Hello and Happy January!
Thank you so much for your many sweet messages full of good wishes and kind words on my Pilates online content. Pilates is empowering. It’s full of power poses and measurable successes.
I want you to feel literally uplifted by your Pilates exercises and the care you devote to your most precious asset: YOU!
Pilates things I find Fascinating at the Moment…
Oh so much, really.
2022 continued my reexamination of key fundamentals, shoring up a few old (NOT) favorites: the Long Stretch Series, Short Spine Massage, and of course, my old pal the Roll Up.
This year, my Roll Up has a new friend, the Swan. Stay tuned for further exploration of how these two can play and coexist together.
Wunda Workout Inspo
This week’s workout started out like…
Hmmm…
That’s Pilates, right?
Things that make you go…hmmm…
So in the name of exploration, here’s what made sense to me as a Mini-Workout-on-the-Wunda:
- Pull Up
- Going Up Front
- Swan and the Swan that is Flying Eagle
- Star plus helper exercises: Kneeling Mermaid and Side-Lying-on-the-Floor Thingie (any name help here?)
- Side Pull Up
Let’s see what these exercises can teach me.
I’ll work all the Back Shapes (Round, Tall, Arch, Side Bend and Twist) in exercises where the Back Shape is supported/challenged by the pedal.
On the Wunda Chair the only way to go is up.
If I create a successful Back Shape using my oppositional forces, the pedal will move.
Remember you’re lifting YOU, not the pedal.
Fingers crossed.
Maybe I’ll add the Hundred and the Ab Five as my warmup before the Pull Up.
Footwork too. Always helpful.
Now I need a good closer…
The Mountain Climb.
It’s perfect actually: Round, Tall, and one side at a time.
Yay?
Here’s the final list:
- Hundred
- Ab Five
- Footwork
- Pull Up
- Going Up Front
- Swan and the Swan that is Flying Eagle
- Star plus helper exercises: Kneeling Mermaid and Side-Lying-on-the-Floor Thingie (sigh…any name help here?)
- Side Pull Up
- Mountain Climb
Have a great workout!
Jazzed about a brand new year and excited to refine your Pilates Foundation?
Join me this February 8-12 for my very first in-person Balanced Body Pilates on Tour event in Monterey CA.
I’ll be teaching my favorite Cadillac Workshop all about building a foundation with Cadillac exercises we know, love, and teach all day long. It’s a special apparatus that easy to love!
4 Responses
Hello- I really do appreciate your inspiration!
Lots to watch and participate but reading about Pilates goes a long way with me!
I hope you are safe and well, not wet.
Hi Suzanne –
Thank you so much for reading and for your kind words on this post 🙂 All is well and wet here – but today the sunshine came out and it was awesome! I so appreciate Pilates readers. Have a great day,
xox
Hi the side laying exercise on the floor with the chair, with leg out stretched one foot on the step. Can I please ask what you may notice in a client to give this exercise ? It looks like it could reach some complex areas, interest in your thoughts. Thanks
Hi Faith 🙂
Thank you so much for reading and for sharing your question here.
This is an excellent question!!
I love where your mind is that you would hope to see something in your student where you think – “Yes, this exercise would be perfect for this situation!” I always think this is the Holy Grail teaching Pilates – “We have an exercise (or an apparatus) for that very thing!”
I have a confession to make. Side Bending is a challenging thing for my body and for many MANY years I really avoided practicing exercises like these – they would just leave my brain until I saw someone else do them and then I would remember they exist.
So my thoughts are exactly like yours when I practice this exercise. I feel like the exercises we spend lots of time with are ones that we get to know intimately in our own bodies and then we recognize when and how to give them to others.
So I am working on this exact same question when I do the side-lying exercise.
I’ve probably been doing it regularly for about a month or so.
I encourage you to practice it too and see what you think.
So far I dearly want to say that for the right person, it could communicate that the work/lift/focus for the Side Kick Series on the Mat is in the trunk of the body and not the hips and legs…maybe… these are my initial thoughts.
I keep trying to rank its “difficulty level” – like, is it helping me learn to side bend, or is it a challenging/awkward place to bring your side bend? Would it make my Side-to-side on the Short Box better? Is the position specialized for the average person?
It’s got strong Side Sit Up vibes as well (another NOT favorite of mine). And you do have to get onto the floor… and be able to hold yourself up without undue burden on your arm. Kind of a lot going on…
TBH I have not given it to anyone that I teach yet…
So thanks for reading this long answer to your question.
My suggestion is to keep visiting this exercise and see what your body thinks about it.
I hope you found this to be helpfuol to you 😉 xox