Katie Leaver Pilates

 Abdominal training is part of every movement in Pilates.  How many times do you hear your teacher ask you to engage your core?  ( What do I think about when engaging my core? ) Well your abdominals are a 1/4 of your core and are being used even when the majority of the exercise is elsewhere in your body.  If you missed  Your core muscles are like a tin can  take 5 mins and give it a read, I hope it will enlighten you. If you want to start from scratch having never trained before I would initially start practicing finding your core muscles.  Sit or lie down quietly and focus on engaging your core.  Then I would move onto an exercise like the bug.  Where you lay semi supine (on your back with knees raise to the ceiling, feet hip width apart on the floor and a neutral sine position) and glide opposite arm and leg away from your body whilst squeezing your core.  You could exhale and engage you core as you glide your arm and leg away and then inhale as they return.  It sounds quite easy, b

  Abs are used to describe the front abdominal wall but this area of the body includes more muscles and other body structures than just your rectus abdominis.  There are three layers of muscle forming your abdominal wall.   The deep layer comprises of the transversus abdominis and the rectus abdominis.   Your transversus abdominis is a muscle that give you a big tummy hug.  It wraps all the way around you from your lower ribs to you pelvis across your middle (meeting at the linea alba (fibrous white structure that runs down the middle of the abdomen)) also attaching to the thoracolumbar fascia (a fibrous structure) in your back.  Your trans abs compress and support your abdominal contents.    The rectus abdominis is also in this deep layer of muscle, this muscles runs from the pubic bone to the sternum and if very well developed is responsible for the 8 abdominal muscles that can viewed on a bat man costume.  This muscle is responsible for movement like flexion (curling up) and latera