13 Pilates Exercises to Strengthen Your Core

On what your fitness depends? Your overall fitness depends on strengthening your core. Several Pilates exercises can help you strengthen your core. Why is your core important for your fitness? Because your core includes the major groups of muscles that affect basic movements in your body. Abdominal muscles, obliques, deep stabilizing muscles ( transverse abdominis), muscles found in your pelvic floor, lower back, and hips. Strengthening all these muscles helps keep your body stable, balanced, and strong. Strengthening of the core is also crucial for maintaining your proper posture and exercise form, enabling you to move in a controlled way, and keeping your spine safe and stable. A strong core presents lower back pain that supports your body while you’re working in and out of everyday life.

What is Pilates?

Pilates exercises consist of a system of workouts that help enhance your body’s potential by creating efficient movement patterns, correcting muscular imbalances, and finding optimal alignment.

Pilates exercises are considered the best workouts for targeting smaller and deeper stabilization of muscles. These exercises also support your body’s structure through a balance of flexibility, strength, and mobility. In conjunction with your breathing exercises, Pilates engage your core by employing all of your body muscles. And often explained as working muscles from the inside out. Pilates includes mat-work and low-impact weight training exercises, or some exercises performed with specialized equipment.

Numerous benefits are associated with Pilates exercises that help strengthen your core. A common advantage of these exercises is a decrease in the risk of falling. Relieve lower back pain, and improve body balance.

What’s more about Pilates other than strengthening your core? Pilates exercise helps improve your quality of life including positive impacts on your depression or anxiety phase. Although tons of core exercises and strength training workouts can be done to activate your core during moves and engage maximum numbers of your body muscles. But Pilates exercises are the most effective exercises that hone in on your core area and make it a great choice for specialized core strength. If you’re still unaware of the beneficial impacts of Pilates exercises on your core, add them to your workout regimen. These exercises may challenge your muscles in new ways that lead you to a win.

In addition, Pilates are core-focused moves that have a main target on your core but other muscle groups are also included in its targets. A Pilates session is the most effective for your core and related muscle groups. 

Moreover, this mind-blowing exercise strengthens different areas of your core. For example, your abdominal area on both superficial and deep levels can achieve true core strength by adopting this workout plan. Studies claim that Pilates engage a wide range of your body muscles, including your rectus abdominis on top to deep internal transverse abdominis.

What is a Power House?

Your core is often referred to as your powerhouse because it contains most of your abdominal muscles. These muscles are actually located in the center of your body, from the base of the rib cage to the base of your buttocks. It is also composed of muscles of your pelvic floor, glutes, hips, inner thighs, lower back, and abdominals. 

If you’re thinking about the corset of your body, including all the above-mentioned muscles but without the restrictive quality. This area covers your vital organs and supports them to maintain their natural position for enhancing their functionality. This power horse works with your breath in synchronization to strengthen your core.

Benefits of Pilates Exercises

Whether you’re incorporating dedicated Pilates abs exercises or other more general moves, both are great for strengthening your core area which is also known as the powerhouse. Along this, more Pilates benefits are here which can tempt you to add them to your workout regimen.

Well, as a first advantage, Pilates are very accessible because several Pilates can be done on the Pilates reformer. You just need a yoga mat for comfort and don’t need any Pilates class, go to the gym or a studio to perform them. This means you can fit in a quick Pilates at your home. You can also do tons of Pilates chair exercises to focus on your lower body strength. Such an exercise is indeed just a chair. 

Doing Pilates at home is not only effective but also convenient. In addition, Pilates also helps improve your breath awareness and coordination, better your balance, and increase flexibility. As a beginner, you may find a wide range of Pilates that can be proven as scalable exercise modalities.

Popular Pilates Core Exercises

Popular Pilates include single-leg stretch, classics, Pilates one hundred, and roll-up. Besides these, several Pilates are not much recognized by name, but you may recognize them when you see them. A large number of Pilates core exercises can be performed at home without any assistance, guidance, or equipment.

You are already familiar with most of them and can pick a few of them to strengthen your core. As a beginning, you can integrate some of these Pilates into your next workout as a way to target your core. But if you want to add just a quick movement session, you can select a few you like and do them a couple of times to create the best workout routine. If you are going to start Pilates, try doing them for 20 to 30 seconds, working your way up to 50 to 60 seconds. Let’s learn how to perform some popular Pilates to strengthen your core!

Pendulum

• Extend your arms along your sides with your face up.
• Lift your feet off the yoga mat after bending your knees over your hips.
• Keep your lower back stuck to the floor and let both knees fall to the right side.
• Return to the initial position and repeat on the left side.

Leg Circle

• Down your palms, lift face up with your arms by your sides.
• Place your left foot flat on the floor and bend the knee.
• Keep your right leg perpendicular to the floor by extending it.
• Circle this leg out from the side, press toward the ground, and return to the initial position.
• Enlarge the circumference of the circle as you can easily while keeping your lower back still on the floor.
• Reverse the direction of the circle with alternate legs.
• Complete all rounds with one leg and then repeat on the other.

Breathing

Your respiratory muscles and abdominals work in combination to stabilize your pelvic floor, while performing this Pilates.

• Place your hands on your rib cage, bend your knee, and keep your feet flat on the floor.
• Lie on your back on the floor.
• Now, start concentrating on breathing. Inhale through your nose, pressing your hands and the back of your rib cage.
• Exhale and focus that your hands may slide towards one another and your ribcage may sink to the floor.

Single-Leg Stretch

• Keep your face up.
• Place their hands on your shins by bringing both knees towards your chest.
• Curl your head up off the floor.
• Extend your right leg out at a time, with alternating sides.
• Engage your core throughout and lie your back on the floor.

Shoulder Bridge Preparation

In this Pilates, your back, pelvic floor, hamstrings, glutes, and inner thigh muscles are engaged.

• Place a Pillow or blocks between your thighs and keep your hip-width apart.
• Lie on your back with your knees bent and keep your feet parallel to it.
• Get prepared by inhaling. 
• Gently squeeze the blocks or pillows and start exhaling.
• Articulate your spine on the ground and push your feet onto the floor.
• Try to create a straight line from your knees to your shoulders by tilting your pelvis and peeling your lower back.
• Now peel your mid-back off of the floor.
• Start inhaling again, and hold your position for 5 seconds.
• Articulate your spine back down to the yoga mat and lengthen your torso with a gentle exhale.

Double -Leg Stretch

• Keep your face up and bring your knees toward your chest.
• Place your head on your knees by curling it.
• Try to reach both of your arms overhead by extending your both legs out in front of you.
• Keep your legs as straight as you can and keep your back on the floor.
• Pull your news back towards your chest after circling your arms out and around back to your knees.
• Hold the position for 5 seconds.

Leg Lifts

These Pilates help strengthen your back muscles, transverse muscles that are present under your belly button.

• This exercise also includes breathing. Start placing your feet parallel to each other on the floor and keeping your hips width apart.
• Bend your knees and keep your back flat on the floor.
• Inhale and squeeze into the back of your ribs.
• Tighten your belt gently and lift one leg without moving your back, hips, and pelvis. Exhale to move your abdominals up and in.
• Hold this position while inhaling.
• Now, lift your second leg into a tabletop while exhaling.
• Don’t pop your abdominals or arch your back.
• Continue breathing and hold the position for 10 seconds.
• Exhale gently while returning your feet to the floor.

Scissor Kick

• Keep your face upside down.
• Keep your right leg perpendicular to the floor and place your hands behind your right leg.
• Curl your head up and pull your right leg toward your face.
• Lift your leg a few inches up from the floor.
• Pull your left leg in towards your face by switching the legs.
• Let your right leg hover above the floor and continue switching both legs for more than 10 seconds. 

Side Bend Preparation

This exercise helps strengthen your core, shoulder girdles, and obliques.

• Start with your side, bend your both knees, and press up on your forearm and elbow.
• Place your feet behind you and keep your knees in line with your hips.
• Push your forearm into the floor while exhaling and lift your hips a few inches up.
• Lower your hips halfway while inhaling.
• Repeat and lift your hips once again while exhaling.
• Gently lower your hips with an inhaler.
• Repeat on the other side for 5 times more.

Roll Up

• Extend your arms above your head, keep your face up side, and rest on the floor.
• Start with your shoulders, slowly curl your spine up and off the floor while floating your arms up so your wrists are directly over your shoulders, and end it on your lower back.
• Set yourself in a seated position and keep your core tight throughout.
• Continue to fold your torso over your legs.
• Reverse the movement while rolling back down to the floor.
• Start lowering from your lower back and end on your shoulders, this time. 

Leg Pull Front Prep

Your arms and pelvic muscles are engaged in this Pilates.

• Engage your all fours. Keep your shoulders, hips, and hands in a straight line.
• Start inhaling with the inward side back of your ribs.
• Gently lift your abdominals in and upward with an exhale.
• Lift your knees a few inches from the floor.
• Hold the position for 5 seconds.
• Keep control of what you inhale and return to your knees.
• Repeat for 10 times. 

Plank Leg Lift

• Place your hands directly under your shoulders while lying on the floor.
• Start on a high plank.
• Lift one leg off the floor at maximum height alternatively to avoid past shoulder height.
• Avoid rocking your hips while engaging your quads, butt and core. 
• Hold the position for 5 seconds and repeat it. 

Conclusion

Pilates exercises are effective to strengthen your core and to enhance your overall physical health. Pilates specifically work to make you strong with a focus on the mind-body connection, balance of body, and breath. These exercises do not make you rigid but they play a crucial role in improving your flexibility. Pilates exercises promote flexible, mobile, healthy, and strong joints and spine. These exercises set a foundation of ease in your daily life activities by engaging major groups of muscles in your body.