Pilates and yoga are two of the best core-strengthening workouts you can do that also improve flexibility and work up a sweat at a low intensity. While you can include both separately in your fitness routine, you may find a greater benefit in combining the two.
"Even when you aren't targeting your core directly during movement, you need to keep it engaged to stabilize your entire body," says Elise Joan, Beachbody trainer and creator of Barre Blend. "The result is a stronger core overall and, over time, an increasingly defined set of abs."
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For instance, the "C curve" is an active and frequent position that's part of several moves during Pilates and yoga work, and it helps you tone your midsection and increase core strength, since you're required to constantly engage your abs throughout an exercise or pose.
Plus, the combination provides mental benefits too, quieting the mind and deepening the breath to help you stay present and calm, says Joan. In fact, a January 2017 review published in Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews found that yoga enhanced the quality of life and mental wellbeing of women who were diagnosed with breast cancer.
Moreover, a small April 2020 study in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that combining yoga and mindfulness techniques together were effective in reducing stress and anxiety in healthcare workers.
Here's a 20-minute workout from Joan that combines Pilates and yoga into one full-body strengthening workout — with a special emphasis on your abs.
Move 1: Quadruped With Gluteal Lifts
- Get on all fours and perform a few cat-cow stretches to warm up. On the exhale, round your spine up toward the ceiling and tuck your chin toward your chest. On the inhale, arch your back and let your belly loosen and relax.
- Now center into a flat-back position.
- Extend your right leg straight back with your toes pointed and your left arm straight forward.
- Keeping your core engaged, pulse your right leg behind you 20 times, raising and lowering it one inch.
- Bend your right knee to 90 degrees with your toes pointing up to the ceiling and pulse your foot up a few inches 20 times.
- Switch legs and repeat.
Move 2: Low C Curve
- Sit on a mat with your knees bent, toes touching the mat (heels raised) and your hands lightly gripping your hamstrings.
- Slowly roll down one vertebra at a time until just your lower back touches the mat. Keep your head and shoulders raised.
- Fix your gaze toward your abdominal muscles and scoop your belly in tight to do 40 tiny curls with your core, lifting and lowering your shoulders by about one inch.
Move 3: Low C Curve Bicycles
- Sit upright with your legs slightly bent in front of you. Brace your core by pulling in your abdominal muscles. Let your spine round by scooping in your abdominals and working the core. Your whole spine should form a capital C.
- Slowly move your legs as if you were pedaling a bicycle, alternately twisting your torso to bring your right elbow to your left knee, then your left elbow to your right knee. As you extend your leg out, make sure to fully straighten it and point your toes.
- Continue for 1 minute.
- Rest for 1 minute and repeat.
Move 4: Low C Curve Scissors
- In the same C curve position as described above, straighten both legs off of the floor. Keep them straight and point your toes, then begin to slowly scissor them. Lift your right leg back up as you lower your left leg down toward the ground. You will keep this movement going for the duration of the exercise.
- Continue for 30 to 60 seconds.
- Rest for 1 minute and repeat.
Move 5: Standing Fold Over
- Stand a few feet from the back of a chair and place your hands on it.
- Keeping your core engaged and back flat, shift your weight onto your left leg and raise your right leg straight behind you with pointed toes as you push your hips back and hinge forward as far as you comfortably can. Try to get your torso parallel to the floor.
- Do 40 small pulses (like a single-leg calf raise) with your left leg, bending your knee slightly as you lower and raise your body.
- Switch legs and repeat.
Move 6: Barre Blend Narrow V
- Standing tall with your feet turned out in a V-shape, lift your heels 2 inches (make sure they're touching).
- Keeping your heels raised, core engaged, chest up, back straight and knees aligned with your heels, bend your knees and lower yourself as far as you comfortably can before pressing through your feet into the ground to stand back up to the starting position.
- Do 10 reps.
- Hold the bottom position and pulse up and down a few inches 40 times without rest.
Tip
It’s OK if your legs shake. That just means you're working hard and really challenging the muscles. So, let your legs shake and feel that lower-body burn.
- Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews: Yoga for Improving Health-Related Quality of Life, Mental Health and Cancer-Related Symptoms in Women Diagnosed With Breast Cancer
- Journal of Clinical Medicine: "Yoga and Mindfulness as a Tool for Influencing Affectivity, Anxiety, Mental Health, and Stress Among Healthcare Workers: Results of a Single-Arm Clinical Trial"