Skip to main content

How do you know if you are working your core too hard?


I am terrible at this.  I am super competitive and very hard on myself.  I always feel that I should be able to do the hardest level and the maximum amount of repetitions. But experience, training and an excellent tutor has shown me that Pilates should not be like that.  It is better to have a deep connection with your body, tuning in to how you are feeling on a particular day at an exact moment.  The way to go is building a strong core through listen to your body, learning good technique and understanding which muscles you should be feeling. 

So how do you really know if you are working your core too hard?  

  • Firstly being able to hold your neutral spine throughout an exercise is a great sign that you are working at the right level.  As soon as you can't keep your core engagement and neutral spine for all stages of an exercise you are probably working too hard.  
  • Can you feel your tummy doming?  Another sign that you are working too hard.  
  • If you can feel your tummy doming you might be getting a little pain in your lumbar spine.  Another sign things are a bit too hard.  When I am teaching I often have to remind clients to slow the movement down.  Flow, precision and control are some of the fundamental elements of Pilates.  
  • It can often be easier to make a movement faster using a little momentum, however often a slower precise movement gives you a higher quality of exercise. So my forth watch point is don't move too fast. (Although, I love rolling like a ball).  
  • My final watch point is holding your breath.  If you find yourself holding your breath whilst completing an exercise, its probably a bit hard.  It is always better to breath.  Breathing patterns can help with core engagement, but breathing differently to what is being directed is preferable over holding your breath.  Some very respected teachers are moving away from prescribed breathing patterns and letting the individual choose a breathing pattern that works for them.

What can you do to improve? Spend some time getting to know your body.  Listen to how you are feeling throughout an exercise.  Throw away any preconceptions of how strong you are or what you should be able to achieve.  When you are in your class be really present with your body and the instructions, there is nothing else that is important. Start at level 1 and be really sure that you have perfected all elements of the movement before progressing.  As part of my personnel practice I sometimes go right back to basics and complete level 1 classes, focusing on technique.  Am I engaging my core without squeezing my bottom (I am terrible for that), have I nailed the breathing? (I am quite good at holding my breath, at times), can I feel the muscles that are working?  Finally, am I only moving the parts of my body that should be moving? I am very good at shrugging my shoulders up when doing some tricky leg work.  I know my shoulders are not going to help, but it just happens.  

Remember to enjoy your practice, be aware of your body and don't be too ambitious.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My feet are amazing! But how should I stand and why does this matter?

  Each of your feet are amazing, I know that I did not appreciate my feet until I had a accident and one of my feet stopped working as well as it used to.  My extreme sport of choice was piggy in the middle with my children on the beach, when I  kick a stone.  This has continued to impact my foot health for over 18 months (well I'm still recovering).   Each of your feet are made up of 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. Your feet are the most amazing mobile weight bearing structures around.  When anatomists write about the foot, they often refer to the "bony architecture" of the foot. Now start to think about the structure of your foot as "bony architecture" and you can start understanding how you foot is similar to a vaulted church ceiling. Lots of individual bones precisely placed to fit together in an amazing arched structure.  What is incredible about the foot is that there are three arches at work. You have the arch that yo
Post a Comment
Read more

Pilates key principles: Control

 In Pilates we aim to maintain a high level of control over the movements that we make.  As you will have completed some Pilates with me, you will be aware that a small angle change in leg positioning or increased stability through the pelvis can suddenly increase the intensity of an exercise.  When thinking about control it is very closely related to precision and you could say that these key principles come hand in hand.  You will find that control is improved once you have made multiple attempts at an exercise.  Muscles will increase in strength and your muscles will remember the movement of an exercise.  Therefore when taking part in a class, stay at a level where you can maintain control.   If you work at too high a level you will find it harder to master the control of position and movement and then perfect the exercise.  When we have control over a movement we are also able to make the movement using only the muscles connected with that motion.  An example of where things can go
Post a Comment
Read more

Osteoporosis

 Osteoporosis is a condition that lots of us recognise, but do we really know what it is?   It is a condition where your bones lose strength, this would not be noticed until you had a slip or a fall, you may not even know you have it.  However because the bones have lost some of their strength a simple accident could end up causing a bone fracture (break).  This condition impacts both females and  males.  How do the bones lose strength?  Your bone are just as alive and changing as your skin.  It is normal for us to shed some old skin as we grow new skin.  In our bones, old bone is absorbed by cells called osteoclasts and then new bone is built by cells called osteoblasts.  This process is know as bone remodeling and keeps our skeleton healthy.  As we travel through phases of our life the hormones that balance this cycle change.  As we get older some aspects of our bodies don't keep working as efficiently as they used to.  Take the osteoclasts for example, who have worked at top spe
Post a Comment
Read more