How many reps of the hundred should you do when you are new to the exercise?

Start with 6 to 8 breath cycles, meaning 60 to 80 pumps, with the legs held high enough to keep the lower back flat on the mat. Work up to the full ten breaths, or one hundred pumps, before lowering the legs for more challenge.

How do you make the hundred easier or harder?

Make it easier by keeping the knees bent in tabletop instead of extending the legs, and by keeping the head down on the mat if the neck fatigues before the abs do. Make it harder by lowering the legs closer to the floor while keeping the lower back completely flat against the mat.

What is the hundred good for?

It builds deep abdominal endurance and teaches the breath-and-brace pattern the rest of a Pilates mat sequence relies on, making it a foundational warm-up for that style of training. It is a poor choice with a diagnosed diastasis recti or in the early weeks postpartum, since the curled position and sustained abdominal effort can add pressure across the midline exactly where it needs to heal.

Intermediate

The Hundred

This is the classic opener of the Pilates mat sequence, built to fire up the deep abdominals and pair breath with movement. You hold a curled trunk while pumping the arms and counting to one hundred across ten breaths. It teaches the core-and-breath connection every later exercise relies on, so treat it as your foundation rather than a race.

Equipment: Body Weight
Body part: Abs
Type: Pilates, Strength
Browse by muscle: Upper Rectus Abdominals, Lower Rectus Abdominals
Browse by movement: Core Brace

How to do it

1
Lie on your back, draw both knees into a tabletop position, and reach your arms long by your sides just off the mat.
2
Curl your head, neck, and shoulders off the mat, gazing toward your navel and hollowing the belly.
3
Extend your legs to a height you can hold with a flat lower back, lower for more challenge, higher for less.
4
Pump your straight arms up and down in a small, brisk range, a few inches from the mat.
5
Inhale for five pumps, exhale for five pumps, keeping the neck relaxed and the ribs knitted down.
6
Continue for ten full breaths to reach one hundred pumps, then bend the knees and lower the head to finish.

Tips

Anchor the lower back into the mat before you lift the legs, if it arches, raise the legs higher.
Lead the pump from the shoulders and lats, not by flapping the wrists.
Keep the gaze on the navel so the neck stays long and the chin does not jut.

Variations

Common mistakes

The legs drop too low for the strength of the day, so the lower back lifts off the mat and arches to compensate.
Once the neck gets tired, the head sinks back into the shoulders instead of holding the curl, which the pumping arms cannot fix on their own.
Rushing the breath count to finish faster turns the pumps into a flail instead of the small, controlled beat the exercise depends on.
The shoulders round forward and hike up by the ears as fatigue builds, instead of staying open and pulled down the whole set.

Frequently asked

How many reps of the hundred should you do when you are new to the exercise?: Start with 6 to 8 breath cycles, meaning 60 to 80 pumps, with the legs held high enough to keep the lower back flat on the mat. Work up to the full ten breaths, or one hundred pumps, before lowering the legs for more challenge.
How do you make the hundred easier or harder?: Make it easier by keeping the knees bent in tabletop instead of extending the legs, and by keeping the head down on the mat if the neck fatigues before the abs do. Make it harder by lowering the legs closer to the floor while keeping the lower back completely flat against the mat.
What is the hundred good for?: It builds deep abdominal endurance and teaches the breath-and-brace pattern the rest of a Pilates mat sequence relies on, making it a foundational warm-up for that style of training. It is a poor choice with a diagnosed diastasis recti or in the early weeks postpartum, since the curled position and sustained abdominal effort can add pressure across the midline exactly where it needs to heal.

Related exercises

Other movements among FitRay's 2,000+ exercises that load the same target muscle — same equipment and level first.

All Abs exercises