Having great core strength means that you’ve got a balance between strong abs and a flexible back allowing you to move easily through each exercise during your Pilates workouts. A while ago I posted an article on my blog about improving abdominal strength and spine articulation with the benefits of adding pulsing to Pilates exercises. I had a couple of clients come for their Pilates workouts and ask me questions about how to do their pulses better to maximize core strength, so I thought this would be a perfect topic for a video post.
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Posts Tagged ‘Pilates Exercises’
Core Strength-Pilates Exercise Video for Abdominals: Little Pulses
Pilates Exercises for Twisting and Improving Rotation of the Spine
In a workshop a few years ago with my Pilates mentor, Dianne Miller, she made a comment that has really stuck in my brain.
“Twisting exercises facilitate improved flexion and extension of the spine.”
Don’t know why I never realized that little gem on my own, but how true it is.
Think about getting water out of a wet washcloth. We don’t just fold it over to get the water out. No, we twist it, then bend it to maximize wringing the water out. And if you think about it, that’s exactly what we’re doing in the Criss-Cross and Saw exercises during Pilates Matwork!
Not every spine rotation exercise needs to twist AND bend for maximum benefits. It’s important to learn how to just do good twisting first to get the whole back involved in the movement. Twisting exercises where the spine stays in a tall, neutral position are the best exercises to start with.
My favorite preparatory exercises for improving spine rotation in a lying down position are:
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Helpful Tips To Improve Pilates Exercises
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.
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Scoliosis: Brace, Fuse, or Exercise?
There is controversy over the use of braces to correct excessive curvature of the spine (scoliosis) in teenagers because research has failed to prove that they work. “Bracing is regarded as effective by some and as useless by others.” According to Stefano Negrini, MD the scientific director of the ISICO (Italian Scientific Spine Institute) in Milan.
The cause of most adolescent scoliosis is unknown. It affects 3-5 out of every 1,000 children, and is more common and more severe in girls.
Scoliosis can be:
- Idiopathic – Of unknown cause.
- Functional – From poor posture and body alignment habits.
- Structural – Caused by disease, or birth defects.
So why is bracing used if the experts aren’t positive it’s actually working?
Based on the severity some sort of treatment is required, because if left untreated damage to the spine, heart, and lungs can occur as an adult. Bracing is less evasive and still allows the option to strengthen the body through exercise and movement to balance and support the spine. The alternative option of surgery and spine fusion is a permanent and last-resort option to protect the health of internal organs and quality of life.
What else can you do to treat Scoliosis?
While studies so far show that none of these can prevent the progression of scoliosis, they may offer some relief of symptoms.
- Manipulation by a Chiropractor, Kinesiologist, or Osteopathic Doctor
- Electrical Stimulation
- Diet & Nutrition
- Exercise
The benefits of Pilates for clients with scoliosis
Over the years, I’ve had many clients with varying degrees of curvature of the spine participate in Pilates programs. And while there might not be documented research to the benefits of Pilates exercises for scoliosis…From my experience, I have seen amazing gains in strength, and mobility. The curves don’t go back to normal, but it is possible to learn how to strengthen the body and retrain some of the weaker muscles to better support the spine and achieve more optimal muscle balance. Plus increased body awareness of good and bad posture habits is vital to learn how to avoid falling into the poor alignment that the scoliosis curve would prefer. Spend more time using your own muscles to strive for good posture through Pilates and other fitness exercises, and you’re retraining the body for better health.
Looking at the Difference in Support Options
A brace is an external support for the spine. If the brace is doing the work, our muscles don’t have to work as hard (and in my opinion….may become weaker over time.) But if you don’t have the muscle awareness or strength to properly support the body all day long…bracing may be required to assist.
Spine fusion surgery creates permanent internal support for the spine. (While this might solve one problem, it has the potential to create others) And generally speaking fusion surgery is a last resort option.
Exercise strengthens the core and back muscles so your body can provide it’s own muscular support for the spine. Pilates exercises with the focus on core stabilization, and functional mobility of the spine in all directions – flexion, extension, side bending, and rotation, and should be considered as a primary care option to assist in improving health and supporting the spine.
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases continues to research and learn more about treatments for scoliosis to determine the best modalities for improved health. I hope in time, that more documented research into the benefits of Pilates for scoliosis will be conducted.
Practice Better Breathing Habits to Help Develop Improved Core Strength with Length (and Other Great Health Benefits)
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.
Core Fitness: Reduce Neck Pain for Pilates Matwork Exercises and All Ab Workouts
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!
Core Fitness: Improving Pilates Exercises & Sit-Up Technique
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:
Reduce Knee Pain with Pilates Exercises and Pay Attention to if You Squat or Plop
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!
Reduce Back Pain: The Benefits of Breathing as Taught in Pilates
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…
Discover how to reduce neck pain, and back pain with Pilates breathing techniques.
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