How To Do The Hundred Video

The Hundred Pilates exercise is a great way to strengthen the core. Learn how to do the Hundred in this Pilates video lesson.

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Pump arms 100 times
Keep back flat
Avoid looking up
Keep body still when pumping arms

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Known as the trainers' trainer, Carol Ann has 19 years of professional fitness training experience, a Master's degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion, and CEC provider status with AFAA and ACE. She holds current fitness certifications including Group X Instructor, Personal Trainer, Pilates, Yoga, Aqua Fitness, Kickboxing, and Lifestyle Fitness Coaching. Carol Ann has traveled nationally and internationally training fitness professionals, presenting certifications and workshops, and sharing her knowledge for specific training techniques and application. Along with various fitness training DVD's, she is the creator and star of the fitness DVD series called The Steel Physique System. She also is a freelance fitness expert writer for several publications. In 2008 she is launching Studio Group X, a premier state-of-the-art group exercise studio in North Tampa, FL. The focus is to engage her clients into leading healthy lifestyles for a lifetime through an educational and fun process.

CAROLANN: This Pilates exercise is called the hundred and we call it the hundred because you're going to pump your arms a hundred times. Now the key here is to keep your entire body completely still while you're pumping those arms. So we're going to really work those abs. We're going to really improve our core stability with this. So I've got three different levels for you. So come on down to your mat and you want to have your back completely flat. Lift your head and shoulders up off the mat and you want to pull your shoulder blades back and down. Really reach through your fingertips. Lengthen out through the crown of your head and your gaze point needs to be right here towards here your thighs. Try to avoid looking up towards the ceiling. You want to keep looking forward. Now draw that navel in towards your spine, keep your knees directly over your hips into a tabletop position, and start pumping those arms forcefully, keeping the rest of your body nice and still. Now, to take this up to the next level, take your legs up into a Pilates stance. So your heels are together, your toes are out like a V and you want to concentrate on squeezing your inner thighs together. Now you always want to keep that lower back down to the mat. Now, to make this even harder, lower those legs down as far and as close to the floor as you can. Now here's the breathing. Inhale two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, inhale, two, three, four, five, inhale, two, three, four, five. Now with every exhale, you're engaging those abdominal muscles as tight as you can and you're going to continue breathing like so until your arms pump for a hundred counts. And that is your signature Pilates exercise called the Hundred.

How to Do the Hundred Video

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