For Tessa
Welcome to a special Teaser Tuesday Edition of the blog!
The Teaser is our most iconic Pilates exercise. Perhaps the Hundred is slightly more infamous but many a Pilates student wears a successful Teaser like a mark of valor.
The Hundred is tolerated, but you can talk smack if you've got a killer Teaser.
I love this exercise. It feels good to fully embody your oppositional forces, doesn't it?
I'll trade my fondness for writing ‘2-way stretch' for a new favorite: global stretch of the back of the body.
Oh God, that's good.
Even typing it made my back feel a weensy bit delish.
You too can be an apparatus!
First a bit of a tangent (not a tangent).
In a recent post I talked about how to be your own Spine Corrector.
The skills we learn on each piece of Pilates apparatus work their way into our bodies. Joe Pilates is training us, right?
We use the apparatus to get support and assistance to do our exercises. Whatever we get to touch and contact we must use to our advantage.
OMG it's the premise of our beloved Pilates method!
I've been traveling for the last few months. Subsequently I do many, many Mat workouts.
Sometimes even on the Mat – essentially bereft of apparatus – we do get to touch something.
OURSELVES!
Well that came out wrong…
See? It's reminiscent of an apparatus…
Sure I've found the hand touching the Mat to be helpful, but surely that one on my head can help out?
All those hands-behind-the-head moves just might help me sit up taller and figure out where my head sits on top of my body!
This hand position is particular. Let's help it connect us to our center too.
Yes I've got all the skills and info I find on every apparatus in the studio built right into my body.
And then there's the apparatus called the Reformer.
Reform:
verb
1 a plan to reform the system: improve, better, make better, ameliorate, refine, alter, make alterations to, change, adjust, make adjustments to, adapt, amend, revise, reshape, refashion, redesign, restyle, revamp, rebuild, reconstruct, remodel, reorganize.
2 after his marriage he reformed: mend one's ways, change for the better, turn over a new leaf, improve.
Pilates: Things that make you go “Hmmm…”
Enjoy this short tutorial.
Thanks for watching!
Wanna experience the blog live and in person?
Here's a bit of what's cooking for 2017:
Thursday – Sunday May 11-14, 2017 Equinox, London UK
Contact Jayne O'Brien for more info and to register.
Friday – Sunday September 22-24 Pilates Mödling, Mödling Austria
Join me in Mödling, Austria just 20 minutes from the capital city of Vienna. This is an event not to be missed! I'll be offering lessons, mat classes and workshops. Workshops include: The Teaser: The Truth will Prevail, On the Order of the Pilates Mat Exercises and 3 Chairs + 3 Barrels = 2-way Stretch and more.
Contact Andrea Seipel for more info and to register.
October 7-8 2017 Everybody Pilates, Portsmouth UK
Contact Amy Kellow for more information.