How reformer Pilates can help build your ​core strength

Building your core strength is vital to helping prevent injury and improving the way your body moves. Here, we explain how Reformer Pilates can help build your core strength.

Why do Reformer Pilates?

As a movement practice, Pilates is about gaining and developing an understanding of how to control your body and movements. It’s about developing motor control and improving your joint stability, core stability and posture.

Think about your day-to-day movements, either in sports like golf or cycling or your daily routine around the house, in the garden or the car. Although these activities have many benefits, they all have repetitive movement patterns which can put stress on certain body parts. If you repeat these movements daily, the muscles around your joints can become imbalanced which over enough time can contribute to injury.

However, if your core is stable and mobile then not only will you reduce your risk of injury, but you’ll be able to excel at any activity you choose to do and feel much stronger doing it. Reformer Pilates is a great way to achieve this.

What is the core?

The core is often mistakenly thought of as just the stomach muscles – the abdominals. Although the abdominals play a part in core strength there is a lot more to it than that.

The core is the muscles of the torso, so pretty much everything apart from your arms and the legs. These core muscles need to work in synergy to provide you with stability and control of movement. I’m sure you know someone who has hurt their back picking up a child or putting a suitcase in an overhead locker. A strong core will greatly reduce your risk of such injuries.

Your deepest abdominal muscle, when working, should contract very gently and act like an inner corset helping to maintain the alignment of your spine. This should be working whether you are sitting at your desk, doing your housework, your gardening, or your sport.

The role posture plays on your core strength

Posture adaptations can cause a change in the length of your core muscles. If the muscles of the front of your torso are ‘pulled long’ they are in a weak position and therefore inhibited. If the muscles of the back are ‘shortened’ they can become overactive and feel tight. Attempting to improve your core strength from a compromised position can do more harm than good.

By fixing posture your core muscles return to their preferred length, which allows them to work together as a unit, improving movement quality and reducing pain.

How Reformer Pilates can improve your posture and therefore, core strength

At Hatts, our Reformer Pilates classes focus on correcting posture for you to integrate the core muscles effectively through a wide variety of ranges and planes of movement.

This approach prepares your body for other activities, meaning you can lift, twist sit and stand pain-free and continue to do so in the future.

So, improving your core strength with Reformer Pilates can help you move better, feel better, and can even help you look better.

We offer Matwork and Reformer classes and cater for beginners through to advanced levels. Always check with your GP and inform your Pilates instructor of any health issues that may affect your ability to do Pilates before joining a class. We also offer 1:1 Pilates classes for those who would prefer this to a class environment.

For more information about Hatt Pilates, please call us on 01380 730473.