| Home |
| Pilates
101 |
| Equipment
You Will Need |
| Exercises
for Beginners |
The Hundreds
and lungs. It requires that you coordinate your breath with the
movement, and be strong and graceful at the same time. It is
challenging, but the hundred is an easy exercise to modify (make
harder or easier).
Here's How:
1. Lie on your back with your knees bent, and make your shins and ankles parallel in height with your knees. For now, put your hands behind your knees.
Inhale.
2. Exhale: Bring your head up with your chin down and, using your abs, curl your upper spine up off the floor. Keep the shoulders engaged in the back. Your gaze is down into the scoop of the abdominal.
Stay here and inhale.
3.Exhale: At the same time, deepen the pull of the abs and extend your legs and arms toward the wall in front of you. Your legs should only be as low as you can go without shaking and without the lower spine jumping up off the mat. Your arms extend straight out low, just a few inches off floor, with the fingertips reaching for the far wall.
4. Hold your position.
Take five short breaths in and five short breaths out (like sniffing in and puffing out). While doing so, move your arms in a controlled up and down manner - a small pumping of the arms.
5. Be sure to keep your shoulders and neck relaxed. It is the abdominal muscles that should be doing all the work.
Rolling Like a Ball
Rolling exercises are part of the
classic Pilates exercise repertoire. They create a unique abdominal workout where we have to use a lot of control to initiate and support the
movement. Rolling also gets the blood flowing, stimulates the spine, and coordinates the
breath and movement.
Here's how
1. Sit on your mat and clasp your hands over your shins, just above the ankle.
2. Drop your shoulders, widen your back and make a nice curve of your spine. Don't tuck your head, your neck is part of the long curve.
3. Lift your feet off the mat and balance on your sit bones.
4. Inhale: Pull the lower abs in and up to get yourself going and roll back. Roll back only to the shoulders, do not roll onto the neck. Pause.
5. Exhale: Stay deeply scooped and curved and use your exhale and abdominal to return to upright. Balance
Single Straight Leg Stretch
Single straight legs is an
intermediate Pilates mat exercise that challenges abdominal endurance and stretches the backs of the legs. Modifications for this exercise include leaving the head down,
bending the knees slightly, and increasing or decreasing the distance between the legs.
Here's How:
1. Begin by lying flat on the mat but with your legs extended toward the ceiling. Legs and heels are together in Pilates stance, rotated slightly outward from the hips.
2. Lengthen your spine, pull in your abdominal, and curl your chin and upper body up off the mat. The tips of the shoulder blades touch the mat.
3. You will maintain this upper body lift throughout the exercise. It is supported by the abdominal, not by straining the back or neck. Chest lift is a good building block exercise for this move.
4. Grasp your right ankle, or below the knee if you have tight hamstrings. Stretch your left leg out at a 45 degree angle.
5. You can adjust the angle of the outstretched leg to make the exercise more or less difficult. The lower the leg, the harder the abdominal have to work to maintain alignment.
6.Inhale: Gently pull your right leg toward you. Pulse the leg toward you twice, increasing your stretch.
7.Switch legs quickly.