The Inner Lift

At the root of our spinal column, an internal ascension originates and feeds into our agility, speed, and power.

This page is for you if —

you sit for big chunks of the day
you look down at your phone for long stretches
you have to sit, or lean on a wall, to put one pant leg on before the other
you have no idea what an inner pelvic lift even means, or how to find it
you're late to the ball, running into the ball, or falling through the shots you hit

It's not kegels

Kegels — stopping the urine stream — are gripping and tightening, contracting firmly. That kind of gripping is fine now and then, like strength training. The inner lift is the opposite: it's what keeps you light, mobile, fluid, and balanced — all day, and especially in sport, in propulsive movement that asks every sense and the whole kinetic chain at once.

Find out in twenty seconds

Try to put your pants on standing up — one leg, then the other, no wall, no chair, no sitting down. If you can't, or you reach for something to hold, your lift is offline. That's the whole diagnosis; the body answers in a few seconds.

On the court: bounce lightly on the balls of your feet, a few small bounces. If your low back grips or your torso pitches forward, the lift is offline.

What it is

This ascending energy makes us light on our feet, so our feet go before we have to tell them. When we are light on our feet we don't have the same risk of falling and our balance is superior because we balance from the center root not the peripheral body, where overcorrection and flailing happen.

It isn't a posture you build part by part. It's a switch you turn on — and when it's on, tall happens on its own. You don't stack yourself like furniture; you find the on, and the body lengthens itself.

What happens without it

The midsection becomes a passenger instead of a conductor. The legs still work. The arms still work. But the transmission belt between them loses tension. The upper body compensates — the arm flails, the shoulder hauls the swing around, the paddle chops down instead of catching underneath. Every shot gets hit while falling because without the lift there is no balance.

People start to lose their connection to their pelvic lift way earlier than 65 or 70. This is a problem at all ages, but most people by the age of 35 — especially if they have a seated job, are carrying extra weight, don't walk very often, have lower back pain, or have found the upper body rounding from being on the phone or being on the court — have already lost it.

If the upper body is rounded, the lower body is gripping to hold that distortion. A gripped pelvis is not inner lift. It is the same problem as dropping the pelvis, just with added tension.

If you over reach instead of getting behind the ball, in all likelihood, you dropped your pelvic lift, sank into your feet and had to reach because your feet weren't moving.

What happens with it

The lift keeps the body upright, light on the feet. The pelvis initiates. The legs ground the rotation. The arm follows. The shot is hit from a place of balance, not compensation.

To move your feet, lift from the inner pelvic root upwards. And, don't be stingy with moving your feet! Don't stand in one spot not moving your feet.

Why it matters for the shot

You can't turn well from a spine that's collapsing. Get tall first, then rotate — the lift is what makes tall available before you ever swing. The same lift you need to put your pants on standing is the lift you need to not fall through a shot. Sport just turns the volume up.

Watch the pros

Watch the pros and watch the footwork. Watch the side to side glide. Watch how they get behind the ball not next to it. Watch how they hit the ball out in front of their bodies as the weight transfers forward. All of this takes impeccable inner pelvic lift.

To awaken it

Torso upright, knees bent in ready position, bounce like popcorn on the balls of the feet — pop, pop, pop — to an eight count, lightly. The feet spread and wake, the inner pelvis becomes findable, the upper body comes free. Do it before each point: it brings the lift back online and sloughs off excess tension.

You can't install the lift with words. You find it with devices — the popcorn bounce is one. More as you go: the flow rope, the horse stance.

↓ If you want to train this as yoga

The pelvic floor lift is yogic. It is like consciousness — obvious when you see it, but invisible for many their whole lives, except for a moment here or there. The yogis cultivate this inner lift as if their very ability to transcend depends on the quality of this river.

Exhale deeply into your pelvic bowl — the root of the spinal column, deep in the well — ascending toward the crown of the head. Use the elongated exhalation to culture the energy as it spirals up and around the inner core.

A horizontal expansion from a vertically aligned form. You lengthen first, then you rotate. The lift is the lengthening — the vertical that every expansion turns from.