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:

1. Heels lengthen away from the head
2. Tailbone tucks under and reaches towards the heels
3. Lower abdominals lift up and in
4. Glutes & Inner thighs squeeze
5. Shoulder blades pull down the back
6. 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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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!

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.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Why Does Where You Look During an Exercise Matter?

So why should it matter where our gaze goes during exercise?  Our head is basically an 8-10 pound globe on the end of a flexible straw!   In order to keep the weight of our head from creating more tension in the body (in unnecessary places like our neck and shoulders) it is important to do the following:

a) Support the head with the muscles of our upper abdominals and middle back during every exercise and daily life activities.

b) Pay attention to where we are looking during every exercise so that the head and neck can be in as “neutral” a position as possible to avoid neck strain, and improve body mechanics.

Examples of Eye Focus During Abdominal Sit-Up Exercises

Here are two photos for to help you “see” the difference in posture and body alignment for the upper body, neck, and head between an abdominal exercise with the eyes looking at the ceiling, and the eyes looking towards the belly.

Both positions are working the abdominals, but in photo #1 the head and neck are not in good alignment which will create increased stress and strain for the neck and back when she curls up off the floor.

Can you see in photo #1 that while her body is striving to bend forward to work her abs, her head and neck are not doing the same bending and flexing action? Instead, her chin is actually jutting forward which is shearing the neck bones farther out of good alignment!

If in photo #1 her eyes were looking towards her stomach, it would bring her head and neck into a more neutral position (similar to the vertical position for standing posture) The abdominals would be working harder, and she would be more freely articulating the full length of the spine to bend into flexion to maximize the benefits from her ab work.

If you asked participant #1 to continue rolling up to a sit, chances are she would get to a sitting position by using her back muscles, and almost hinge up with a flat or arched back, since her “line of lift” is to a high forward diagonal, or she would make it up just a little higher than she is now – and then use her back to get the rest of the way up, or get stuck – unable to go any farther and fall back to the mat.

Participant #2 has an eye focus that places her head and neck in the vertical “neutral” that we have for normal standing and seated posture. Notice how the curl of her body shape continues from her low back on the mat, all the way up the back and over the top of her head and around to her stomach.  She has a more circular shape to her forward bend.  If you asked her to continue bending forward to roll up to a sit, her upper body is moving in the right direction to make that happen, and she’ll be using her abs to get there!

Although the photos I’ve used as an example for body position and eye focus, the hand and arm positions are different, it really doesn’t matter where the arms are.  Whether they are reaching up, out, or forward to either assist or challenge the exercise, or the hands are placed behind the head for support, it’s the focus of the eyes that will best help improving the technique of the exercise and train the whole spine to improve mobility and articulation. (As well as provide an excellent and effective abdominal training workout!)

Practice and Apply the Principle of Eye Focus to Movement in Any Direction

In forward bending, or abs work, the eyes should be the initiators to begin the curl.  To move in other directions, the eyes may not “look” first, but as the rest of the body moves, and the head is going along with the movement– pay attention to your eye focus to assist and you’ll find less stress in your neck and shoulders, and perhaps freer movement through your entire spine from the tip of your tailbone all the way up to the top of your head.

Additional Benefits of the Eyes Looking Towards the Stomach on Abdominal Work

There are three natural curves of the spine in standing posture.

1   An arch in the lower back (lumbar curve)

2.  A forward bend through the middle back (thoracic curve)

3.  An arch in the neck (cervical curve)

These three curves help to provide shock absorption and balance the weight distribution of our body for improved posture, support, and movement.

The lumbar and cervical curves also act as a team.  If one is in an arch, the other strives for balance and moves towards the same arched position.  When you apply that thought to bending forward, it makes sense that to help the lower back release, lengthen, and stretch the body has to bend out of the arch and into more of a scoop or c-curve.  And to do this well, both the lower back and the neck need to move into flexion/forward bending.

The change in focus to look forward towards the stomach begins to move the head and neck in the right direction and cues the lower back to do the same.  When the eyes look towards the ceiling, since the neck is being held in an arch, the lower back will tense up to hold its arch too and the body really can’t do any effective forward bending exercise.  Paying attention to where you are looking can make an advantageous and positive difference in your ability to execute your Pilates and general fitness exercises to improve strength, flexibility, and mobility of the abs and back.

Use Your Eyes While You Exercise!

Enjoy efficient and sequential articulation of the spine.  Focus your gaze in the right direction to maximize your results. Not only will it help your head, neck and lower back become stronger and more flexible, but while you’re looking at your abs for the Hundred, Roll Up, Series of 5, and other Pilates or fitness exercises, you’ll be able to see if your abs are pulling in for support, and can watch them pull in farther with every repetition!

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!

Because you’ve indicated that the clients you are working with don’t have any structural or health issues that would be causing neck pain during their Pilates exercises, my guess is that mechanically they do not yet have full articulation through the spine for flexion and extension – especially through the upper back (thoracic region). And there’s a chance that even though they are strong, they may not be really using their core muscles as well as they could to support them.

When you evaluate standing posture position, is their head placement appropriate – ears over shoulders? Or are the ears slightly forward which would indicate a shearing of the neck bones, and will create more neck stress even in a vertical position.

If the head is forward at all, the natural curve of the neck is compromised. For that matter if the curves of the entire spine are not well balanced the ability for free and functional movement of the whole spine in any direction (flexion, extension, side bending, or rotation) will be compromised. Your clients probably won’t notice these limitations in extension, side bending, and seated rotation as much as they will for forward flexion, and exercises like criss-cross during Matwork – because when they lay on their back and have to hold their head up, or curl up AND twist, those are the exercises that makes their neck hurt!

If anyone has an issue with their neck – healthy or otherwise, I start making alignment changes from the feet! You can’t just realign a neck, because everything beneath it is a part of why the neck and head are sitting where they’re at. Fine-tune foot and leg alignment, then get all the curves of the spine to be functionally correct for both stabilization and movement, and you’ll discover that the head and neck have no choice but to happily follow along and end up well placed on the body!

There are definitely a couple of things that I always do, and look for, when I know that I need to help my Pilates clients get out of their necks.

Here are some things for you to consider when developing your Pilates exercise programs for your healthy clients that continue to be challenged with neck pain during exercise:

1. Go back to basics. There is some additional detail work that their body needs to continue improving technique. While the may be able to do wild advanced exercises – in the long run they will get more benefits from everything when they are better and more correctly supporting every exercise. This is easiest to work on during private sessions. If your clients are only participating in group classes, that is the first change I’d make. Encourage them to schedule some one-on-one training so you can help figure out what exercises, cues, and concepts need to be reinforced and corrected.

2. Evaluate their movement technique for a Standing Roll Down on the Wall.

I would place bets that your two clients drop their heads forward, then begin bending somewhere in the middle of their torso to fold forward, and that there really isn’t any articulation of the spine happening through the upper back. Since the breastbone is a solid vertical, if it is held rigid and you try to bend forward, the only thing that moves is your head and neck, resulting in neck strain. Then the articulation needed by every segment from T1 down to flex forward is skipped and the body folds forward somewhere around T12. This is not an ideal movement pattern; since we have so many Pilates exercise that require full articulation of the spine.

The breastbone should be pliable. To bend forward it should soften back towards the spine and slide down the front of your shirt. This allows the upper back bones to lift in opposition creating the space for good movement and that one by one articulation of each segment of the spine.

When the breastbone softens and slides back and down as the body bends forward into flexion, the shoulder blades should spread apart and each segment of the spine has the ability to move independently, so you can learn to peel your back away from the wall and roll forward one segment at a time. In reverse, to roll up – each segment lifts and stacks and is supported from below, the eyes stay looking at the front of the shirt for as long as possible to lift through the spine, through the neck, and then stack the head. Getting an understanding of this feeling of pliability with the breastbone and flow of movement when you’re not fighting gravity is helpful to keep stress out of the neck and begin changing bad habits.

3. Look at their eye placement during every flexed spine exercise. If their eyes aren’t looking in the right position, their head and neck won’t be in optimal alignment either.

Examples of exercises to pay attention to eye position:

• Pilates Matwork: The Hundred, Series of 5, Rolling Like a Ball, Open Leg Rocker, etc…
• Pilates Reformer: Hundred, Short-Spine Massage, Coordination, Back Stroke, Up Stretch, Stomach Massage Round, Short Box Round & Flat, Long Spine Massage, and Kneeling Knees Off are all good ones to spot check.

Basically you need to pay attention to their neck and whole-body alignment on every exercise they do!

Here are a few examples of what to look for and why it’s important:

Example: The Hundred

If the body is lying down and curling into say the 100 position, and the eyes are looking at the ceiling instead of the stomach – the head did not curl around the corner to flex the neck so that the higher abdominal muscles could weight-load the lift. If the cervical and thoracic spine flexes appropriately – the body should easily curl up to the bottom tips of the shoulder blades which places the head in a vertical position and held here with the abdominals, there is no stress or tension in the neck.

Example: Short Spine Massage / Long Spine Massage

These two exercises are very similar from the neck’s perspective. If the eyes look backwards to follow the line of the legs and feet lifting overhead, the neck is being pulled into extension, while the spine is bending into flexion to roll upside down. The neck or back will tense up to avoid injury and a strained or pulled muscle will result. Be sure that throughout the exercise, the eye focus is on the abdominals to allow the neck and upper spine to flex more deeply the higher the body lifts upside down.

Example: Short Box – Flat

If the eyes lead the movement to hinge backwards instead of the hips, the head moves backwards off the spine and the body arches back instead of hinging placing more stress on the neck and shoulders. Keep the eyes looking down and forward towards the toes, so that the head and neck just go along for the ride on a stabilized spine. This way the movement is correctly initiated from the hips and pelvis to go backwards and return to vertical.

4. Focus on exercises that move into forward flexion with gravity assistance to help find better abdominal support and allow the head and neck to hang forward and relax to create the space between the bones needed for better movement.

Pilates Exercise Examples:

Wall Exercises – Roll down on the wall

Spine Corrector – breathing over the barrel

Reformer – Up Stretch, Elephant Round, Kneeling Knees Round & Knees Off

Chair – Washer Woman, Pike, Cat

Pilates Cadillac / Trapeze Table – Kneeling Rolling in and out (the prep part – just rolling down and back up, or rolling down and doing the arm circles then rolling back up), Kneeling Cat with the push through bar, Push Through, Standing Roll Down with the roll down bar (2nd half of the Standing Squat exercise), Spread Eagle

There are lots of choices, and many other exercises I utilize to reinforce these concepts. Hopefully this short list will get your brain thinking about exercises that you know, or modifications you can do to work on this.

5. Change the arm and hand placement for exercises that roll upside down to assist in deepening the upper thoracic spine’s ability to move into flexion and practice softening the breastbone. If the arms are lying on the mat by your sides and you use them to actively push against the mat to roll the body upside down, you are actually cueing the back muscles to tighten and move into extension. Ideally with the arms by your sides all you should do is depress the shoulder blades and elongate the arms in opposition to the lift so that the shoulder blades can spread apart as the breastbone softens and the body bends to roll upside down.

Here are three options for arm placement to help articulation of the upper spine:

a. If you are on the Reformer – bend the arms behind the head and hold onto the back of the shoulder pads. Elbows will be in towards the body and pointing to the ceiling to help spread the shoulder blades wide.

b. If you are on the Reformer – lift both arms up to the ceiling while executing the exercises like Short Spine, Long Spine, and Pelvic Lift

c. If you are on the Cadillac and holding onto the upright poles, be sure that the arms are high enough on the poles to get the blades to depress and spread so you see the breastbone drop towards the mat into a more functional upper thoracic curve that is supported by the abdominals.

6. Spine rotation will facilitate improvement for both flexion and extension. If you’ve identified that the upper spine is not very flexible…you might want to incorporate additional rotation exercises into their program to assist in mobilizing the upper back.

Final Thoughts on Pilates and Neck Pain

No client should be in pain during any Pilates exercise.  It’s our job as a well-trained Pilates teacher to look at every client’s posture, alignment, and movement habits, as well as ask questions about daily life activities that may be contributing to any issue, so that we can make smart choices in the exercises we teach first, and progress into.

You’ve got lots of information to digest here! Hope that this helps you continue to develop your critical thinking skills for selecting the best exercises to assist your Pilates clients, and hopefully so new things to look at when you’re watching your clients and cueing corrections.

I’m always available for workshops, and it’s way more fun to actually work with bodies and see them change. Contact me if you’re ever interested in hosting a workshop!

And for all of my fellow Pilates teachers who are reading this, keep me posted on how it’s going with your clients, and let me know if you’ve found this information useful or helpful to add to your expertise!

Have a Fit and Fabulous Day!

Aliesa George

www.Centerworks.com