in an online course. It’s a 6 week self-paced course called Flow Running and it teaches the whole thing, in order and in detail. I have to say, I’m super proud of how it all came together.

That said, it’s likely only going to be effective for people who are open minded (and potentially desperate?) enough to really take time to listen and practice all the pieces along the way. The reward at the end is worth it, in my opinion. You get to experience more freedom of movement, and that shows up in your running (and your swimming/riding/life!).

Now that I’ve experienced what life is like since I stopped drawing my belly button in, I can say that life is better over here. Some of you will hear me and decide that you want to follow along and see/feel for yourself. To you I say, Welcome! Others of you will be sure that I have it all wrong and that I’m about to hurt my back (lol!). To you I say, All good! Carry on.

If you’re in the former camp and want to check out my Flow Running course, use code TeamBSC24 for 50% off. That discount code is set to expire at the end of July, but I wanted to make this course available at a huge discount to those of you who have been following along from the beginning. I’m so grateful to be on the path that I’m currently on, and my arms are open to any of you who are interested in coming along with me. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them!