Pilates has become “famous” for developing a strong “core”, a term that most people associate with their abdominal muscles.
Core strength actually involves all the muscles of the trunk and abdominal strength is just one component but a very necessary one.
Having strong, functional abs feels awesome!! Your entire body feels lighter, your spine is supported, flexible and able to do everyday tasks without pain! And, your belly is flatter, toned and has shape…always a good thing!
There are a three reasons why many people struggle to get strong abs.
Knowledge
Let’s face it…you don’t know, what you don’t know!
When it comes to exercise, specifically the development of strong abs and a strong core, just doing some crunches and planks…like everyone else is doing, usually doesn’t work and in fact, can end up giving you back pain.
Learning how to use your abs effectively takes time and is a definite learning curve, as anyone who has done pilates will tell you! And every person has a unique body that requires specific ab exercises designed for their body, for instance if you have a tight lower back, this will affect how your abs work.
If you experience any kind of pain or strain when you do ab strengthening exercises, chances are you’re either doing the wrong exercises or doing exercises with poor technique.
Structure
Doing random ab exercises doesn’t work! You need to assess your starting point, know which exercises are most appropriate for you to start with and progressively build the challenge and complexity of the program.
An initial program would generally last 6-12 weeks, training at least 3 times a week. Getting awesome abs doesn’t happen overnight, (although you will start to feel the benefits pretty quickly) and you need to be very persistent and consistent with your training.
Work Hard
There is nothing quite like the sensation of the ab burn! What is it? It’s when you have worked your abdominal muscles effectively, they are being challenged and they need to “dig deeper” to get stronger.
If this “burning” sensation is new to you, it might come as a bit of a shock!
Most people stop when they start to feel the burn and lose the potential benefits of the exercise they are doing. Muscles get stronger by being challenged and put under load…this includes your abs!
The original pilates method has been around for over 100 years, well before the term “core strength” existed.
There is still no other exercise method that can develop core strength, flexibility, posture, joint integrity and most importantly spine health all at once.
It provides an integrated way to develop awesome abs and postural integrity at the same time.
Here at Pilates Plus we teach the original pilates method. Why? It’s pretty simple really. It works and gets results.
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