How can I start to train my abs? (I can't do a chest lift)

Abdominal training is part of every movement in Pilates. How many times do you hear your teacher ask you to engage your core? (What do I think about when engaging my core?) Well your abdominals are a 1/4 of your core and are being used even when the majority of the exercise is elsewhere in your body. If you missed Your core muscles are like a tin can take 5 mins and give it a read, I hope it will enlighten you.

If you want to start from scratch having never trained before I would initially start practicing finding your core muscles. Sit or lie down quietly and focus on engaging your core. Then I would move onto an exercise like the bug. Where you lay semi supine (on your back with knees raise to the ceiling, feet hip width apart on the floor and a neutral sine position) and glide opposite arm and leg away from your body whilst squeezing your core. You could exhale and engage you core as you glide your arm and leg away and then inhale as they return. It sounds quite easy, but can you do it without wiggling in your middle and can you make your arm and leg reach their destination at exactly the same time? Try to notice if your rib cage is flaring up towards the ceiling when you arm reaches overhead. Can you use your core muscles to pull the rib cage down towards the pelvis and resist the flaring out? This is a great start to finding your core muscles and getting them ready for something a little harder. The bug is not an easy exercise. It is easy to get wrong, but take lots of concentration and control to preform correctly.

As always, don't do anything that hurts and seek professional advice if you are not sure about an exercise.

Comments

Pilates key principles: Concentration

In a world of attention grabbing, Pilates is a 55 minute window of calm. As a teacher of small group and solo Pilates I can tell if my clients are having a busy mind day. When the mind is elsewhere, movements are not as exact and clients ability to complete a challenging move is compromised. It is OK to have a busy mind, we are not robots, however letting go of your thoughts and concentrating on the movements your body is making will help your Pilate practice to develop. These are my top tips for concentration: 1) Be present, use the repetitive nature of the warm up to connect with every part of your body. Try to visualize each part of your body, be selfish and only focus on yourself. 2) Pay attention to the alignment of your body. The beautiful line from your toe, through your ankle, knee and then into your hip. Maintaining correct alignment will increase the difficulty of an exercise. Why not challenge yourself to completing level ...

When I stretch my hip flexor muscles I feel it in the front of my thighs. Is this right?

The short answer is yes! In my first post I talked about the movement of hip flexion and listed the hip flexors. We have already covered the iliopsoas the main flexor of the hip. Today I am going to talk about the rectus femoris muscle which also assist with hip flexion. The rectus femoris is the large muscles at the front of your upper thigh. If you sit down with a tray on your lap, the tray would be resting on your rectus femoris. It is part of the quadriceps, four muscles on the front of the leg between the pelvis and the knee. Rectus femoris is the only quadricep that reaches over the hip joint as it originates on the front of the pelvis. In class I often reference your ASIS ( A nterior S uperior I lliac S pine), you have two and they are the nobly bones you can feel through your skin at the front of your pelvis. Well you also have two AIIS ( A nterior I nferior I lliac S pine) this is another nobly part of the pelvic bon...

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....

Katie Leaver Pilates

Search This Blog