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Core Blast Pilates

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Duration:   30  mins

Description

 

Equipment needed:

  • Mat

WHAT IT IS

This Pilates-inspired workout will sculpt your core and give you defined, sexy abs and increased core body strength. As a Pilates-trained instructor, Chris will guide you through each methodical move, designed to target specific muscles in your core.

Pilates uses precision and focus to teach you how to stabilize your midsection while you mobilize the rest of your body. Not only does this core Pilates workout give you aesthetic results with a flatter tummy, but it protects your back from injury and teaches your body how to move through daily activities without getting hurt.

In this core Pilates routine you’ll work all the muscles in your core, but focus mainly on the transverse abdominus–what Pilates gurus call “The Powerhouse”. This is the muscle that matters most when it comes to training and tightening your core and creating a strong, healthy back.

THE MOVES

The exercises in this core Pilates workout are subtle but powerful. The strength and burn sneaks up on you and before you know it you can feel yourself working the muscles you’ve so desperately tried to strengthen before. Chris will provide plenty of modifications and encouragement in this core Pilates workout to keep you motivated until the very end.

From slow, steady moves like full-body rollups to energizing moments like the Pilates One-Hundred, this core Pilates workout will have you feeling stronger in no time. But it doesn’t stop there. Your legs, buns and arms will get involved too, and before you know it you feel energized and tighter all over.

WHY CHOOSE THIS WORKOUT?

Not only does a toned and firm midsection look good, it feels good! With a flat tummy and a stronger low back you’ll be glad you tried this core Pilates workout. Don’t waste any more time on crunches or sit-ups that serve only to strain your neck and tighten your hip flexors. Pilates moves focus on stabilization–the thing that truly makes a difference.

All exercises you perform are your own responsibility and you perform them at your own risk. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider before starting any physical exercise, fitness or wellness regiments of any kind.

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Hi, I'm Chris Freitag and it's time for a core sculpt Pilates workout. I'm Pilates trained, and I'm a big believer in what Pilates does for your body. This workout is inspired by the Pilates principles, control, precision, and focus. So I first want you to make sure you understand your core muscles before we begin. You have your rectus abdominis which is the vertical muscle that we use for crunching.

You have your oblique muscles that are responsible for waist whittling and for twisting but I want you to really focus on that transverse abdominis. It is the horizontal belt that goes around your body and not only flatten your abs, but it protects your low back and keeps your organs in place. I want you to inhale and on the exhale zip up a pair of jeans that just came out of dryers, shrunk a little bit, and you just pull it in. So inhale and on the exhale, zip it up. Keep those abs nice and tight.

And Joseph Pilates himself said stabilize before you mobilize. So we're gonna think about that throughout the whole workout. Half roll, back to begin. Knees are bent feet on the ground. Round out that spine and scoop out your abs, roll back halfway one, two, and up now you're scooping out those abs, pulling that belly to the spine.

Pilates is very methodical and graceful and thoughtful, breathe. I want you to really inhale and exhale. Good. Inhale and exhale. Give me two more half rollbacks.

Scoop out those abs. Beautiful. Control it. And we're just gonna continue onto an oblique rollback. You're gonna open like you're opening your newspaper then the other side and up good.

And you open and close. Nice. Breathe. Inhale. Scoop out those abs control it.

What do you think? One more each side, go for it. Here we go. Breathe. Nice.

Awesome. Continuing to warm up that core body. Let's do rolling like a ball. You're gonna take your feet off the ground and you're just lightly hug those knees. Abs are tight and you're gonna roll back onto those shoulder blades.

Roll up and balance at the top. Really control it through your core. Inhale. Exhale. Good.

Got it. Inhale, exhale. Couple more, roll it back balance at the top scoop out those abdominals. Feel it. Just waking up your spine.

Rounding a little flection in that spine. Hold it here. Balanced three, Good and release. Moving into our Pilates 100. You gonna come all the way down to the ground, we're gonna pull those feet up off the ground, you're gonna inhale, prepare exhale lift those feet off the ground, pull those abs in nice and tight.

Slightly press your low back into the mat. Slightly is the key word there. Now you're gonna inhale and on the exhale, lengthen through the back of your neck, chin to your chest, belly to your spine. Here's what I want you to work on, getting your shoulder blades off the mat. So instead of here, you're gonna pull up into that Pilate ce quoi, all those back extensors in your mid back are working.

Now I want you to pump your arms right here, breathe. And you're gonna inhale for four and exhale pull those abs in tight. Let's go. It's inhale, two, three, four, and exhale two, three, four, and inhale through your nose. You inhale two, three, four and exhale.

Now we're gonna add some leg movement. If you want, I want you to keep breathing. Here we go. And it's inhale two, three, four, and exhale, two, three, four, inhale and inhale, two, three, four. Keep those muscles contracting you can do it.

If you start to fatigue feet touch the ground. Let's go inhale two, three, four, and exhale. Come on, come on inhale, two three four and exhale Inhale. Two more rounds you can do this. You can do it, inhale.

One more right here. Exhale. Shoulder blades are still up. Relax. And roll up.

Very nice. You should be warmed up. Abs are on fire. Come over onto all fours spinal balance. And I want your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees.

Abs are pulling in and your contracting that human girdle. Are you ready? Opposite arm, opposite leg, extend, reach your fingertips, reach your toes. Inhale to switch exhale, extend. I want you to think about balancing a cup of tea on your back.

So you're not moving. Your core is staying nice and stabilized. Abs tight, no sagging in that low back, hold on. Long spine. Good.

One more on this side. Very nice. And now we're gonna hold that arm and leg out. So extend, hold it here. Now we're gonna draw that elbow into the knee and then shoot it back out.

Here we go. And it's inhale and you exhale. And squeeze by the way, squeeze your glutes. That's your bonus right there. Nice long spine, abs tight, breathe.

Good. Now you can speed it up. Here we go, in, out, in, out. Good, balance. Are you breathing?

Four more, three, come on two and one. Good and release. Other side. Switching sides, lengthen those fingertips and toes. Here we go.

Inhale and exhale, breathe. Awesome. Drawing that elbow all the way to the knee. Starting out slow. Good job.

Nice. You're ready to speed it up. Here we go in and out strong, squeeze your glutes in and out. Control. Go at your own pace if you don't wanna do this pace.

In and out. Beautiful. Come on, come on, four, three, two and one stretch back. Just stretch it back nice, deep breath. Excellent.

Come back over to a seated position. Now keep thinking about those abs. So you really wanna pull those low abs in. We're moving into the ab series, the Pilates ab series. And by the way, you can do this barefoot if you prefer to.

I'm gonna roll down to that mat very methodically sequentially scoop out those abdominals all the way down, feet are gonna come off the mat, lift up to tabletop, pull those abs in nice and tight slightly pressing your low back down. Now we're gonna bring those shoulder blades up, inhale through the nose, exhale, lengthen through the back of your neck, chin to your chest, belly to your spine, shoulder blades off the ground. If at any time you start to fatigue through your head, neck and shoulders, you're gonna put your head down and remember try to avoid this where you're really using your neck but relax your neck and hold yourself up with the back. It takes time, it's a journey. You can do it.

Are you ready? Single leg stretch. You're gonna extend one leg and just pull one knee in, here we go, it's one, two, one, two, one, two. Keep those shoulder blades up. Breathe, belly to the spine.

Remember Pilates it's more about what you can't see than what you can see. It's about stabilizing through those abs. And if you start to fatigue again, put that head down. This is fine and then come back up when you're ready, Point your toes. You're ready, double time in and out.

Eight. Come on, seven, six, yes. Five. Pull it in. Oh my goodness.

Four. Got it. Three, two, and one. And put those feet down for a moment and breathe. Very nice.

You should feel that burn in your abdominals. Breathe. Coming up for our oblique twists. Same idea, get those feet up, get those shoulder blades up. This time we're gonna rotate.

Are you ready? One, two, one, two, one, two. You got it. Option, legs come down. If at any time you feel it in that low back keep going if at any time you feel in that low back, legs touch the floor.

All right, you're still rotating. Here we go. Double time. Are you ready? Let's go side to side.

Go. Nice. Eight, seven. Come on six. You got it.

Three, two, one. Just relax. Now I want you to remember not to pull your elbows and pull on your head. You wanna be relaxed, double leg stretch, here we go. Feet up to tabletops, hold those abs in nice and tight.

Inhale, exhale, lengthen through the back of your neck, chin to your chest, belly to your spine We've got those shoulder blades up. You're gonna extend all limbs at the same time out and open and swim around. Option, open, swim around so you can always take those feet down. Here we go. Open and swim, open and swim.

Let's go. Another option right here. One leg at a time. So I want you to think about it. If your head, neck and shoulders fatigue you put the head down and keep it there for one or two reps.

And then you join back in. Give me two more, you can do it. Breathe. And release. How you feeling?

Your abs should be on fire. You should be pulling those abs in nice and tight. We're gonna move into scissors. So abs, pull in one leg up, other leg up there we go. Option to lift the head, neck and shoulders up off the ground if you're still with me, inhale, prepare, exhale lengthen through the back of the neck, chin to the chest, belly to the spine.

Here we go. Lower one leg, one, two, switch one, two switch. Now keep those shoulder blades up, pulling through those abs, you got it. Breathe each time. You Pilates is about controlled thoughtful movements.

And it's thinking about that transverse abdominis, pulling it in and it is work. Now singles if you'd like, you're ready? Here we go. And one, two, one, two. Keep it going.

Breathe. Come on eight. Seven, six, five. You got it. Four, three, two, one.

Put it down. Now, if you're feeling this, you're doing it right. That constant pulling into abs and it will get easier I promise you. A couple of recovery breaths right here no problem. Bridges.

Now, heels are just lining up with the glutes, hands at your sides, we're gonna lift up for two and down for two. I want you to think of your torso as one piece of plank, lift and lower that draw bridge. Are you ready? Here we go. And it's one, two squeeze at the top down for two, don't touch the ground.

One, two, and down. Good. One, two, and lower squeeze your glutes, draw those inner thighs together, pull in those abductors very nice. Breathe. One, two.

Good. Awesome. One, two, squeeze. Good. We'll do four more right here.

Four squeeze. Very nice. Three, nice and methodical. Draw those knees a little closer you've gotta give me one more, you're gonna hold it at the top. Hold it, hold it.

Awesome. Hold it here draw those knees together. Keep those knees squeezing in, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, beautiful, two, one, release, draw those knees to your chest. Breathe. Nice job.

Moving on, we're gonna flip over to a forearm plank. So I want you to think planks are great core body exercise. You're gonna come down onto your forearms, interlace your fingers to begin here. And we're just gonna come into a full plank. Option of course, modification is to drop the knees.

You wanna have your spine in one long linear line. So you're nice and long. You can balance something on your back. You wanna keep your shoulders away from your ears and you wanna keep your head neutral, your neck neutral. Don't hang your head down.

You're right here. Now, hold on my friends abs are tight. You don't want that low back to sag. If you need a little break you can pop the hips, but I'm encouraging you I'm coaching you to keep those hips down and breathe. Here we go.

Come on. We're almost at one minute. We are almost at one, almost. Here we go, hold on. Yes, you can.

For four, three, two. We're gonna start to hip dip right here. Like there's something underneath you and you're coming up and over. You could always drop the knees come on, give this a try, up and over. You pick the pace dipping to one side and then the other.

Right there. Good work. Keep it coming. Abs are pulling in remember what I told you. Belly to the spine, think about zipping that pair of jeans that just came out of the dryer and just shrunk a little bit.

Four more, three more. You got it. Two more. Last one. Drop the knees, stretch back for a moment.

Always undo extension with flection and vice versa. Moving into a forearm plank on the side, a side forearm plank. So we're gonna come right here. And again, a modification is always to keep that bottom knee on the mat. That's up to you.

If you can lengthen both legs I'm gonna have you take the top leg in front, So you're right here and lift that arm up. Now we're going to scoop all the way underneath our armpit like you're grabbing for something. Come back up, here we go. Scoop and up, control through your abs, scoop and up, beautiful scoop it. Awesome.

You got it. Scoop. Are you thinking about breathing? Reach, nice. Keep it coming.

Oh man. Give me two more. One, one more on this side and release, other side. Full range of motion, you wanna scope all the way under that armpit. Nice job.

Here we go. Breathe. Obliques are working, entire core body's working. top leg in front of the bottom leg if that feels okay, otherwise bottom knee to the mat. Reach that arm up.

Here we go. Scoop it under and back up. Good, inhale and exhale. Excellent. Breathe.

Down. Keep it coming all the way. Maybe you have one side that's more flexible than the other and you can reach a little farther that's normal work on it. Scoop those hips belly to the spine. You got it.

Two more on this side. Let's go. One more and release. Breathe. Good job.

Keep pulling those low abs in, think about it. Pull it in. Dolphin dives. Forearm plank again, interlace those fingers and you gonna come onto your toes. We stole this one from yoga, dolphin pose right here.

Now you're gonna pull forward, your chin comes slightly in front of your thumb and then pull back up. Here we go. It's one, two, drop those hips, one, two, your spine stays nice and long. One, two drop those hips. Good.

One, two. Awesome, work through the shoulders also, lot of core body here. Good. Down and up. Come on.

I feel it in my quads, squeeze your glutes. Let's go. Two more, one more. And release. Nice job.

Moving on to swimming, another great Pilates exercise. And this is an advanced exercise. So I'm gonna give you some really good clues and cues and you're gonna think. All the way down in a prone position on your abs and you're gonna extend your arms out and you're gonna extend your legs, superman pose. You're gonna reach all limbs off the ground.

All back extensors are firing. You wanna keep your spine long and you don't want your body to shake side to side. You're gonna move from the hips and the shoulders. So keeping those pointing in the water and start to flutter like this, squeeze those glutes. Imagine that you're balancing something on your back.

Swim. Come on. Go. You got it. Breathe.

Let's go. 10, nine, eight. Count it down. Come on four, three, two, one undo extension with a little flection. So you always wanna go back and forth rounding that spine is your flection, long is that extension.

How are you feeling? Bring those feet through, we'll go into full body roll-ups. Potentially my favorite Pilate's exercise ever. So you're gonna roll all the way down to the mat, Legs are extended, arms are gonna come overhead, lay down. Inhale your arms to the sky, exhale, roll up, peel up one vertebrae at a time, chin to the chest, belly to the spine, keep your heels on the floor, all the way up and over stretch.

Inhale, start to go back, relax your shoulders away from your ears, exhale all the way down, one vertebrae at a time. Now we'll pick up the pace. Here we go. Inhale those arms up, exhale, peel up and roll. Come over as far as you can roll down, relax those shoulders away from your ears.

Good, inhale, exhale. Scoop out those abs, scoop 'em out all the way down. Relax your shoulders away from your ears. You got it. Inhale, exhale all the way.

Good. Now you want those heels to stay on the floor. If your legs are coming up, you might consider trying placing your feet underneath your couch or your bed or perhaps you wrap a band around that you could control yourself with. You can go my pace through your own pace. Inhale those arms up exhale, peel up, you got it, and roll.

Very nice. We're gonna change these up just slightly. Neck pull front. So very similar exercise but we're gonna take our hands out of the equation. Instead of having counter-balance with our hands we're gonna put our hands on our forehead.

So your hands are here. Now try to keep those heels on the ground. Inhale, prepare, exhale, peel up, all the way up, all the way, I'm trying not to pull too hard with those elbows, peel up and over. Inhale, stack to tall with me. Get as tall as you can right here.

I want you to be long from hip to head. Hinge just slightly and then exhale roll and very sequentially placed each vertebrae down to the ground. Here we go. Inhale, prepare, exhale, roll up, very carefully working those abs inhale, stack up to tall, get as tall as you can. Exhale, hinge and roll all the way down.

Beautiful. Inhale, exhale. Here we go. Feeling in my abs, stack to tall breathe, hinge roll. Nice and controlled.

Let's do one more, here we go. Prepare and roll all the way. Inhale stack to tall exhale, hinge and roll down. Nice. Relax those arms at your sides, and let's pull those knees to our chest and roll up to seated.

We're gonna come through. This is a core workout, but even in Pilates, we do try to push ups. You didn't think you're gonna get away without pushups in our workout. Hands down on the mat, pull those hips in alignment, you're on your knees. Elbows in tight at your side, down for two, right there, press it up, right there, down for two elbows right at the rib cage, back up, down for two, all the way down, full range of motion.

Don't cheat yourself. If you wanna make it easier, you pop your butt into the air a little bit less body weight pressing in. But I want you to work as hard as you can down for two and up for two. Come on, down for two and up. Let's go for more.

Yes. Four, feeling it three. Come on, fatigue is setting in, two, one more yes you can. Abs are contracting and stretch back. Very nice.

Coming over to the side. Sideline crunches. So on that forearm, I want you to roll to the back pocket. A one pocket of the blue jeans or one butt cheek. We're gonna be working those obliques.

I want you to lift your legs up and down. You're on one butt cheek, lift up and down. Make sure you aren't just making it about your hips but you're pulling in through your abs. Up two and down two, up two, now you wanna make it a little more difficult lengthen the legs. Full, long limbs, right there.

One, two, what do you think about double time? Try it. In, out pull it in, exhale right here. Good. Strong.

Pull it in. Bend your knees if you need to. Come on, let's go. Four more, three more, two and one. Good.

Swing those legs around. You're doing a great job. Here we go. Set yourself up other side. You want that shoulder over the wrist and you're gonna roll the one pocket on the back of your blue jeans, one butt cheek.

Here we go. Knees are bent to begin two, down, two, up, two, down two now think about it, you're working your abs not just your hip flexors. Lengthen those legs if it feels okay. One, two, one, two. You got it.

Double time. Let's go. Up, up, pull it in. Breathe. Exhale on the exertion.

So you exhale there. Come on. Four more. Four, three, two, one. Nice.

Take a deep breathe, you're doing a great job. We're gonna come to sided twist, kneeling. On your knees, you could also do this standing up but we're gonna kneel all the way up and get our pelvis into neutral. So what's a neutral pelvis? It's your two hip flexors and your pubic bone in the same plane.

So you aren't over-arching or tucking too far under. You're just nice and neutral. And you're gonna hug your a big beach ball. Or think about a stability ball. We're gonna twist to the side and as we twist to the side, keep your hips facing front.

Think about wringing out a washcloth with your core. Are you ready? Here we go. We'll go like this. We'll go, three, two, one back to center.

Exhale, exhale, exhale back to center, back to center, back to center, good, breathe. Excellent job. Focusing on that core, you're pulling your belly to your spine that transverse abdominis is firing. Again, that image of zipping up a pair of jeans that just came out of the dryer and they shrunk a little bit so you're just slightly pulling it in back to what Joseph Pilates said himself, stabilize before you mobilized. Three, two, you really wanna think about what you're doing here.

Are you ready? Singles. Here we go. Side, center, side, center. Good.

four more, yes. Four, you can do it three, two, one and release those arms. Good work. Coming into mermaid. One of my favorite Pilate's exercises for the end of your workout.

You're just gonna sit in this position and then lift up through your spine. So you want to sit nice and tall. You're gonna stretch over to one side, feel that whole side body stretch all the way over and then come the other direction all the way over, stretch the other side body. You've got it. And you just windmill back and forth, stretch.

Nice, big, deep breath over. Good. Awesome. And switch directions of the feet. So you're gonna move it around.

Excellent. Sit up nice and tall lengthen from the crown of the head down to the tailbone all the way over. We'll come this way first, it doesn't matter and back. Remember you have 24 vertebrae in your back. You have seven cervical spine, that's your neck, 12 racic vertebrae, that's your mid back and five lumbar vertebrae, a one through five.

And then they have all these muscles and back extensors attached and everything wraps around your core, so your entire core body matters, the foundation for everything you do. One more stretch and to the other side and good job. And let's just go ahead sit in butterfly, that went fast. These exercises done regularly will help you with balance, stability, strength in your back and in your abs. So remember it all starts in your core.

Just stretch, a little deeper into this stretch. I'm really proud of you today. And release. I look forward to our next workout. So I'll see you soon.

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