Breathing well is the first step in developing strength with length. If you have a hard time maintaining the length of your spine when you’re standing still, how the heck are you going to make it happen when you’re bending forwards, backwards, sideways, and twisting?
One of the things that keeps Pilates exercises so challenging, regardless of how long you’ve been doing them, is the concept of developing strength with length. The muscles of our abdominals and back are the ones that help provide the lift, length, and space between the ribcage and hip bones.
Here’s a video with a few thoughts on practicing better breathing habits to help improve your ability to be long and strong. Start practicing this, and then learn how to apply it to all of your Pilates exercises (and other fitness exercises) to get maximum health benefits from your workout program.
Tags: Breathing, Core Strength, Fitness, Health, Pilates Exercises
Posted in All Posts, Breathing, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on February 1st, 2010.
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I recently started taking a Yoga  meditation class to deepen my connection to center!
While Pilates exercises are excellent as a form of moving meditation to focus on feeling and activating the energy flow throughout the body,  it’s also important to find that still, quiet place for rest, rejuvenation, and contemplation on well - absolutely nothing, but altogether everything!
One of the biggest challenges with a meditation practice is learning how to quiet the mind and just be in stillness without the distraction of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of different ways to meditate and probably just as many techniques to assist in centering one’s focus.
This week I learned the benefits of the words Soham, and using So Ham as a mantra for  Yoga meditation.
Continue reading ‘Soham Mantra for Meditation’ »
Tags: Meditation, So Ham Meditation, Soham Mantra, Yoga meditation
Posted in All Posts, Breathing, Meditation by Aliesa George on September 24th, 2009.
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Back Pain is something that affects way too many people these days! According to the American Chiropractic Association, back pain is the fifth most common reason for all physician visits in the US, and the most frequent cause of activity limitation in people younger than 45 years old.
In fact according to the AMA, 70 to 85 percent of all people have back pain at some time in their life. Yikes, what a staggeringly high number of people, and I suspect that unfortunately, these numbers are probably going up rather than down!
As one of those in this majority, who suffers with congenital back issues, I have spent most of my life actively doing things to help keep my body strong, fit, and flexible. I have discovered over the years, that there are some things my body loves to do, and other things that are guaranteed to cause me grief. And what I have learned is that the more I exercise and stay active, generally, the better my back feels, and the happier and healthier my whole-body is.
Let’s face it, when your body hurts, it’s under stress.  While some muscle tension is good and appropriate to maintain posture and help us move around, overly tight muscles create unnecessary stress and too much tension which unfortunately can lead to back pain. When any of the bones in our body are held too tightly together by muscle contraction, or misalignment, freedom of movement will be restricted and over time, with the inability to enjoy free and easy movement, poor posture and pain can be the result. It’s no secret that stress causes tension…Â
Discover how to reduce neck pain, and back pain with Pilates breathing techniques.
Continue reading ‘Reduce Back Pain: The Benefits of Breathing as Taught in Pilates’ »
Tags: Back Care, Back Pain, Breathing, Breathing Exercises, Breathing Techniques, neck pain, Pilates, Pilates Exercises, Reduce Back Pain
Posted in Articles, Back Pain, Breathing, Exercise and Fitness, Pilates-Teaching Tips, Uncategorized by Aliesa George on August 19th, 2009.
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