Onboard 4: Meet Your Core: What It Really Means in Pilates
Hint: It’s way more than a six-pack.
When people think of the "core," they usually picture six-pack abs, crunches, or holding a plank until everything shakes. But at SOMA, we teach a different kind of core strength—one that’s less about appearance and more about integration, stability, and support from the inside out.
Your core isn’t just one muscle—it’s a layered system of muscles that influence the shape and position of your spine. These muscles work together to help you balance, breathe, move, and even rest with more ease. And yes, some of them are deep and subtle. Others are more superficial and familiar. All of them matter.
Deep Core: Your Center of Stability
Let’s start with the deep core, the part we often focus on early in Pilates training. These are the muscles closest to your spine and internal organs, and they form a kind of inner corset that stabilizes the trunk before movement begins.
The transversus abdominis wraps around your waist like a hug, providing support before you lift, twist, or bend. The pelvic floor creates a foundational sling at the base of your core, working with your diaphragm to manage pressure and breath. And the multifidus, tiny muscles along your spine, provide segment-by-segment support to keep your spine upright, long, and fluid.
These muscles don’t shout when they’re working, the function like hum in the background.
Superficial Core: Power, Shape, and Expression
Surrounding this deep core system are your superficial core muscles—the ones you tend to feel more quickly in class, and the ones most people recognize. These muscles function to rotate, twist, bend, and flex the torso and spine.
The obliques (internal and external) help rotate the spine, support lateral flexion, and give your waist definition. The erector spinae muscles run along the back of your spine and extend it, helping you lift upright and maintain your posture. And the intercostal muscles, which live between your ribs, play a key role in breathing and ribcage mobility—helping you expand and contract with ease.
These muscles are often where you feel the burn—but they don’t work in isolation. In Pilates, we train them to work with the deep core, so that your movements are supported and balanced, not overcompensated.
Core Intelligence, Not Just Core Effort
At SOMA, we talk about core intelligence or core responsiveness. It’s not just about how hard your core works, but how well it coordinates and how quickly it responds to or even anticipates your needs. Instead of bracing or gripping, we aim for responsive engagement: activating what’s needed, when it’s needed, and allowing everything else to stay soft and available.
That’s why you might hear cues like “exhale to engage,” or “lift through the pelvic floor,” or “wrap the ribs.” We’re inviting your deep and superficial core muscles to collaborate—to move in harmony rather than dominance.
And while it may feel subtle at first, the benefits ripple outward: better posture, easier breath, more efficient movement, and a body that feels supported from within.
Core in Daily Life
A well-integrated core doesn’t just serve you in Pilates—it supports you everywhere. You’ll feel it when you stand taller in line, lift groceries without strain, twist to check your blind spot, or carry your child without collapsing into one hip.
Core awareness changes how you inhabit your body. It makes movement more mindful and effortless. And over time, it reshapes your relationship to strength—not as something you force, but as something you channel.
Not Sure If You’re “Doing It Right”?
That’s what we’re here for. Pilates isn’t about perfecting—it’s about practicing with attention. So if you’re unsure what you should be feeling, or whether your core is engaging, ask your instructor. We’ll help you feel your way into better alignment and deeper connection.
Because when your core is working with you—not against you—you move through the world differently. With more ease. More stability. And more power that doesn’t have to shout.