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Posts Tagged ‘Pilates Exercise’
Have you ever thought about what your tongue is doing during exercise? Do you realize that what your tongue is doing in your mouth can really make a difference for improving Pilates exercise technique, reducing neck tension and neck pain, and improving functional movement?
If you or your Pilates clients are interested in: Better breathing habits, reducing neck pain / neck tension, improving the execution of exercises that articulate the spine, freeing up the whole body for flow and ease of functional movement. Then I recommend that you play with, introduce, and think about what the tongue is doing in your mouth during a workout.
Continue reading ‘Reduce Neck Pain and Improve Functional Movement: The Benefits of Exercising the Tongue During Pilates Exercises’ »
Tags: Aliesa George, breathing technique, Centerworks, diaphragm exercise, exercise to reduce neck pain, exercise to reduce neck tension, improving functional movement, Improving Pilates exercise technique, improving Pilates exercises, improving side bending, improving spine extension, improving spine flexion, improving spine rotation, increasing back mobility, Pilates and Tongue, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Exercise Tips, Pilates workout tips, Reduce Neck Pain, Reducing Neck Tension, tongue and breathing, Tongue exercise
Posted in All Posts, Pilates, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 31st, 2012.
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Today I want to share with you a Pilates Ladder Barrel exercise that is excellent to help release tight hip flexors and stretch the hamstrings. Both of these muscle groups tend to be tight and in need of improved flexibility. Increasing joint range of motion at the hip will help you walk & run more efficiently with a longer stride, stand up taller with better posture, and avoid back pain, hip pain, and risk of injury.
Continue reading ‘Pilates Ladder Barrel Exercise: Runner’s Stretch To Improve Flexibility for Tight Hip Flexors & Hamstrings’ »
Tags: hamstring stretch, Hip Flexibility, Hip Flexor Stretch, Hip Mobility, hip stretch, Improving Hamstring Flexibility, Leg Stretch for Walking, leg stretches, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Ladder Barrel Exercise, Pilates Runner's Stretch, Runner's Stretch, Sports Stretch
Posted in All Posts, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips, Videos by Aliesa George on April 4th, 2011.
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Increase flexibility and mobility for your arms, shoulders, spine, and hips with this effective Pilates Spine Corrector exercise. Discover a great way to use the Pilates Arc Barrel to stretch one whole side of the body. Improve shoulder mechanics, while strengthening hip extensor muscles and stretching tight hip flexors.
This is one of my favorite non-traditional Pilates barrel exercises. I love this exercise for a supported whole body stretch. It helps to benefit improved shoulder mechanics, maintaining/improving core support, increasing lateral flexibility of the spine, and finding the balance between the work needed to strengthen hip extension while stretching the hip flexors and front of the thigh. It feels GREAT!
Continue reading ‘Pilates Arc Barrel Exercise: Side Bend with Hip Extension’ »
Tags: flexibility exercise, hip extension exercise, hip stretch, Lateral Spine Stretch, Pilates Arc Barrel, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Spine Corrector Exercise, shoulder mobility, shoulder stretch
Posted in All Posts, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Videos by Aliesa George on February 16th, 2011.
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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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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.
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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.
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I recently received a question from Kylie, a fellow Pilates teacher, regarding snapping hip syndrome and what to do to make it go away during exercise.
Here are her comments and question:
“I have some very hip flexor dominant students that suffer from hip click in quite a few of the Pilates exercises, big one being Leg Circles and virtually anytime they extend their legs out away from the body. I cue to bring balance with the antagonist muscles (tva and Glutes) but am still having issues. Could you guide me in helping these people a little more effectively? (I do ask them to stretch with a lunge prior to class, and even do a recumbent jazz attitude movement before leg circles.) So is there something I am not seeing or doing? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.”
I then dove into a folder on my computer to find an article in hiding that I had written, but never posted on my blog – think I may have posted in on a Podiatry forum where I read a clicking hip question! Interesting to me that Podiatrists are also dealing with this issue with their patients. It doesn’t do anybody any good for me to keep things a secret! So I hope that for those of you out there challenged with clicking hips – you will find some of this information useful. Please let me know how it goes with teaching or doing Pilates exercises and using this info to get out of the hip click!
Here are my thoughts:
Continue reading ‘Pilates Exercise Focus – How To Fix a Snapping Hip’ »
Tags: Add new tag, Clicking Hips, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Matwork Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips, Popping Hips, Snapping Hips
Posted in Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on August 17th, 2009.
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I’ve been focusing a bit more on my own Pilates workouts lately – and it’s such fun to discover new things about the same old exercises I’ve been doing and teaching now for fifteen years! It’s never boring, and regardless of whether I’m teaching a client, or giving myself a workout – I’m amazed at what I continue to learn about the benefits and subtleties of the Pilates system.
Here’s my revelation for the week! (or perhaps it’s just today’s revelation – and something else will pop up eager for me to share tomorrow.)
I’ve always cued my clients to begin learning their exercises with the awareness of working within the framework of the Pilates “Box.” Think about the torso from shoulder to shoulder, and hip to hip. Every exercise starts from the center of the box, moves away from, and back to center. The farther away from center you move, the stronger you have to be to maintain balance, control, and core support for your exercise or movement. Feeling where the corners of the “box” are help create an awareness of being evenly distributing your weight and staying centered. Great concept!
So when the knees bend in towards the chest on any exercise where should they go?
Continue reading ‘Knees Over Chest Is Best – For Getting Great Benefits from Pilates Training’ »
Tags: balance, body awareness, control, core support, exercise program, Fitness Training, flexibility, Health, health and fitness, Pilates, Pilates Box, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Matwork, pilates method, Pilates System, Pilates Teaching, Pilates Workout, Pilates-Teaching Tips, strength, Wellness
Posted in Pilates, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on March 23rd, 2009.
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Considering the large number of clients I’ve seen with chronic back and neck pain, and the great results they’ve had from participating in Pilates programs with me, I strongly agree with the findings from this recent research article I read in SOAP notes from PT Products.
Continue reading ‘Pilates Exercise Programs for Chronic Back and Neck Pain’ »
Tags: Back Pain, exercise program, neck pain, Pilates, Pilates Exercise
Posted in Health by Aliesa George on February 4th, 2009.
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Wii Fitness… What Fun!
I may be a bit behind the times when it comes to enjoying the fun and benefits of all the new interactive video game products on the market – like the Nintendo Wii Fit… but recently my techno-geek boyfriend purchased a Wii Fit for home. (He’s had one at work since they first hit the market.) Being a bit shy about actually getting a computer to do what I want, for me is intimidating, never mind the hand-eye coordination it takes to “win” a computer game…..I was never any good at these games as a kid.
I have to admit my extreme skepticism about the benefits of staring at a TV screen and using a computer game for fitness. But am always excited to hear about new ways to inspire and encourage people to increase their exercise and activity level, and ANYTHING that people enjoy doing that involves movement can be a great way to improve health and fitness.
Continue reading ‘Health Benefits, Fun and Fitness with Nintendo Wii Fit’ »
Tags: balance, Baseball, BMI, body awareness, Body Mass Index, body mass index bmi, Bowling, Boxing, computer game, exercise program, Fitness, fitness activities, fitness products, Fitness Training, flexibility, games, Goal Setting, Golf, hand eye coordination, Health, health and fitness, health benefits, health status, interactive video game, muscle strengthening, Nintendo, nintendo wii, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Workout, Posture, posture improvement, skill challenges, strength, Tennis, video game products, Weight, Wellness, Wii, Wii Fit, workout, workout program, workout time, yoga
Posted in Health, Pilates by Aliesa George on November 30th, 2008.
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