20-MIN PILATES CORE WORKOUT

For the next 30 days, replace one workout a week with this 20-minute core video! This Pilates routine will have you feeling strong, energized, and amazing in minutes. It focuses on challenging every angle of your tummy, back, glutes and side body. The end result? Longer, leaner muscles, better posture, and a toned core.

You know that feeling of vitality and afterglow you feel after finishing a great workout? This video will make you feel that fresh.

(Interested in more at-­home core workout video classes? Below are a few of my favorite core-targeting routines that incorporate a variety of styles to fit your life…from barre to strength training to HIIT. Check ’em out today!)

The most important moves to do with age are for strengthening the core. It’s the body’s command center, protecting and supporting the rest of the body.

If your core is unhealthy, it will compromise the health of your entire system. It’s the place where all movement is initiated, and the source of our bodies’ deepest powers. It’s also the factor that determines whether you move freely and with ease, or whether you’re weighted down by aches and pains. A strong core makes everything easier…each bike ride, run, and walk. Besides the vanity aspect, a toned core makes you stronger and less prone to injury. If you work to get really strong and maintain a strong core, flat abs are going to follow.

A strong core is so important that it actually affects your skin on your belly. Even if your skin…after pregnancy and a handful of decades on Planet Earth..has lost collagen, becoming looser and thinner, exercise can help. Crunches tighten up the muscle under skin and give it a tighter look.

HELLO POSTURE, GOOD-BYE COMPRESSION GEAR

Core muscles are key for optimal posture. By retraining your posture, abdominal muscles act as built-in Spanx.

So if you want the elegance of a Pilates instructor, it all starts here with your posture plan:

1. Stand in the mirror.
2. Look at your ear, shoulder, hip, and ankle on one side of the body.
3. Imagine a line dropping from your ear. Does it hit your shoulder and hip? That’s a gauge of good posture. When you slump, you look heavier. When you stand up straight and engage the abs, you look slimmer.