We all want the ultimate set of abs, a toned stomach, to carve out a serious 6 pack, to flatten the gut, whatever your motivation or how you describe it, the mid section is often one of the hardest areas to get and keep toned. For some people it seems like it’s easier than for others… they must know some secret, right?

Correct! They’ve discovered the secret to getting the ultimate set of abs: Pilates.

Pilates has been a fitness mainstay for many years and continues to grow in popularity with over 11 million people in the USA alone doing Pilates on a regular basis, so there must be something to it right?

You bet. Pilates is a dynamic, functional and killer workout and it also can be tailored to the beginner, the injured and even challenge the elite.
To achieve the ultimate set of Pilates abs it’s wise to first understand the function of some of the abdominal muscles. The abdominal wall consists of a few key layers of muscle, let’s start from the outside and work inwards.

The Rectus Abdominus:
This is the least functional but on the other hand the most desired of all of the abdominal muscles as they are your traditional ‘6 pack muscles’. Their role is to flex or bend the spine forward (in daily life, we only really do this when we get out of bed in the morning). They start at the rib cage below the chest and go down to the pubic bone.
It’s great to train the rectus abdominus, but unless you work the other muscles with it you will not flatten your stomach.

The Internal and External Obliques:
These muscles rotate the torso and bend the spine forwards. They also play a role in stabilising the spine. These muscles appear either side of the Rectus Abdominus and can often be seen going over the ribs and also around the love handle area. They will help (in conjunction with the Transversus Abdominus) to draw in and redefine the waistline. These muscles are very functional as they also help to stabilise the ribcage in addition to the spine which is important in activities such as swimming and running, and strengthening these can also dramatically improve the tennis and golf games.
Transversus Abdominus:
The real secret behind Pilates (if done correctly) and getting the ultimate set of abs is that it uses the transversus abdominus and pelvic floor muscles. These are deep abdominal muscles that do a few very important jobs. The transversus’ normal function is to form a deep internal corset that acts to draw the abdomen inwards and stabilizes the spine during movement.
In general, support by this muscle is considered to be the most important of the abdominal muscles and has also been found to be in a weakened state in those who have chronic back pain or back problems.

We require strength in all stomach muscles achieving ‘global core strength’ in order to protect the spine and for the spine to be able to cope with our day to day routine, but in the majority of people this muscle is often hard to activate and is often under trained.

Even those who do regular abdominal work at the gym or at home can often be over strengthening some of the other stomach muscles such as the rectus abdominus (or the 6 pack); causing a muscle imbalance and either putting the spine at risk of injury or making the stomach muscles work ineffectively and never achieving the ultimate set of abs that’s desired.

To achieve the ultimate set of abs all of these muscle groups must be trained equally. The most effective way to train all of the abdominal muscles, including the Transversus Abdominus, is Pilates.

How to activate the Transversus Abdominus and Pelvic Floor.
To activate the transversus abdominus, simply lie on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent. Find the front of your hip bones (the part that’s pointing up towards the ceiling) and place your fingers on the hip bones and simply roll the finger tips over these bones onto the inside of the hips so your finger tips are just one centimetre inside the bone and applying just a little bit of pressure, your fingers should be still touching the hip bones.
Now engage the pelvic floor by stopping the flow of urine whilst constricting the muscles deep in the back passage as if you are preventing breaking wind (no nicer way I can put that) and hold tight.
Then whilst holding on the pelvic floor, imagine there is a line on the surface of the stomach connecting the hip bones together and focus on drawing that imaginary line towards the spine and also the hip bones towards each other (without sucking in the stomach or lifting the rib cage upwards). In addition to this you may also like to think of drawing the navel to the spine.
You should feel just a small amount of tension in the muscles just inside the hip bones under your finger tips. Keep the pressure on the fingers and release the stomach muscles quickly. You should feel the tension under the finger tips release.

Repeat this several times until you master it. Trying to keep all of the other stomach muscles relaxed at this stage as we are just focused on isolation and activation. Once you have mastered this, you can then progress to trying to hold the activation of these muscles whilst doing increasingly challenging exercises.

It’s important to note that when you begin to curl the upper body up off the floor and you start to use some of the other stomach muscles such as the rectus abdominus and obliques, the stomach will want to bulge outwards. You should be always focussed on flattening the imaginary line on the surface of the stomach towards the spine and preventing this bulging from occurring. Only ever curl up as high as you can maintain a totally flat stomach.

For some abdominal exercises click this link http://www.studiopilates.com/images/23-26Pilatesworkout.pdf