12/05/2026
I found this an interesting read from the Australian Physio Association.
Summary: The blanket advice to activate or focus on your core in any and all movements for everyone is misguided.
Contract or relax abdomen during Pilates?
Researchers from Brazil conducted a randomised trial of 152 people with non‑specific chronic low back pain. Their findings indicated that relaxing the core during Pilates may improve outcomes for patients with chronic low back pain. Researchers Luciana Lunkes and Ney Meziat Filho agreed to answer some questions about their trial.
Your study challenges a core principle of Pilates. Why has abdominal contraction been so strongly emphasised in the past?
Abdominal contraction has traditionally been emphasised in Pilates because it reflects an original principle of the method, known as ‘centring’, which refers to initiating movement from the body’s centre, often called the powerhouse.
Core exercise training and motor control training reinforced the idea that people with chronic low back pain should focus on abdominal contractions during exercises.
This concept aligns with biomechanical models suggesting that increased activation of deep trunk muscles, such as the transversus abdominis and multifidus, enhances spinal stabilisation.
Over time, this idea became central to both Pilates practice and rehabilitation approaches.
What were the key differences between the ‘relaxed’ and ‘contracted’ approaches in your trial and how did participants respond to them?
Both groups performed the same Pilates exercise program, with identical frequency and duration over a 12-week period.
The key difference was the instruction provided during exercise ex*****on.
In the control group, participants received guidance on the specific activation of the core muscle group (including abdominals, pelvic floor, diaphragm and deep spinal muscles), with continuous verbal reinforcement from the physiotherapist.
In the experimental group, participants were instructed to keep their abdomen relaxed and perform the exercises in a smooth way, focusing on breathing and movement, without any guidance to activate the core muscles.
Participants in both groups adhered well to the program and improved over time.
However, the relaxed group showed slightly greater improvement in disability.
You found slightly better disability outcomes with a relaxed abdomen. How clinically meaningful is this difference?
The between-group difference in disability favoured the relaxed approach and was achieved without any additional cost, effort or risk.
From a clinical perspective, this is meaningful because Pilates is already recommended for people with non-specific chronic low back pain and is known to improve pain and disability.
Our findings suggest that these additional benefits can be achieved with the instruction to keep the abdomen relaxed during the exercises.
In practice, if a simpler and less demanding strategy produces similar or slightly better outcomes, it may be preferable.
Therefore, clinicians should consider feasibility, patient comfort and the potential to avoid reinforcing unnecessary muscle guarding.
Do these findings suggest that core activation is unnecessary or just that it may not be as important as previously thought?
Our findings suggest that prompting individuals to activate the abdominal muscles is unnecessary.
Trunk muscle activation appears to occur naturally in a demand-dependent manner rather than being dependent on verbal cues during exercise.
Conversely, prompting relaxation of the abdominal muscles may help reduce excessive muscle guarding and protective behaviours during movement.
How do your results fit with current understanding of pain science and the role of muscle guarding in chronic low back pain?
Our results are consistent with current evidence suggesting that people with chronic low back pain use increased trunk muscle activation while walking and during functional activities compared with asymptomatic people.
This increased muscle activation is associated with cognitive and emotional factors such as higher levels of pain catastrophising.
Even considering only the biomechanical perspective, there is growing evidence against the idea of abdominal bracing during exercises.
For example, abdominal bracing reduces impact attenuation during a drop landing task in healthy adults.
What should physiotherapists take away from this? Should they change how they prescribe Pilates or other exercise programs?
Physiotherapists should know that prompting patients with chronic low back pain to contract their abdominal muscles during exercises may not be the best strategy.
The advice to keep the abdominal muscles relaxed can slightly decrease disability in the context of Pilates exercises but we believe that these findings may also be applicable to any other exercise approaches used in the management of chronic low back pain.
>> Luciana Lunkes is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist with a doctorate in sciences from the Federal University of Lavras and postdoctoral training in rehabilitation sciences from the Augusto Motta University Centre in Brazil. Luciana works as a professor and researcher at University Centre of Lavras and Augusto Motta University Centre.
>> Ney Meziat Filho is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist and professor of postgraduate programs in rehabilitation sciences at Augusto Motta University Centre. From 2024 to 2025, Ney was a visiting professor at the School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University in Canada.
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