This simple exercise should give you an idea of how much you can achieve by posture alone. The next section, Applying the Principles, shows you in more detail how to achieve correct alignment and, just as important, how you use breathing in Pilates. Basically, in Pilates, you exhale on the effort – the opposite of many forms of sports and exercise when you breathe in on the movement. The inhalation in Pilates is used as a form of preparation and you do the work on the exhalation. This encourages your muscles to lengthen during the exercise and creates muscles that are strong but not bunched – instead, they become long and lean, like a dancer’s.
The exercises in this section are designed to help you find your correct posture and alignment so that you will be using the right muscles in the exercises that follow and so get the maximum benefit from them. It is worth coming back to these exercises on a regular basis just to check your alignment, and as a warm-up for the exercises in the later sections.
Roll Down Against the Wall
This exercise mobilizes and places the spine in its correct alignment. The more slowly you do this exercise, the better. Try to feel each vertebra as you draw it away or place it against the wall. You will find it is your abdominal muscles that do the work of controlling your body’s alignment – but you should also check that there is no tension anywhere (particularly in your neck, shoulders or back).
Stand 12–18 inches away from the wall with the knees slightly bent and the feet hip-width apart, toes facing forwards. Measure out the entire length of your spine against the wall (leaving no gaps), with the head held high on a long neck and the shoulders relaxed. Your arms hang comfortably at your sides. Draw your navel gently to the spine.
Breathe in and, as you breathe out, pull your navel towards your spine and drop your chin to your chest, feeling the stretch all the way through the neck and upper back. As you begin to mobilize the spine, the arms will move naturally – just let them hang, don’t try to place them.
Let the curve deepen so the back peels away from the wall in a long, relaxed curve, head and arms hanging until only the buttocks are touching the wall. Breathe naturally for a few moments as your body hangs upside down and releases into the stretch.
On the next out-breath, check that your navel is still drawn towards the spine and the pelvic floor muscles are pulled up, and rotate from the pelvis to bring yourself back to a standing position, feeling your back touch the wall vertebra by vertebra. As the back unrolls, feel the shoulders drop down naturally. The head comes in line with the spine, last of all. Check that your back is long, your neck and shoulders are relaxed and your ‘girdle of strength’ is working. Repeat the whole thing three times.
Finding Neutral
The previous exercise begins to mobilize the spine and work the abdominal muscles. This exercise builds on that by developing awareness of where your spine and abdominal muscles should be placed when you are exercising. This placement is vital to the accurate performance of the exercises that follow in the later stages.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, parallel (toes facing straight ahead) and in line with your hips. You can put a thin cushion under your head if it makes you more comfortable. Your arms should be relaxed by your sides with no tension in the shoulders or, if you prefer to feel the extent of the movement more strongly, place your hands on your abdomen.
You will find there is a natural curve in your back and – the extent varies from individual to individual – some of your spine will not be in contact with the floor. Now, curl your buttocks up and feel your spine flatten out along the floor. This is a pelvic tilt and, while it is needed in some exercises, in others it would distort the correct working of the muscles.
Now, replace your buttocks on the floor, curving in the opposite direction so that your back hollows out and widens the gap between your spine and the floor. Your abdomen will bulge out. This is a position you should never use – though it is a common postural problem – in which you cannot work your abdominal muscles and you can put a potentially dangerous strain on your back.
Return to the first position and feel your spine long and relaxed with a slight arch around the small of the back. Draw your abdominal muscles gently towards the spine, but without distorting it or moving the pelvis, so they are held lightly but firmly. This is your neutral position and, unless the exercise you are doing entails a pelvic tilt, this is the placement in which you will perform most of the movements.
Breathing Exercise
In Pilates exercises, you use the breath in a very specific way. For the most part, all movement and effort takes place on the out-breath, while on the in-breath you are either stretching, preparing or relaxing. Breathing in on the effort results in tension and bunching in the muscles, whereas when you make the effort on the out-breath, in the Pilates way, you elongate the muscles. This is particularly relevant to the strengthening and defining of the abdominal muscles – however, you must breathe slowly and deeply for the best effects. Many of us breathe shallowly and rapidly, our lungs failing to reach their potential to fill completely. This exercise helps you to breathe deeply, allowing the oxygen to circulate more efficiently through your body, and developing your awareness of the link between the abdominal muscles and the breath.
Lie on your back with a small cushion underneath your head and your feet up on a chair so that your knees form a right angle. Put a small cushion or rolled-up towel between your knees and keep it in place throughout. Check that your back is long and straight and there is no tension in the neck or shoulders. Place your hands on your abdomen so that your middle fingers are barely touching. As you breathe in, the inhalation should reach all the way down to the abdomen and part the fingers. As you breathe out, the fingers meet again. Try not to exaggerate this movement and do not push the abdomen out or arch in the back, but keep the spine neutral. Just try to feel the breath filling your body and relax. Repeat for 10 breaths. Use this type of breathing whenever you do a relaxation exercise.
Now place the hands on the ribs. Breathe in and, as you breathe out, engage the abdominal muscles and draw the navel towards the spine and feel the lower back lengthen out against the floor. Keep the abdominal muscles engaged as you take 10 long, slow breaths, feeling the breath fill and extend the ribs so that they expand outwards a little. With the abdominal muscles engaged, you will not be able to take the breath into the abdomen and this is the way that you should breathe in all of the exercises – virtually every one – in which the navel is drawn to the spine. You can also do this exercise sitting on a chair in front of a mirror so that you can observe the change in the body when you breathe into the ribs.
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