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.