The 'pulling on jeans' move

A couple of weeks ago I had the interesting situation of being one of only two people in my trapeze class.  It's so rare to get so much individual attention so I didn't let the opportunity slip.  I was having trouble with something, I forget what, and asked for help.  What ensued was a 20 minute masterclass on exactly which abdominal muscles I should be using, how to locate them, how to practice activating them.  It was a revelation to me.  I'd been relying on muscles too high up and there's a limit to what you can do that way.
The turning point was when I was told to imagine sucking in to pull on jeans.  We've all been there and I love the image of that.  Suddenly it all makes sense.
Since that class, I've been using random moments like walking down the street to work those new muscles. I never want to forget them.
It seems to be paying off.  In last week's class, we were going through the usual conditioning and I realised that I should stop cheating 'hocks half turn' and see if my newly found muscles will help with it.  To put this into perspective, this is a move which has always seemed to involve levitation.  How is it possible for your body to hang in mid-air like that?  Amanda broke it down for us and helped us spot each other trying it. I activated my 'jeans' muscles and gave it a few goes.  I was getting close...
Then near the end of the class I decided to try it again and bam!, I got it! I kicked my legs with glee once I was through.
I don't really know what this all means yet.  It's such a fundamental aspect of aerial work - I feel like I have to relearn everything, this time doing it the technically correct way.  Hopefully it'll help me cross off a couple of the moves on my homework list too.