10-Minute Power Pilates Core Workout

Hi, I'm Chris Freytag, and you are joining me for a 10 minute power Pilates Workout. Now this is a Pilates inspired workout, and I want to first quickly talk to you about your core. You have your rectus abdominis which is your vertical crunchy muscle, but you also have the transverse abdominis, which is like a human belt or a human girdle. You wanna practice pulling in that belly button. Pulling it in and engaging through that transverse abdominis to protect your low back and to help flatten those abs. So you wanna really think about that. And you also have your obliques which are your twisting muscles. So let's start in a half roll back, a beginners Pilates exercise, just to warm up our body. You're gonna bend your knees, round your spine to see currents, scoop out those abs. You're gonna inhale as you go back, and exhale pull forward. Now I want you to think about scooping out those abdominals. Joseph Pilates himself said, "Stabilize, the transverse abdominis before you mobilize any limbs." So just think about what you're doing, it's like zipping up a pair of tight jeans that just came out of the dryer and you wanna. Pull it in right there. Let's just do a couple more of these, half roll back, just rolling halfway back, rounding your spine, good and release. Let's take it into an obliques rollbacks, now we're just gonna roll halfway back but we're gonna open up through our arms, so you feel it through those twisting muscles and come back up. It's like you're opening your newspaper, so you pull it open. Inhale and exhale, relax your neck relax your jaw. In Pilates we try to keep everything out of the neck and really find the power through our core. Good, roll it back, inhale and exhale. Wrapping through your ribs, try to get as far open as you can with that arm. Let's do one more on each side. Keep your knees together. Good, and one more. good, and we're warmed up. Rolling like a ball, one of my favorite Pilates exercise. So you're gonna take your feet up off the ground, hold those abs in nice and tight round your spine, and you're gonna roll back, come back up without your feet touching the ground and just balance right here, really pulling in through those ab muscles, inhale exhale balance at the top, inhale and exhale. Really work on pulling your belly to your spine. Pilates is all about the whole core body, the back and the abs. But you really wanna think about that transverse abdominis. So you're really engaging, thinking about zipping up that pair of jeans that just came out of the dryer, inhale and exhale each time. Beautiful, gimme two more. And you're just balancing up at the top finding that point of balance right there, round your spine. Good, Ooh, and release. Okay, Pilates one hundreds. You're gonna roll down to the mat, now you can keep your feet on the ground if that feels better or pull them up into tabletop, when you pull your feet up, I want you to slightly press your low back down and really engage your abdominals, then you're gonna inhale, and on the exhale lengthen through the back of the neck, chin to the chest, belly to the spine, so we call this the Pilate seeker. You have the shoulder blades up off the ground, so instead of here, you got their shoulder blades up. Now start to pump your arms independent of your torso, and we gonna inhale for five and exhale for five. You're gonna inhale two, three, four, five and exhale, two, three, four, five. This is called the Pilates one hundred, and we're gonna count to, approximately one hundred. It doesn't matter exactly, and you inhale two, three, four, five, you can lengthen two, three, four, five and inhale two, three, four, five, inhale two three, four, five, and exhale, two, three, four, five and relax through your neck and jaw and exhale, two, three, four, five, and inhale two, three, four, five. Pull in through those abs and exhale, two, three, four, five, let's do three more times three, four, five, and exhale, two, three, four, or five, here we go, one, two, three, four, five, and exhale, two, three, four, five and inhale two, three, four, five. And relax. That fire's up those abs, alright. Double legs stretch. So you're going to inhale again to prepare, just pull those abs in exhale feet come up to table-top. If that feels okay, inhale again exhale lengthen through the back of the neck, chin to the chest, belly the spine get those shoulder blades up off the ground. Now we're going to inhale, extend all limbs, exhale, swim it around. Inhale extend, exhale swim, inhale extend, exhale swim, inhale, exhale. Now, if it starts to be too much in your low back you put those feet down, you tell me, you close that kinetic chain as it feels okay, you keep the feet up. Let's do two more you got it, one more and release. Alright, good. You should really be feeling this through your low abs, your transverse abdominis. Alright. Full body roll up. This is a great total core workout. It actually fires more core muscles than a plain old crunch, so you're lengthening your arms, legs all the way down and you lengthen your body all the way down, arms overhead. Keep those abs nice and connected, Inhale lengthen, the arms up to the sky, exhale, roll up one vertebrae at a time, all the way up and over reach for your legs stretch through your hamstrings, inhale, go back one vertebrae at a time, exhale each vertebrae comes down one at a time, scooping those abdominals out, think about what you're doing and arms come overhead. Let's try it again, inhale arms to the sky, exhale, peel up off that imaginary piece of Velcro, keep your heels on the ground, that's the key, to use your core muscles, rollover, inhale go back, exhale, all the way down. Do it again. Inhale arms up, exhale peel, up and over, keeping those heels on the ground, now if your heels are coming off the ground, you could try using a resistance band around your legs, which if you hold the handles, it's gonna help, or you could just secure your feet, under your bed or your couch, and that'll help you keep the legs down on the ground and roll again, all the way down. Excellent job, inhale arms up, exhale roll up and over, good, roll back, one vertebrae at a time, all the way down to the mat, all the way down and release, beautiful. Come up to seated, I wanna flip it over. So I want you to come this way for swimming, now swimming is an advanced Pilates exercise, it is hard. It looks easier than it is, so let me help you through this. You're gonna lay down onto the mat, and you're gonna extend your arms and legs, now I'm gonna point my nose down towards the mat, like you've got your nose in the water, and I'm gonna lift all four limbs up off the ground. So you lift them up, now those back extensors are firing and you're gonna contralateral flutter, from the shoulders and the hips, not the knees and the elbows, but from the shoulders and the hips, now inhale, and exhale and inhale and exhale, pull your belly to your spine, you feel your belly pull away from the mat. Keep breathing, inhale, and exhale. Excellent job. Keep going, inhale exhale, beautiful, few more big deep breaths, keep going, inhale exhale. One more big breath here. And release. Undo that extension with a little flection here, just push back, always good to undo extension with flection and vice versa and pull your feet through. Let's come into bicycle. So you're gonna roll down to the mat, really being mindful of those low abs, in how to prepare, exhale pull your feet up off the mat, and when you do that, secure those low abs, slightly press your low back down, and engage through your transverse abdominis. Inhale, exhale, lengthen through the back of the neck, chin to the chest, belly to the spine, so you have those shoulder blades up off the ground. We're going to bicycle, are you ready? So you're gonna inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And. And. And. So you wanna really breathe, hold those abs nice and tight. Inhale, exhale. Keep it going. Inhale, exhale, and think about it, really lengthen your legs, really point your toes. Keeping those shoulder blades up off the mat, using those abdominals. Pilates is more work than it looks like. It's low impact, but it's super effective. So keep going, give me ten, nine, eight, you got it, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. We'll go for scissors, one more exercise, and you'll be done, just give that head arrest. If at any time your head, neck and shoulders get tired, you can always put it down. Alright, feet are going to come up, off the ground, all the way, lengthen those hamstrings, inhale and exhale lengthen the neck, chin to the chest, belly to the spine, and we're gonna take one leg down at a time, really opening that hip flexor. Here we go, and breathe and breathe and switch legs, point your toes, and breathe, you got it. Belly to the spine. Excellent job. You wanna really tighten through those core muscles, we've used our obliques, our twisting muscles, we've used our back, our crunching muscle our, transverse come on, five, four, three, two, one, and roll up to seated, ooh, that was fantastic. That was a quick 10 minutes of Pilates. I just want you to twist, take a nice deep breath, and the other direction, awesome. So if you enjoyed that, those 10 minutes and if you like Pilates, then you should try the core sculpt Pilates, in the definitions program on Get Healthy UTV. I had fun working out with you today and I hope that you'll join me again real soon.