I’m on a mission to improve my deep core strength, and have found that my favorite way to go about it is tackling free Pilates workout videos on YouTube.
The slow, controlled movements used in Pilates get my abs burning in no time, but the overall focus on functional strength is great for deeper muscles as well as my glutes.
For me, the benefits are particularly useful in my running — I’m a marathoner and a strong core helps me hold my form deep into races — but I’m also feeling stronger outside my runs and during other strength sessions in the gym.
I’ve been building up the time I spend on my core workouts, and just tried this 20-minute session from Pilates instructor Nicole McPherson, who goes by Move With Nicole on YouTube, which is the hardest session I’ve done yet.
It focuses on the abs and glutes in particular, but also works your hips and hamstrings, and you don’t need any kit to do the session aside from one of the best yoga mats, if you don’t want to lie directly on your floor.
Watch Move With Nicole’s 20-minute abs and glutes workout
The workout doesn’t contain many breaks, with Nicole layering moves in sequences to build up the tension in the targeted muscles, which is a highly effective if challenging way to strengthen the core in particular.
Nicole does the workout with you and gives instructions via a voiceover, along with some much–needed encouragement.
You start with a series of moves to work the abs while lying on the floor, before moving onto your side and all-fours to target the glutes.
Here are my main takeaways after giving the workout a go myself.
The verbal instructions are precise and useful
Nicole’s voiceover contains detailed instructions and pointers for each move, to the point where I didn’t have to see my screen at all times to know what I was meant to be doing. This is handy with core workouts where you’re flipping over between moves and don’t have long breaks where you can reposition your screen.
I found the advice on when to breathe in and out especially useful — timing your reps with inhales and exhales gives you something to focus on other than the burning in your muscles, and helps me to get through a few more reps before having to rest.
I failed… a lot
The workout doesn’t contain a lot of prescribed breaks, but I had to add in extra ones myself because I was working to failure with many of the moves.
The way Nicole layers moves upon moves to target the same muscles really ramps up the time under tension for those muscles, and it got too much for me several times in the workout.
It didn’t make the session any less effective for me, so while it’s good to push as deep into each set as you can, if you need an extra break then don’t be afraid to take a few seconds off and get back to it.
Even with that said, I don't think this is the most approachable workout if your new to fitness. I'd start with this 10-minute core session instead.
The word pulses sends shivers down my spine
It’s amazing how much small movements can hurt when your muscles are already burning, and Nicole is a big fan of rounding off a series of moves with pulses. For example, you do a series of crunches and leg raises, then finish with a set of sit-up pulses that really take the breath away.
Every time I do pulses I wonder why I don’t add them into my workout more often, given how effective they are for exhausting target muscles. Probably because they’re so hard, actually.
There are some useful stretches at the end
Nicole leads you through some stretches for your abs and glutes at the end of the session, and these do feel quite hard given that you’re using the same muscles you’ve just tired out, but they’re well worth doing.
Trust me as someone who’s experiencing DOMS in my abs almost all of the time at the moment because of the core workouts I’m doing, muscle soreness is not fun, and anything you can do to lessen it is worth trying.
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