For me, the benefits are particularly useful in my running \u2014 I\u2019m a marathoner<\/a> and a strong core helps me hold my form deep into races \u2014 but I\u2019m also feeling stronger outside my runs and during other strength sessions in the gym.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been building up the time I spend on my core workouts, and just tried this 20-minute session from Pilates instructor Nicole McPherson, who goes by Move With Nicole<\/a> on YouTube, which is the hardest session I\u2019ve done yet.<\/p>\n It focuses on the abs and glutes in particular, but also works your hips and hamstrings, and you don\u2019t need any kit to do the session aside from one of the best yoga mats<\/a>, if you don\u2019t want to lie directly on your floor.<\/p>\n Watch Move With Nicole\u2019s 20-minute abs and glutes workout<\/p>\n 20 MIN ABS & BOOTY WORKOUT || At-Home Pilates (No Equipment) – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n The workout doesn\u2019t contain many breaks, with Nicole layering moves in sequences to build up the tension in the targeted muscles, which is a highly effective if challenging way to strengthen the core in particular.<\/p>\n Nicole does the workout with you and gives instructions via a voiceover, along with some much\u2013needed encouragement.<\/p>\n You start with a series of moves to work the abs while lying on the floor, before moving onto your side and all-fours to target the glutes.<\/p>\n Here are my main takeaways after giving the workout a go myself.<\/p>\n The verbal instructions are precise and useful<\/p>\n Nicole\u2019s voiceover contains detailed instructions and pointers for each move, to the point where I didn\u2019t have to see my screen at all times to know what I was meant to be doing. This is handy with core workouts where you\u2019re flipping over between moves and don\u2019t have long breaks where you can reposition your screen.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n I found the advice on when to breathe in and out especially useful \u2014 timing your reps with inhales and exhales gives you something to focus on other than the burning in your muscles, and helps me to get through a few more reps before having to rest.<\/p>\n I failed\u2026 a lot<\/p>\n The workout doesn\u2019t contain a lot of prescribed breaks, but I had to add in extra ones myself because I was working to failure with many of the moves.<\/p>\n The way Nicole layers moves upon moves to target the same muscles really ramps up the time under tension for those muscles, and it got too much for me several times in the workout.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t make the session any less effective for me, so while it\u2019s good to push as deep into each set as you can, if you need an extra break then don\u2019t be afraid to take a few seconds off and get back to it.<\/p>\n Even with that said, I don’t think this is the most approachable workout if your new to fitness. I’d start with this 10-minute core session<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n The word pulses sends shivers down my spine<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n It\u2019s amazing how much small movements can hurt when your muscles are already burning, and Nicole is a big fan of rounding off a series of moves with pulses. For example, you do a series of crunches and leg raises, then finish with a set of sit-up pulses that really take the breath away.<\/p>\n Every time I do pulses I wonder why I don\u2019t add them into my workout more often, given how effective they are for exhausting target muscles. Probably because they\u2019re so hard, actually.<\/p>\n There are some useful stretches at the end<\/p>\n Nicole leads you through some stretches for your abs and glutes at the end of the session, and these do feel quite hard given that you\u2019re using the same muscles you\u2019ve just tired out, but they\u2019re well worth doing.<\/p>\n Trust me as someone who\u2019s experiencing DOMS in my abs almost all of the time at the moment because of the core workouts I\u2019m doing, muscle soreness is not fun, and anything you can do to lessen it is worth trying.<\/p>\n Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News<\/a> and add us as a preferred source<\/a> to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!<\/p>\n More from Tom’s Guide Back to Yoga Mats<\/p>\n SORT BYPrice (low to high)Price (high to low)Product Name (A to Z)Product Name (Z to A)Retailer name (A to Z)Retailer name (Z to A) Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m on a mission to improve my deep core strength, and have found that my favorite way to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-197319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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