Pilates and The Core

"The core" is a pair of words that have dominated the fitness industry as well as sports as of late. Everyone is selling "the core" exercises to cure all your ills. So what is the core and are you engaging it?

Many people confuse doing pilates exercises with engaging the core. It is very possible and common for people doing pilates to perform the exercises without engaging their core. How is that possible, isn't pilates synonymous with core? It isn't and you have to be taught how to engage your core properly. Some people do engage the core naturally but even they should be taught to recognize the feeling of the engagement.

My first pilates teacher told me to turn on my powerhouse, the original word that Joseph Pilates used for core. I had no idea what she meant. It wasn't until I met Ellen Roth, PT at Movement Systems and she taught me a systematic way to engage the core, that I finally knew what it felt like. STOTT also includes this information in their instructor training, so you can be sure that if an instructor has been through the STOTT training, at least they've heard this information.

When you ask someone what they think their core is they will inevitably say their abdominals. This is one-fourth right because of the four abdominal muscles, the transversus is the one abdominal muscles that is part of the core. The pelvic floor and the lumbar multifidi make up the rest of the core. Core muscles' only action is to stabilize the pelvis and lumbar spine.

To make sure your core is engaged, you have to take the time before you even get into the position of the exercise, to engage it. All three groups must engage together without any "outer" muscles, like the obliques. Core conditioning must be very light, slow and mindful work.

The core can only train at low loads and intensities until it gets stronger. That's why your first pilates session while not a "tough" workout in the traditional sense of exercise, is the most important lesson of your core foundation.