7 Pilates Exercises That Really Work Your Core

Having a strong core is crucial for your overall fitness and well-being. It’s not just about having defined abs, but it also includes your deep stabilizing muscles, hips, lower back, and pelvic floor. A strong core helps keep your body balanced, improves posture, and makes everyday movements easier. It can also prevent lower back pain, which is a common issue.

Pilates exercises are a great way to target your core specifically. They focus on building strength in all the muscles that make up your core, and can be a great addition to your workout routine. Even if you’re already strength training, adding Pilates exercises can challenge your muscles in new ways and give them a good workout.

Pilates is known for its core-strengthening exercises, and there are a variety of exercises to choose from, both classic and lesser-known. You can do these exercises at home with no equipment needed, making them a convenient option.

Some of the great Pilates core exercises include the Pilates The Wall bridge, Wall Plank, and Cris Cross. You can add these exercises to your warm-up routine before a workout, or use them to target your core during your workout. They can also be done as a standalone routine, just pick a few exercises and do them a couple of times. If you’re new to these exercises, start with 30 seconds and work your way up to a minute as you get stronger.

The One Leg Circle will help to improve back strength and reduce lower back pain. The move promotes spinal mobility by improving lumbar flexion and extension. It helps reinforce the core muscles of the obliques, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, abdominal muscles and hip flexors which are essential for stability during everyday activities. Additionally, this Pilates exercise helps to improve proprioception by engraining the brains ability to read body position in space resulting in improved postural alignment.

How to Perform

To correctly perform the One Leg Circle in a Pilates exercise:

The Double Leg Stretch will help to improve the mobility of your hips, abs, and back. It also helps to engage your core muscles and keep the spine aligned.

Your arms play an important role in this exercise; as you stretch both legs up towards your chest, be sure to press into both sides of your thighs with the palms of your hands. This will help provide stability and maintain proper form throughout the movement.

The Double Leg Stretch is a powerful Pilates exercise that will challenge your whole body and provide many benefits for improved strength, flexibility and posture.

How to Perform

To begin the Double Leg Stretch:

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As you hold this challenging posture, the Frog Pose helps to strengthen your shoulder girdle and lumbar spine, while also enabling your arms, neck, and spine to become more flexible.

This exercise also works to activate and develop abdominal muscles while toning the buttocks, inner thighs and hips. In addition, the Frog Pose challenges balance and coordination while simultaneously improving circulation in the whole body.

Pilates master Romana Kryzanowska referred to The Frog as “the queen of abdominal exercises” due to its amazing ability to challenge and develop core muscles.

How to Perform The Frog Pose

The Mermaid Pose works to strengthen your core while lengthening your side body and opening up your hips. As an advanced exercise, it requires coordination between strength, flexibility and balance. Practicing the pose can help to improve joint flexibility in your spine as well as increasing mobility in your hips, hamstrings and glutes. This exercise is also considered a full-body workout due to the deep stretch it provides for a variety of muscles. Regular Mermaid Pose practice can lead to increased body awareness, improved posture and better core stability.

How to perform Mermaid Pose

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The Wall Bridge is a Pilates classic that works multiple muscle groups in the legs and core to provide balance, stability and strength. This exercise targets an array of muscles including the glutes, hamstrings, abdominals and lower back.

The wall bridge is also great for improving posture, promoting flexibility and focusing on lengthening the spine. In addition, this exercise can help with joint health by assisting with body alignment and proprioception (the sense of orientation of one’s limbs in space).

This exercise is great for relieving back pain and tension, and it’s perfect for people of all fitness levels.

Wall Plank is a great exercise for strengthening the core muscles and improving balance. By pushing your weight into the wall, you are able to engage your abdominals far better than other conventional planks without straining your wrists.

The wall plank also helps to properly align your spine, which can help to alleviate back pain and decrease pressure along the vertebrae.

Additionally, it increases stability by engaging small micro-muscles that are not activated during a standard plank as well as strengthening larger muscle groups like the glutes and lats.

The wall plank is a challenging exercise that will have your abs burning in no time!

It’s important to note that proper form is key, so make sure to keep your body in a straight line and avoid dropping your hips or lifting your head too high. This exercise may be challenging at first, but with practice you’ll be a pro in no time!

The classic Pilates exercise, the Criss-Cross, is an excellent choice to tone and strengthen your core. This exercise promoted abdominal balance while engaging lower back muscles as well, so it can be beneficial for those who might be prone to injury or have difficultly keeping their spine stable.

The challenge of the crackskross comes in trying to keep control of your body while switching between side planks and single leg circles — all things which help create a strong and resilient torso. In addition to improving your core strength, regular practice of this move will also increase spinal mobility, improve posture, and hone coordination skills.

To ensure you get the full benefit from the move its important to stay mindful of your breathing throughout the exercise and focus on proper alignment before attempting the leg twists. If done regularly with a focus on form, additional body awareness can be gained as you develop muscular symmetry in your midsection giving you an enviable six-pack!

Remember to keep your core engaged and your lower back pressed into the mat throughout the exercise. This exercise is a great way to target your abs and improve your core strength, so give it a try and see how it improves your overall fitness.

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