As you become familiar with the movements you can concentrate on the abdominals and find the challenge of the exercise. It hasn’t gotten easier for me in the eight years I’ve been doing Pilates because as I have gotten stronger I have pushed my self to make the movements more difficult.

The Pilates exercises weren’t designed to be confusing. The movements are simple and to many people look familiar and similar to exercises done in traditional conditioning techniques. The difference lies in the approach. The principles of the Pilates method promotes awareness of the body and concentration so that you can’t cheat your way through the motions.

While it might be frustrating to start out small and simple in the beginning it is only after you locate and get used to engaging the proper muscles will you get stronger and start feeling the difference.

I know a lot of people find this pose anything but easy but Downward facing dog is actually classified a resting posture! With continued practice downward dog does become easier, it is designed to achieve a stilling and balancing effect energetically.

Your eye gaze in this pose is towards the belly button so you are literally gazing in towards the core of your being. Behind the naval is a point called the ‘Kanda’, where 72,000 energy channels cross, this is why the naval to spine is the seat of the power in your body.

The arms and legs are worked in balance and the head is relaxed. Coming into downward dog is the rest in the flow of the practice, a place where you can check your alignment, your strong centre (naval to spine), empty your thoughts into steady breathing and expand into the present moment.

Benefits of performing downwards dog:
• Rejuvenates the brain cells and relieves fatigue.
• Relieves stiffness in shoulder blades and shoulder joints.
• Strengthens and stretches the legs.

How to perform:
1. From kneeling with hands shoulder width and knees hip width apart.
2. Middle finger is pointing forward, hands spread out and palms pressed fully to the mat. Tuck your toes under and lift the knees off the floor.
3. Ease the heals towards the ground at the same time as raising the tailbone towards the sky. Forming a triangle shape with your body and the mat. Place your focus on lengthening and strengthening the spine.
4. Arms are straight, but being careful not to hyperextend the elbows, if hyperextension occurs soften the elbow a little to support the joint.
5. Crown of your head is facing the floor with your neck long and relaxed, look towards your navel.
6. Draw your naval towards your spine (hollow the belly).
7. Try to avoid curving the spine (back bend), you will know if this is happening if your ribs start to poke out. A curved spine will create an arch at the sacrum and squash the space in between your shoulders, this is to be avoided because it creates imbalance in the spine. Visualise a straight diagonal line from your hands to your tailbone.
8. Roll your shoulders away from your ears, your shoulders will feel like they are drawing down the back towards your pelvis.
9. Heels stacked behind the toes.
10. Hold for 3-5 deep lateral breaths.
11. Exhale and bend knees to the mat or continue on in sun saluation.

2. Muscular strength is the ability to lift a resistance, this could be a weight or just your limbs.

3. Even walking and moving the body is resistance!

4. Muscular endurance is when the muscle is being used for longer periods of time.
 
5. Benefits of muscular fitness:

• Muscular fitness enables us to keep correct posture and alignment of the skeleton (weakened muscles may cause an uneven pull on the skeleton which pulls us out of line).

• Muscles work in pairs, as one contracts its opposing muscle relaxes, e.g. the Biceps and the Triceps in the arm or the Hamstrings and the Quadriceps in the leg.

• So if one of the pairs gets over worked and the other insufficiently worked imbalances can happen which pull joints out of line. This can cause injuries and postural problems. Rounded shoulders and curvatures of the spine are usually the result of muscle imbalance causing postural imbalance.

• Muscular fitness also improves the strength of our bones and joints. As muscles contract they pull against the bones to create movement, so strengthening the tendons and ligaments and thus making the joints stronger and more stable.
 
6. Recommendations for Muscular Fitness training:

• Frequency: 2 – 3 times per week. Alternate rest days and training days.

• Intensity: To the point of near fatigue, while maintaining good technique.

• Duration: One set of 3 – 20 repartitions, Alternate rest days and training days.

• Type: 8 – 10 exercises targeting the main muscle groups :

 Body weight exercises
 Free weights
 Exercise bands
 
7. Muscular fitness and Pilates;

Muscle balance is a big part of Pilates, all exercises are slow and controlled exercising the muscle both ways and exercises are performed on both sides evenly thus promoting a balancing effect. Pilates mainly works with strengthening the core stabiliser muscles.

‘The ability of the joints and muscles to move through their full potential range of movement.’

• When a muscle is stretching it is lengthening and then relaxing in that position.
• Being able to move joints and muscles through their full potential range is needed to do daily tasks like:

1. Reaching upwards and reaching forwards

2. Raising the knees, like climbing the stairs

3. Taking long strides

4. Looking behind us and left and right

• Flexible muscles and joints help us keep correct posture and alignment.  Good posture makes for a better appearance; it reduces the occurrence of lower back pain and helps the management of joint mobility conditions like osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

• Being flexible can also help relaxation and stress management by releasing tension in the body.

• The ACSM guidelines for training flexibility state:

1. Flexibility should be practiced a minimum of 2-3 times per week
2. Stretch positions should be taken to a point of mild tension, not discomfort, and held for an extended period of time once the muscle has relaxed.  2-4 repetitions can be performed for each stretch.
3. Hold static for 15-30 seconds
4. Static stretches are recommended for the general population

• Floor based stretches give more support to the body and can make stretching more relaxed.  Using straps is fine as this can help increase the range of motion and amount of stretch achieved.  Using blocks (usually to sit on) is good for helping people with less flexibility gain an effective seated posture.

Happy stretching!!

Lulu

• Ideally you want to do a 30% contraction. Try pulling in 100% first time, 50% second time and then 30% the third time

• Or, imagine a belt with ten notches. The first time you pull in tighten the belt to notch ten, the second time to notch five and the third time to notch three

• Imagine your belly button pulling backwards and upwards

• Imagine your hip bones drawing closer together like a concertina

• Imagine zipping up a tight pair of trousers

Hope this helps!!

Awareness during Pilates is about having mindfulness towards our body, our mind and our ‘self’. We aim to develop sensitivity towards the body and how it feels.

Awareness means being fully present in our body and fully conscious of how the body feels during the postures. We can attune ourselves to the bodies’ language and notice very subtle (or obvious) things about the body and mind during static and dynamic postures.

THE BODY

Things you may notice or become aware of during a Pilates session:

1. Weight distribution on your feet when you are standing
2. Weight distribution of the body when in lying postures or postures on the hands and knees
3. Changes in posture when you move the body e.g. when doing balancing on one leg, does the body sway back to counter balance?
4. Changes in tension in the muscles
5. The position of the shoulders, particularly in relation to the ears
6. The position of the ribcage and pelvis in relation to each other
7. The engagement of the pelvic floor and the core muscles
8. Your breathing (is it fast or slow? Are your breaths long or short? How is the ribcage moving?)
9. The flow and pace of your movements
10. Noticing if the body changes posture due to tightness in the muscles e.g. When doing a forward reach do the shoulders round to help you reach forwards instead of the movement hinging from the hip?
11. Weakness or instability

The practice of body awareness should not just be left at the Pilates class, you could try using your awareness in everyday activities like standing in a queue, sitting correctly and thinking about how the body is aligned when you are vacuuming!

THE MIND

Then maybe apply your awareness to the mind, ask yourself “What am I thinking?” Notice your thought patterns, we don’t have to think anything we don’t want to, we have a choice what we think and we have to realise that and practice using that choice. There is no use arguing or fighting with your thoughts, just realise that you can think what you choose. Just becoming aware of your thoughts in the first place is one step on the road to having a calm and clear mind and this will also purify the body.

THE ‘SELF’

Awareness is also related to the self, which I like to call the soul. Our busy minds and lifestyles pull us away from connection to our soul. The route back is through awareness, starting with awareness of the body to awareness of the mind and through meditation or stillness we gain awareness of the soul or our inner self. Pilates helps with our awareness through stillness and relaxation and by using breathing techniques with body and mind awareness during the postures.

The development of awareness is multi layered, it is a life long practice, and we can never have too much awareness!

The neutral spine position is one of the safest positions for the spine.

In this neutral spine position the natural curves of the spine are maintained to minimise stress on the spine and maximise balanced and equal muscular effort.

The neutral position is half way between a flat back position and a hollow back position.

Neutral spine position is the starting point to all Pilates exercises.

I am doing a course in a couple of weeks on spinal loads and stability and pelvic loads and stability so there will be more info to follow!

Lu

It is fundamental to Pilates to have a correct standing posture. From a good standing posture we can work to heal problem aches and pains in the spine and we can strengthen the core. All standing exercises in Pilates should have a good standing posture as their base to start from. Below is a diagram of ‘correct standing posture’ and some tips to work with to achieve it.

Standing posture includes alignment of the head and neck, shoulders and shoulder girdle, spine, ribcage, pelvic girdle, hips, knees, ankles, feet, elbows, wrists, and hands.

1. Stand with your feet underneath your pelvic bones, weight even through both legs

2. Feet are parallel to one another (like you are standing on a narrow train track)

3. Weight is even over the area of the foot, there are three mains points on the foot – the ball of the foot, just underneath the little toe and down through the heel. Spread the toes out

4. Align your second toe (the one next to the big toe) with your knee and pelvic bones

5. Neutral pelvic position is when the pubic bone and the hip bones are in line vertically

6. Keep your knees soft, neither ‘locked’ nor bent

7. Lengthen your torso and neck, visualise that the space in between each vertebrae is increasing from the base of your spine to the crown of your head

8. Engage navel to spine to keep the neutral pelvic position

9. Lengthen the space between your pelvic bones and your ribs (without sticking your ribs out)

10. Keep your eye gaze forwards with your chin parallel to the floor

11. Relax your shoulders down away from your ears, keeping your shoulder blades pointing down towards your buttocks

12. Open your chest

13. Where your hands sit at the side of your body your middle finger should be level with where the seam on your trousers sits

Now you’re ready to practice lateral breathing and standing postures – well done!!

So, finally we want to build up endurance in the muscles.  This will happen with time, the stronger the core muscles become the more we will be able to do.  We are using the mind to get the body to adapt to better ways of moving, the correct way of moving.  We will no longer be wasting energy holding on to unnecessary tension or moving inefficiently.  Once these ‘muscle memories’ are in place we can focus on endurance.

There are many factors that make the body tired; not using it correctly is the main one.  Pilates will give you more awareness of what is happening in your body for you thus helping you to overcome your barriers.  You can open up the lungs improving your breathing, flushing out toxins and calming the mind, stand taller and for longer, sit comfortably and create a bank of knowledge on how to heal your body through correct movement.

It is good to practice Pilates in your every day life; it is not just for the mat.

1. Stand with your spine in neutral at the bus; extend through the crown of the head

1. When sitting at your desk, let your shoulders fall away from your ears, try not to cross your legs, feet evenly weighted on the ground.

1. When the children / husband / wife are testing your patience, take a few deep breaths and calm the mind down, you will be surprised at how it can change your responses.

1. In the gym or swimming, think about your alignment and correct use of the body.  It would be silly to undo all your hard work by pulling yourself out of line whilst walking on the treadmill.

I hope you have enjoyed the eight principles of Pilates and can use the information to balance yourself.

Sending you positive energies from India and looking forward to sharing my light with you on my return.

Safe journeys (physical and spiritual), wherever they may take you over the festive season.

Eat well, sleep well, and do some exercise!!

I will upload some basic routines that you can try at home to keep you busy, keep posted.

 In Pilates we make natural movements but concentrate on performing them correctly. 

The movements are graceful (Men – don’t be afraid to be graceful!).  The postures are performed slowly, lengthening away from the strong centre so we can concentrate on control, strength and correct alignment.

We DO NOT twist into awkward positions or strain, If you feel that you do in some postures please do the alternatives I offer (maybe dropping down a level), we should never feel stressed during a class.  If the alternative still causes you problems just stop and rest, we should all move at our own pace in the class, listening to the timing of our own breath.

So next time you are practicing enjoy the flow of the movement, visualise the shapes your bodies are making, point the toes, straighten the legs and take pride in your graceful bodies (men included!).

This is where it gets complicated!!  We have mastered lateral breathing; we have aligned ourselves correctly and created a strong centre.  Now we need to learn how to add movement while keeping a strong centre.

This is not easy at the start, but persevere.  The more you practice the body will remember what to do, it becomes part of your ‘muscle memory’.  The brain remembers sequences of movements so we need to keep ourselves aligned to use the body correctly.

Practicing how to keep a strong centre whilst moving is great for mental and physical training – kind of like rubbing your tummy whilst patting your head!

We normally start with smaller movements and build up to more complicated ones.  We use the legs and arms as resistance and load (instead of weights).

Repeating good patterns of movements will aid us change the way we move for the better.

By hollowing the stomach – bringing the navel towards the spine – we activate the central core muscles, namely: transverse abdominals (TA), Multifidus (deep back muscle) and the Pelvic Floor.  When these muscles engage they form a natural corset if you like, together they make a strong centre by which we are able to move safely and keep the back protected.

The action of ‘navel to spine’ starts with the pelvic floor and then the lower abdominals engage.

The best way to do this is:

1. As you breathe out, draw up the muscles of the pelvic floor and hollow the lower abdominals back to the spine.

1. Sometimes described as ‘Zip up and hollow’.  Imagine you are wearing tight jeans, use the inner core muscles to pull the tummy back so you can do the jeans up!

It is important not to grip the muscles too tightly as this will cause tension, try to ‘hollow’ the abdomen instead of gripping.

As a general rule these stabilising core muscles should only be held at 30% of their maximum.  A good way to visualise this is to imagine you have a lift inside you, you can bring the lift (pelvic floor) right up to the 10^th floor and then lower it down to about the third floor (inside of you!) and this is 30% contraction of the core muscles.

Once you have a strong centre you can add movements like extension, rotation (twisting) and flexion (bending forwards).

The core of the body is not only our stability centre; it is also our energy (chi) centre.  So a strong centre is good for our whole wellbeing and vitality.

So, by now we should be relaxed, focussed and aligned. Next follows the breath.

It is good to stand in front of a mirror and observe the way you are breathing. Take a big breath and see what happens, do your shoulders rise up round your ears accompanied by a heaving chest? This is an inefficient way of breathing.

We want to breath wide and full into our back and sides, this is called ‘lateral breathing’. Our lungs are situated in the ribcage so by expanding the ribcage we can increase the volume of the cavity, which also increases the capacity for oxygen intake. Also by breathing laterally we can maximise use of the lower part of the lungs. Lateral breathing works the muscles between the ribs, this helps make the body more flexible, it also enables us to stay centred (balanced) as we move.

The lower part of the ribcage expands wide as you breathe in and closes down as you breath out.

How to practice lateral breathing at home:

1. Sitting or standing, wrap a scarf or towel round your ribs, crossing it over at the front.

2. Hold the ends of the scarf or towel. Keep your shoulders relaxed and your elbows open. Pull it tight gently, breathe in wide and allow your ribs to expand the material.

3. As you breath out allow the breastbone to soften. You can gently pull the scarf or towel in to help you empty your lungs and relax the ribcage.

4. Repeat up to ten times

Watch points

1. Keep your shoulders down
2. Do not lift the breastbone too high
3. Take natural easy breaths
4. Stop if you become dizzy

The timing of the breath is also important in Pilates exercises. The movements can be helped or hindered depending on if you breathe in or out. Having said this, please don’t worry too much about the breath, the pattern of breathing will come in time, keep focussed on correct alignment and movement first.

All Pilates exercises are designed to recruit the correct muscles by using the breath. Most people find the breathing difficult at first, especially if you are used to different styles of breathing within different exercise disciplines.

To make it a little easier as a general rule we:

1. Breathe in to prepare for movements
2. Breathe out, pull navel to spine, then move
3. Breathe in to recover

Moving on the exhalation allows us to relax into the postures and helps us release tension. Breathing out gives us strength during the hardest part of the movement, it stops us from holding our breath, which stresses the heart.

I hope you can all breath a little easier now!

So, now that we have relaxed, arrived on the mat, focussed our concentration ready for the practice.  The next step is to bring the body into good postural alignment.

In the practice of Pilates we constantly remind the body of how it should be standing, sitting or lying.  When we move correctly in the correct posture we can gradually bring the body into better alignment.  This is essential if we are going to restore proper muscle balance.

If you exercise without thinking about the correct position of your joints, you risk stressing the joint and building imbalances into the surrounding muscles.

It is not just the area we are working that needs to be in good alignment it is the whole body e.g. it is good to focus on the leg movement in the hip socket when performing a leg lower, but if while doing this we tense up our neck and shoulders we will be stressing them and pulling them out of alignment.

You must have your bones in the right place to get the right muscles working, in that way we build the muscles so that they will support the joint not stress it.

Follow this checklist to help you align your body correctly:

1.  Extend through the crown of the head, tucking your chin in a little

2.  Allow your neck to relax

3.  Keep your shoulder blades down into your back, shoulders away from your ears

4.  Keep your breastbone soft

5.  Lengthen up through the spine

6.  Elbows open (also helps aid energy flow)

7.  Pelvis in neutral (not tilting forward were you would stick your bum out or tilting backwards were you would collapse your chest and shoulders inwards) 

8.  When you bend your knees they should bend directly over the centre of your foot 

9.  Feet hip width apart, legs parallel 

10.  Keep the weight even on both feet; do not allow them to roll in or out

Nearly all exercises (sitting, lying or standing) are performed from the neutral position, so it is very important to get it right.

I hope you are all walking a little taller and straighter now, still don’t forget the first principle – relaxation, otherwise we will look like we have left the coat hanger in our clothes!

Number four of the Eight Principles is breathing, I know you all can’t wait for it, but please remember to breathe until then!

Best wishes, stand strong

I hope you enjoyed the relaxation, now that your body is relaxed you are ready to begin the practice.  Relaxing the body will help you to focus.  It is at this point that we need to remember that it is the mind itself that builds the body.  Pilates is a mentally conditioning programme as well as physical. 

Pilates requires us to be constantly aware of how we are moving, it requires us to focus our minds on each and every movement that we make.  It develops the body’s sensory feedback, in simple terms that means we know how our bodies sit in the space and what we are doing with every part of our bodies – body awareness / spatial awareness. 

When you practice Pilates often or get used to certain postures you may find the movements becoming automatic, if this is the case, try concentrating a little more because there are always higher levels of awareness to reach. 

Remember principle number one – Relaxation.  I will be walking round to smooth out any concentration-lined brows!! 

Relaxation is the key to Pilates, unlike other exercise routines in Pilates we start with relaxation.  Relaxing enables us to start fresh with the practice, leaving behind any of the stresses from your day (if practicing in the evening) or preparing ourselves for the day ahead with a calm and aware mind (if practicing in the morning).

By recognising areas of tension in your own body and learning how to release them you will start to activate the correct muscles to do the exercises.  If we do Pilates when holding tension in the body we will use the wrong muscles and never break the cycle of using the body badly and hurting ourselves.

Most of us hold our tension in the back, neck and shoulders, also in the hips if we sit down a lot.

So, the aim of Pilates is to enable us to become more aware of our tension and learn how to release it.  Using the breath is the most effective method of doing this.  With every inhalation we can breathe light and kindness to the areas that need it and with every exhalation we can breathe out the tightness, aches, pains and tension, sending them down through the base of the body (feet or sitting bones) and away into the mat.

Take yourself on a journey through the body and slowly release each area of tension.

Smooth the brow, soften the face, loosen the jaw, and rest the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

Drop the shoulders away from the ears, feel the weight of the arms, loosen the hands.

Release the grip in the thighs, rest the knees, and soften the ankles.

Melt the body down into the mat, think of body as water pouring into the mat.

If you spend a couple of minutes everyday doing a few deep breathes and visualising this softness and smoothing down of the body, we can release a lot of tension and become stress free individuals!!

Happy relaxation – ENJOY!!