Everyone has different health goals, but one that should span all generations and fitness levels is having good core strength and stability. This can be seen as the foundation of your fitness, whether you’re using it to tackle tough strength workouts or marathons, or to maintain your independence as you age.
Pilates is a great way to work on your core strength and improve balance and stability. An accessible way to get started with the practice is to try standing workouts. These are a particularly good starting point if you’re older or coming back to fitness after a long break.
This 10-minute standing Pilates workout has been put together by fitness trainer Monika Larssen, who goes by MonikaFit on YouTube. You don’t need any equipment to do it — just space to stand and stretch out your arms and legs — and it’s beginner-friendly.
Watch MonikaFit’s 10-minute standing Pilates workout
During the workout, you’ll be working for 40 seconds with each exercise, then taking a 10-second break before going onto the next move.
The session uses a lot of exercises involving standing on one leg or tiptoes to challenge your balance while doing other movements. If you’re not able to stand comfortably on one leg while lifting the other, then you could keep a chair or table handy to lean against when required.
Monika does the workout with you to demonstrate each move, but there are no voice instructions, so make sure you can see your screen to copy her form and also get an idea of what move is coming up and how long you have left during the work and rest periods.
The workout aims to strengthen the deep core and stabilizer muscles, as well as improve your balance, which means that you should do each move at a controlled pace — rushing through reps so you lose your balance is counterproductive.
Focus on engaging your core and glutes with each exercise and move precisely to hit the right muscles. By the end of each 40-second work period, you’ll be feeling the effort in the target areas.
If you’re able to do this workout or similar sessions two to three times a week, you will notice the benefits with mobility, strength and stability.
Once you’re comfortable with this session, it will have helped lay the foundation to make tougher workouts achievable and approachable, so look to progress with either a new workout or by using light weights or a resistance band to increase the difficulty of this one.
More from Tom's Guide
- Forget sit-ups! These 3 gentle seated abs moves build core strength (great for beginners and seniors)
- I'm a personal trainer who works with seniors: This is my joint-friendly workout for clients over 50 to build strength and boost coordination
- No, not planks! I'm a personal trainer for seniors, and these are the 4 best exercises you can do for core stability at every age
