I’m here to tell you, your core isn’t the six-pack muscles on the front of your body. Instead, it’s a cylinder that wraps around your torso, including your lower back, glutes, hips, and pelvic floor.
Far from just sculpting visible abs, a rock-solid core works as your body’s corset, protecting your lower back from injury, improving your balance and stability, and enhancing your posture.
One Pilates instructor says the humble Pilates reverse plank is more effective than hundreds of crunches, so to find out more, I unrolled my yoga mat, grabbed a foam roller, and gave this move a go. Read on to find out what happened.
As a reminder, what works for me might not be right for you and your body. If you’re a complete beginner, you’re pregnant or postpartum, or you’re currently working out with an injury, it’s always best to seek personalized advice from a qualified professional.
How to do a Pilates reverse plank
The exercise, as demonstrated by Pilates instructor Chrissi Glow, targets the posterior chain, as well as the deep muscles in your midsection. Here’s how to do it with good form:
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- Sit on an exercise mat and extend your legs out in front of you. Lower your torso back, resting on your elbows, which should be stacked underneath your shoulders. Lie your palms flat on the floor with your fingers pointing towards your toes.
- Keeping your gaze toward your toes, roll your shoulders back and down away from your ears.
- Brace your core, thinking about sucking your belly button into your spine, and drive through your heels to lift your hips toward the ceiling.
- Squeeze your glutes as hard as you can, and push your hips up so that your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels.
- Keep your neck long — don’t throw your head back, as this can put strain on your neck.
- Hold this position for 20-30 seconds, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Focus on not letting your hips sag.
To increase the intensity, as Glow has done, from this reverse plank position, raise one leg to the ceiling, then the other. You can also add resistance by using a set of the best ankle weights, or, for instability, using a foam roller or Pilates ball, or both, if you want to really burn your core.
What are the benefits?
I’ve been practicing Pilates for the past 15 years — it’s gotten me to the start line of six marathons and helped me rebuild my core following the birth of my son. This move is no joke — it blasts your midsection, but your glutes have to be working overtime to stop your hips from sagging in this move.
While you might not consider them to be part of your "core," weak glutes force your lower back to overcompensate. To keep your hips lowering toward your mat in this exercise, and to lift your leg towards the ceiling if you’re doing that variation, your glutes have to work with your lower back and hamstrings. This, in turn, can help strengthen the muscles around your pelvis, which stabilize your spine.
Of course, physically I look the same, having done this exercise as my ab finisher for the past week, but what started as a super tricky move, especially when performed on a foam roller, did get easier with practice.
The added instability of the foam roller forced my deep transverse abdominis to engage to keep me from wobbling, and I felt my entire midsection kept under tension throughout this move.
What are you waiting for? Even with no equipment, drop down to your exercise mat and give this exercise a try.
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