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Discover helpful tips and strategies for getting the most from your Pilates exercises to improve your ability to bend and articulate every segment of the back smoothly and easily.
I’ve been on a rant the last couple of weeks with my Pilates clients with the goal of helping them to improve their 100’s curl, as well as getting better articulation through the upper back on exercises like the Roll Up, Teaser, and Neck Pull – Three challenging exercises for most beginner Pilates clients..
If you observe participants executing any of the above Pilates exercises, you’ll either notice smooth, sequential articulation of the spine – in which case the exercises are easy! Or the head leads, then the next place the body bends is almost at the waist! When this happens, the upper body is moving as a “chunk.” Instead of the back muscles releasing and breastbone softening to help the front of the body bend forward more effectively.
When the whole upper body is held stiff, it completely restricts smooth movement, and makes it difficult to properly engage the abdominals for effective core support.
Here are my Ah-Ha revelations, a couple of preparatory exercises , and helpful tips that I’ve found useful to help my Pilates clients free up their upper body and improve their ability to bend forward with ease for all of their Pilates Exercises.
Continue reading ‘Helpful Tips To Improve Pilates Exercises’ »
Tags: Flexion Exercises, Forward Bending Exericses, Pilates Exercise Tips, Pilates Exercises
Posted in Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on August 17th, 2010.
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I’ve seemed to have a flurry of issues with Pilates clients lately who are dealing with neck pain. And with the Optic Neuritis that I’ve been dealing with for the past 6 months, the tension in my neck has been an issue too! Whether we end up with increased neck pain from an accident, injury, or just how we use and move our body for work and daily life, chronic neck pain, is no fun and literally a pain in the neck!
Pilates exercises done correctly are excellent for strengthening core muscles for support, which over time helps to reduce neck tension. However, sometimes getting started – newer Pilates participants can aggravate a neck problem, by not understanding, or having the strength and flexibility needed to support the body well and keep the stress out of the neck. If you’re doing any exercise and you begin to feel stress or strain in your neck –Stop! Better to take a break, then start to use muscles that shouldn’t be doing the work and continue to aggravate neck issues. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of exercises that can be done without neck pain. The challenge is finding the right exercises for your body to start with, and continue to progress.
Continue reading ‘Six Easy Ways to Reduce Neck Tension during Pilates Exercise with Better Breathing Habits’ »
Tags: Breathing Tips, neck pain, Neck Strain, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Exercise Tips, Reducing Neck Tension
Posted in All Posts, Breathing, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on August 16th, 2010.
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One of the biggest challenges with the Pilates Matwork Side Leg Series exercises is keeping the body still. All of the Pilates Mat exercises that lead up to this point (with your back on the mat) are to prepare you to lay on your side and still be able to hold things together!
The Pilates side leg series exercises have many great benefits! 
- Increased Hip Strength
- Improved Hip Joint Mobility
- Leg Flexibility
- Improved Core Stability
- Increased Body Awareness
- Improved Gait Mechanics
Here are 5 things you can practice to help keep your body still and improve the free swing of your legs on all of the hip and leg exercises in this series:
Continue reading ‘Pilates Fitness Tips for the Pilates Matwork Side Leg Exercises’ »
Tags: Aliesa George, Centerworks Pilates Matwork, Hip Exercises, Leg Exercises, Pilates, Pilates Exericse Tips, Pilates Fitness Tip, Pilates Mat Exercises, Pilates Matwork
Posted in Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on August 13th, 2010.
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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.
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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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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.
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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!
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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. |
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Standing Footwork Exercises
The standing footwork exercises are a wonderful way to work your ankles and improve your balance all at the same time!
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- Rise on your tippy-toes and then lower your heels 8-10 times.
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- Bend your knees, lift your heels, straighten your knees (staying high on your toes) then lower the heels 8-10 times.
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- 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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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