Home » Centerworks Blog » Pilates-Teaching Tips
Archive for the ‘Pilates-Teaching Tips’ Category
Enjoy Whole-Body Strengthening Without Any Fancy Equipment!
A great body position on push-ups, makes the exercise so much easier to do! And with great technique you’ll be getting a lot more bang for your buck from every repetition to improve your upper body strength and fitness.
Push-ups in Pilates normally are done at the end of a Mat workout, but they’re a great exercise that you can do anytime, anywhere without any fancy equipment to maintain your fitness.
To Start the Exercise:
- Stand with your feet in a V-position, arms extended over your head.
- Walk your hands down the front of your body while you bend forward to reach the floor.
- Walk your hands out on the mat taking 3-5 steps to get into a long and strong push-up position.
While you are getting into your push-up position…the following things should happen in this order:
- Heels lengthen away from the head
- Tailbone tucks under and reaches towards the heels
- Lower abdominals lift up and in
- Glutes & Inner thighs squeeze
- Shoulder blades pull down the back
- Spine lengthens through the top of the head
To do a Push-Up and keep a great body position, the sequence of what happens is really important.
Inhale to lower the whole-body, exhale, pull the low belly up, shoulders down, then engage the muscles under the shoulders, around the ribcage and into the belly to help lift the body up while straightening the arms.
Here’s a video clip with my fitness tips and a Push-Up demo to help you improve your body position and Push-Up power.
Have Fun Practicing Your Push-Ups!
Tags: Chest exercise, Exercise Tips, fitness tips, Pilates Mat Exercise, Pilates Matwork, Push-Up Exercise, Push-Ups, upper body strength
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips, Videos by Aliesa George on February 22nd, 2010.
Discuss This Post: Leave a Comment »
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.
Discuss This Post: Leave a Comment »
If you’re one of those folks who has a tendency to lock your knees, and may occasionally be bothered with knee pain… Here’s a video with a quick and easy exercise you can practice just about anywhere to help strengthen the muscles around the knee joint, become more aware of the difference between a locked and unlocked knee, and learn how to stabilize a straight knee without locking the joint.
The benefits of this simple kneecap dance exercise include: Less time standing with your knees locked, stronger quadriceps, freer movement of the leg, and better tracking of the patella (knee cap), which all help to reduce knee pain.
Have fun playing with your dancing kneecaps!
Tags: Knee caps, Knee Exercise, Knee Exercises, Kneecap, Kneecap exercise, Locked Knees, Patella Exercise, reduce knee pain, Strengthen Knees
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates-Teaching Tips, Videos by Aliesa George on January 28th, 2010.
Discuss This Post: 1 Comment »
Are you interested in staying healthy and injury-free? Foot and Ankle strength, flexibility, and alignment is critical! Our ankles assist with balance, help us run faster, and jump higher. One missed step off a curb, or quick turn on the basketball court, soccer field, or during any other sports activity and if your ankle turns… you’ve got pain, swelling, and are sidelined from the activities that you love to do!
You don’t have to be plagued by chronic ankle pain and problems. There are lots of great ankle strengthening exercises that can help you get fit, and enjoy all the sports and fitness activities you enjoy participating in.
Here are 4 of my favorite ways to help be sure your ankles are in top training condition!
1.)
|
Pilates Reformer Exercises
Toes, Arches, Heels, Lift & Lower…The first four footwork exercises on the Reformer are excellent for strengthening the feet and ankles. Add in the five exercises in the Stomach Massage series, (Round, Hands Back, Reach, Twist, and Stretch) and running and you’ve done ten great ankle strengthening as well as some great whole-body, core conditioning in your Pilates Reformer workout program. |
2.)
|
Standing Footwork Exercises
The standing footwork exercises are a wonderful way to work your ankles and improve your balance all at the same time!
|
- Rise on your tippy-toes and then lower your heels 8-10 times.
|
|
- Bend your knees, lift your heels, straighten your knees (staying high on your toes) then lower the heels 8-10 times.
|
|
- Reverse this action of rolling through the feet (Rise on your toes, bend your knees staying on the toes, lower the heels, straighten the legs) 8-10 times.
|
To add variety to your Standing Footwork exercise program, these exercises can be done in a V-Position, Parallel, or One Leg at a time.
Bonus Tip: Watch your legs and feet in a mirror to be sure that your alignment stays great – Knees over ankles, ankles over toes…no wobbles. |
3.)
|
Theraband Ankle Exercises
Using a theraband is a great way to strengthen the foot and ankle with a little more resistance, but not have to work against your entire body weight. Line the band up lengthwise along the sole of your foot, and hang onto the ends with your hands. Practice pointing and flexing the foot, as well as doing ankle circles against the resistance of a theraband. Strive to work through a full range of motion in all directions for maximum benefits. |
4.)
|
Centerworks® Super-Ankle Board
Turning an ankle is one of the most common sports injuries, and the Centerworks® Super Ankle Board is one of the easiest ways to stretch and strengthen the medial and lateral sides of the ankle joint and reduce your risk of injury. The strength and body awareness you’ll gain with the Centerworks® Super-Ankle Board is what’s required to pull your ankle back to a centered position if it starts to roll out! Standard wobble boards do not work this range of motion or provide the reference points needed to ensure that you’re using the right parts of the foot and ankle for correct lateral/medial action. Use this Super-Ankle Board regularly and chances are slim that you’ll never blow out another ankle again! |
For Pilates Reformer workouts, find a studio near you. Everything else you can practice on your own at home or add to your current workout!  It doesn’t take a lot of time to improve ankle strength, just a few minutes focused on your feet a couple of workouts a week, and you’re on your way to staying healthy, fit, and injury-free!
You can find all of these great foot and ankle care products at Centerworks.com. Get a copy of the book Fantastic Feet with the Standing Footwork and Theraband  exercises. Buy Therabands from super-easy to advanced strengths, and get a Super-Ankle Board all online in the Foot Care Products section at the Centerworks store.
Tags: Ankle Exercises, Ankle Flexibility, Ankle Strength, Ankles, chronic ankle pain, Foot Exercises, Foot Strength, Pilates Ankle and Foot Exercises, Sprained Ankles, Theraband Exercises, Twisted Ankle
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Foot Care Tips, Pilates, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 27th, 2010.
Discuss This Post: Leave a Comment »
I posted a blog article related to the topic of reducing neck strain during Pilates matwork and ab training few weeks ago. Here’s a new video post in my Core Training series to discuss the same issue.
Neck strain, and occasionally pain, is something that is common during Pilates Matwork and general abdominal conditioning programs. And while feeling some work in the neck while those muscles are getting stronger, might be a good thing… When you’re really wanting to work on strengthening your abs, it’s a challenge to focus when you’ve got more pain in your neck than work in your belly!
Discover a very important tip that can help you reduce neck pain and improve core fitness for all your Pilates exercises and general fitness abdominal training workouts in this third video from my Core Training Tips series:
Enjoy!
Tags: Ab work, Abdominal conditioning, Abs, Core Fitness, Core Training, general fitness, Pilates Exercises, Pilates Matwork, Reduce Neck Pain, reduce neck strain
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 18th, 2010.
Discuss This Post: 1 Comment »
One of the biggest challenges for beginner (and sometimes) experienced Pilates students is being able to easily execute a full straight legged sit-up on the Pilates Mat exercises the Roll-Up and Neck Pull.
This modified ½ sit-back exercise is a great one to help gain strength and mobility to roll backwards to the mat with control, AND be able to efficiently roll back up to a sit – articulating through the spine and using the abs.
Discover fitness tips on how to execute a great half-sit back, and how this exercise can help strengthen your abs and improve your core fitness with this second video in my Core Training Tips series:
Tags: Core, Core Fitness, Core Training, fitness tips, half sit back exercise, Pilates Matwork, Sit-Ups
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 13th, 2010.
Discuss This Post: Leave a Comment »
If you are looking for ways to strengthen your core, and increase abdominal strength for Pilates exercises and sit-ups. Here is some information that you might find useful to improve your technique and get more out of your Pilates and fitness workouts!
Here’s the question…Are you using more of the fronts of your thighs, or your abs when you’re doing abdominal training exercises like a sit-up, crunch, or curl? Or on Pilates Mat exercises like the Hundred, Roll Up, Series of 5, or Neck Pull?
Our quadriceps muscles are so used to doing lots of work, gripping to support us, that it can cause the abs to slack off a bit and not have to work quite as hard. And while our goal might be to do core training to achieve a set of 6-pack abs, or to help keep our lower back injury-free, it’s not going to happen if our legs are doing most of the work on our sit-up exercises!
Check out my series of new core training tips videos on this topic and discover ways to improve abdominal strength, Pilates exercise technique, and fitness:
Tags: 6-pack abs, Abdominal Training, Abs, Core, Core Strengthening, Core Training, Fitness, fitness tips, Pilates Exercises, pilates mat, Pilates Mat Exercises, Sit-Ups, six pack abs
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 12th, 2010.
Discuss This Post: Leave a Comment »
I’ve been on a knee strengthening kick lately with my Pilates workouts, cardio fitness activities, and weight training program, all because I took a hard fall inline skating with my puppy a few weeks ago. So I’ve really been trying to pay attention to my habits and here’s what I’ve discovered and how I’ve been compensating because of knee pain.
Standing on one leg to reduce knee pain is one problem, but I began to notice an even bigger problem with my squatting versus plopping technique when I sit down in a chair and even on the toilet, ( I know…more info than you needed!)   BUT I believe that I might not be the only one out there who is falling down to sit down so the muscles around the knee don’t have to work.
In the long run…this bad habit will actually make the knees weaker, so it’s really important to pay attention to if you squat or plop. Good knees, bad knees, everybody’s knees will benefit from better squatting technique during Pilates Exercises, Weight room workouts, and just getting up and down out of a chair all day in daily life!
Check out this video for a few fitness tips to improve your body alignment, muscle use, and technique for stronger and healthier knees!
Tags: fitness tips, healthy knees, Pilates Exercises, Pilates workouts, reduce knee pain, squatting technique
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Health, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 8th, 2010.
Discuss This Post: 3 Comments »
By Aliesa George and Centerworks.com
It’s interesting the difference in perspective between traditional “Aerobic” class ab work and Pilates ab exercises. You know how everybody always complains that their neck hurts? Or they feel more work in their neck, chest, and shoulders than they do in their middle, which means it takes tons of reps of a variety of targeted exercises before you “feel” like you’ve really worked your abs?
While with Pilates Matwork, once you figure it out… you only do 3-5 of most exercises, and with good body mechanics your abs are well worked with this very low number of reps, and the variety of Pilates exercises you do are not only working your abdominals, but the rest of your body as well!
One of the differences between general fitness programs and Pilates training is in the focused concentration on working the body through a full range of motion, and developing good spine articulation from the head to the tailbone. Our back should easily and naturally bend forward, backwards, sideways, and twist at every single segment. The Pilates system puts the body through all of these different ranges of motion with every workout which is why it’s such a beneficial training method for whole-body health.
Tags: Abdominal Exericse, Core Training, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Training Tips
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on December 21st, 2009.
Discuss This Post: 1 Comment »
As Pilates teachers, our goal is to help our clients find, feel, and correct bad alignment, and muscle imbalances so that they can improve their whole-body health and enjoy life! It’s frustrating for us and them, when problems or pain lingers longer than we think it should. Chances are if a client walked through your door with pain, and it’s been there awhile – making changes isn’t going to happen overnight! But generally speaking – Pilates has fantastic things to offer for improving body awareness and developing new posture and movement habits to help pain and problems go away and improve your quality of life!
Here’s a Great Question about Neck Pain and Pilates that I received recently:
Hello: I receive your newsletter and I have to say thank you for your time and your commitment. I would really appreciate your point of view about people who practice Pilates for a very long time, but still feel pain in their necks, and this stops their progress in the work. I have two students with this problem. They are good physically (don’t have any structural problems in their bodies) which makes me think this is more than a physical problem. Thanks for your time! Any insights would be great. ~ Regards, Barbara
Thoughts from Aliesa George on Neck Pain and Pilates Exercises for Healthy, Experienced Students:
Neck pain during Pilates is a common problem for new students who don’t have great spine flexibility or the strength to get into a good curled up position for exercises like the Hundred, but I think it’s probably a more common issue than one might think for experienced students too!
Continue reading ‘Neck Pain and Pilates Exercise’ »
Tags: neck pain, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Teaching
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Health, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on October 27th, 2009.
Discuss This Post: 1 Comment »
