March Matness 2016: Corkscrew

The Pilates Corkscrew exercise is a challenging one!  In it’s fullest expression you roll down your spine and gently twist while reaching your legs from your center. In his book, Return to Life, Joseph Pilates states,” Twist your trunk “corkscrew fashion”  ( hence the name!) If this exercise looks frightening and completely not doable to you- don’t be to alarmed!  Like all of the Pilates exercises there are plenty of versions of the exercise that allow you to learn the concepts taught in this exercise in a safe and doable way for your body!  Here’s a few of the main goals of the exercise:

  1. Stabilize your head and shoulders while reaching your legs away from you in a circle and rotating the spine.
  2. Keep your core muscles engaged and supporting your center while you challenge those muscles by reaching your legs away from you center in a circle.

So if you’re not ready to do the full Corkscrew exercise, where do you start?  Try keeping your hips anchored on the mat and reach your legs away from your center over your hips to a comfortable stretch place.  This may mean you still have a bend in your legs and that is just fine.  Start by drawing small circles with the legs gently squeezing together while trying to keep your abdominal muscles pulling in and up toward your spine.  You can challenge yourself by making bigger circles but be sure to not strain by going to big!  Check out the video below to see this version.

 

March Matness 2016: Rocker with Open Legs

The Rocker with Open Legs is another rolling exercise in the Pilates Mat sequence.  Remember the Rolling Like a Ball exercise that was so much fun?  You can think of Open Leg Rocker as the same exercise with legs reaching further from your center to make it a bit more challenging!

  • Start by finding your Rolling Like a Ball balance position and take your hands behind your legs on either the backs of your thighs, calves or maybe even ankles.
  • Extend your legs toward straight.  If you can’t lengthen them completely straight that’s ok- just try straightening them to what’s comfortable for you.  It will make this exercise more challenging than Rolling Like a Ball but allow you to find a working level for your body.
  • Holding this position use an inhale to roll back through the spine holding your shape, then exhale to roll back forward to your starting balance position.
  • Joseph Pilates suggested rocking 6 times in his book, Return to Life.

 

March Matness 2016: Pilates Spine Stretch

 

The Pilates Spine Stretch exercise is exactly what it sounds like…an exercise to stretch your spine!  If you are new to Pilates or haven’t tried this before you may find this concept of stretching your spine a little foreign.  By learning how to sequentially move and roll through our spine one vertebrae at a time we are able to decompress the spine while creating a feeling of stretching and lengthening our whole back body ( including your neck, back and backs of the legs).  Once you figure out how to create this Spine Stretch you will forever LOVE this exercise!

Find the feeling of spine stretch by curling forward with bent or straight legs and grabbing hold of your legs or even the toes or feet.  While holding on pull your abdominal muscles up and in toward you back to create a stretching sensation through your back body.  Try to recreate this feeling while doing your Pilates Spine Stretch Exercise.

  • Start seated and bend your legs as needed to create a “tall” spine.  Try to be on your sitting bones and imagine you are sitting tall against a wall
  • Use an exhale to curl your spine forward into the stretch and an inhale to stack back up to your tall spine one vertebrae at a time.
  • Check in with your shoulders when curling your spine forward and make sure they are not scrunching up in attempts to help you curl your spine!

March Matness 2016: Double Leg Stretch

The Pilates Double Leg Stretch exercise teaches you to use your center (ie core muscles) to maintain stability while you reach your legs away from your center and then pull them back in.

  • Make sure you only take your legs to your working level so as not to strain through your low back.  The level of your legs(how close they are to the floor when they are extended) in your Double Leg Stretch exercise will probably be very similar to your working level on your Pilates Hundred exercise.  You may notice that the portion of this exercise where your legs are extended is essentially your Pilates Hundred’s body position.
  • If lifting the head off the mat to curl up causes pain or strain you can leave your head on the mat.
  • Traditional breathing is an inhale to extend legs from your center and then an exhale to pull legs in to your chest.
  • As part of the original Pilates Mat sequence Joseph Pilates suggested starting with 6 of these to start with, eventually progressing to twelve

March MATness 2016: #OneLegStretch

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The One Leg Stretch(also called the Single Leg Stretch) is part of the famous Pilates “Stomach Series”.  This term always makes me laugh as I consider my entire Pilates workout a “stomach” workout!!  In Joseph Pilates’ book, Return to Life,  he suggests, ” 5 times on each leg(Later on the number of repetitions may be gradually and progressively safely increased to twelve times with each leg)”.

  • Maintain your working level by adjusting how low the outstretched leg reaches.  Reaching it upward will be more supportive and allow you to work without strain
  • Try to keep your leg in line with your hip when pulling it in and stretching it out.
  • Traditional breathing is inhale on one leg and then exhale on the other.
  • If curling up your head and upper back forward off the mat strains your neck, leave your head on the mat.

Practice What You teach: March Matness and Rolling Like a Ball (what could be better?)

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It’s March and besides getting excited about spring time weather and more sunshine I love getting to celebrate an entire month of Pilates Mat work with fellow Pilates geeks all over the world!  I made a commitment to participate daily in March MATness and even though it makes life a little hectic, it also reminds me of how much I love the Pilates Mat work and the method itself.  My commitment to post videos and blogs about the Pilates Mat work all month long really forces me to schedule play time into each day( rough huh?).  I love the playful, creative side of the Pilates work and nothing could be better than “having to” spend time each day playing with movements and trying to decide how I want to share them with others!

Needless to say my “workouts” this week have been very playful and I’ve been getting a lot of mat work in! Today’s March MATness exercise is probably my favorite Pilates exercise ever!  I have a lot of favorites but Rolling Like a Ball(also known as Rolling Back) tops my list as I love how it feels, I love how playful it can be and I love how super challenging it can be no matter how many times you do it!!  I of course include Rolling Like a Ball in my formal Pilates workouts but it’s also my favorite “sitting” position if I’m watching a movie, running a staff meeting or just playing with the kids on the floor!