Bikini Babes Swimsuit Season

"Ten Weeks till Swimsuit Season!" warn the covers of the women's magazines. "Six-pack abs by summer!" promise the guys' counterparts. It's a seasonal marketing ploy based on cosmetic appeal and pure vanity that has been used for years to sell magazines.

Abide by our 15-minute-a-day regimen, they promise, and a tighter tummy, an hourglass figure or rock-hard abs can be yours by the first day of summer.

While the prescriptions offered may be somewhat over-hyped, the notion itself is founded on one of the basic tenets of good physical health.

For a happy body, you must start with a happy core.

"Your core," Cheyenne Cravencrozier tells her noon advanced Pilates in Cary, N.C., "is your back, your butt, your abs."

If the participants weren't aware of this at the beginning of class, their "cores" will certainly remind them by the end.