Deep, durable abs, without crunchs or gadgets: Pilates keeps its promise with a single flagship exercise.
When you think “abs for summer”, you imagine everything except that. No extension sheathing, no knee or noisy rolling on a grinking carpet. However, this specific exercise has been at the heart of the Pilates method since its inception. No need to go quickly or make rehearsals in a loop. What matters here is control. Each breathing counts, each gesture is placed. The movement, if it is well done, is enough to wake up muscles that have been sleeping for a long time.
“He circulated the energy from the first seconds”, explains Carrie Campbell, Professor of Pilates. It is one of the first movements learned, but also one of the most technical. He mobilizes at the same time: breath, coordination, stability. It is not uncommon for a beginner to find him strange, uncomfortable, even useless. Those who have been practicing for years, on the other hand, always come back to it. Indeed, it offers a real base to work later. It is a movement that engages the entire center of the body.
This exercise can be adjusted at all levels. A beginner will be able to keep his knees folded, his head laid, his legs less tense. An advanced practitioner will be able to seek the difficulty by lowering the very low legs, adding resistance or varying the pace of breathing. The heart of the exercise remains the same, but everyone can adapt the version to their body of the moment. It combines both the contraction of the deep belly muscles, the mobilization of the arms and a sustained respiratory rhythm. This last point is essential. In pilates, breathing guides movement, it supports the trunk, it helps to avoid tensions in the neck and back. If we breathe badly, the exercise loses a large part of his interest. If we breathe well, everything becomes more fluid.
His name? The Hundred. Because we make a hundred small pulsations with the arms, in synchronization with breathing. Lying on the back, legs raised, engaged belly, outstretched arms, you inspire five times by pumping your arms towards the ground, then expires five times, always pumping. We repeat ten times. No more.
And if everything is well placed, we get up from the carpet with the feeling of having a concrete trunk. You will understand, we forget here the cries and sweat. Just a bit of rigor, and good investment.
