The Pilates Mat exercises are helpful to use as a diagnostic tool on your Pilates Path.
Left to its own devices, bereft of springs, the body on the Mat lets you know…
“So…how’s it going?”
Are all your other exercises in the studio working to better your skills and therefore your Mat exercises?
My Mat tells no lie.
Way back in December 2019, I considered what nearly 20 years of Pilates has done to my Open Leg Rocker.
Read more about it here.
And wowza it’s that time of year again, January 2023, a time to make plans for the future and set even some modest Pilates goals for yourselves.
Is it going to be the Year of the Flying Squirrel for you?
A better Teaser?
A visit to the Wunda Chair?
Right now I am manifesting a better Swan all around the studio.
And you know – whatever you have your eye on – when one exercise gets better, they all get better. Yay!
The Teaser is a Cultural Landmark
Ok, fun fact:
I looked up ‘cultural landmark’ just to see if my title was way off base or reasonable.
Just curious, right?
Well.
The gist of the definition is ‘a feature related to a particular society and its customs, ideas, art,’ etc…which is ‘easily noticed’ and can be used to judge one’s position LOL
OMG
Spot. On.
2022 brought some solid progress and Teaser success for several of my Pilates enthusiast clients.
So satisfying to wrangle the Teaser.
What Makes a Teaser a Teaser?
Is a Teaser just the Roll Up in disguise… or vice versa?
I love the Pilates System.
The ability to look at one exercise through the lens of another (perhaps more enjoyable) exercise is empowering.
Balance Your 2-way Stretch with Rolling Exercises!
The Pilates System has a unique feature: rolling exercises.
So charming!
They are the ultimate in connection. To find success in a rolling exercise requires precise control and balancing of your oppositional forces, your 2-way stretch.
Too much of the lower body lands you on your head and neck; too much of the lift of your upper body crashes your legs to the mat.
But the coordination of forces working in tandem rolls you gently back and forth, massaging your back.
Nice.
This Pilates POV will allow you to explore a balance of forces in all your Pilates exercises.
What would the Teaser be like if it were a rolling exercise?
Spoiler Alert:
The Teaser is a rolling exercise.
Also an un-rolling exercise.
The Teaser: A Retrospective
This Teaser on the Reformer is from just a year ago in January 2022.
What do you see?
I see energy reaching out my toes, the body creating the shape of the exercise.
The upper body has a pretty good lift as well. Those straps, after all, are helpful.
Now let’s go back a bit to 2011:
What do you see?
From this angle, you can see there’s very little round in this supposedly round-shaped exercise. There is lift in my upper body, but the lower body lacks cohesiveness, it’s kinda in a couple of pieces and you can see my legs weighing on my back position and center.
My God, there’s nearly an arch in my back LOL how long has that been going on?
My quads are especially “fluffy” and are mostly hard at work keeping those legs aloft.
I do love those sunglasses tho…
Moving indoors, fast-forward to 2015:
What do you see?
Yes, there’s a lot that is different here.
My lower body has sort of gotten the idea that it’s responsible for the shape of the exercise, yay!
But now the balance of my oppositional forces tips in favor of the lower body and I look kind of congested in the low back and hips.
This is even more evident in 2016:
What do you see?
My brain knows this is a “round exercise” and I’m willing my body to make it wherever I can – and the lower body force overpowers my lift and gets what I call “confusion” or “congestion” in the low back and hips.
It also looks like the top of my leg is more connected to the front of my body at the hips than to the back of the body at the buttocks…
Moving forward to 2020 (oh no, do we have to?)
What do you see?
Less slumpiness in the low back for sure and more lift away from the lower body reaching into the shape of the exercise.
And finally here’s a Teaser I did today in January 2023.
What do you see?
I see that my back has more lift in it all the way from where it sits on the Mat. Nearly all of the middle back is on board for the round shape of the exercise – with maybe just a vestige of where that arch used to be more prominent. Now if you tip the photo so it looks like I am sitting doing Spine Stretch Forward, it actually looks a bit like Spine Stretch Forward in my stomach.
That is big news!
The energy reaching out of my feet is still strong but now the legs have a lower placement in the air and are slightly more connected to the back of my body than in previous photos.
OMG, I may be using my seat…
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Changing the body’s years of movement habits is not speedy.
But so worthwhile.
As they say “Rome was not built in a day,” but I also bet they worked on building it Every. Day.
So collect your photos and videos and use your Pilates eye.
Let your workout become a valuable and economical extra teacher!
It’s hard to keep the faith with yourself sometimes, I know.
I find the most difficult part of any workout is simply lying down to begin.
Once you’re there you’re golden! ”Right…I like this stuff…”
I like to help myself out by booking into online classes each week.
Join my Group Workout Classes in-Studio or Online!
Bring your workout to one of my classes.
Group Workouts meet every day Tuesday through Friday.
Special Event on Saturday, March 25 in San Diego
Registration is open for a new workshop event right here in San Diego 🙂
Join me and Ritual Pilates for The Roll Up to Push Down to Going Up Front Workshop, a window into the Pilates System using the Wunda Chair exercises to better your Mat.
In partnership with Contrology apparatus and hosted by Yoga One San Diego, you won’t want to miss the Pilates NerdFest this is gonna be.
Attend in-person or online. Online participants will have access to the recording for 30 days.
Wine, snacks and chat to follow 🙂
The first 10 registrations get a special Early Bird price!
2 Responses
Thanks for the Andrea teasers throughout time, very helpful with your own critiques. I may set up a video for my next independent workouts at Voltage Pilates. I can then get a baseline at the start of year 3! Enjoy week 3 of 2023! 🌈
Doug!!
So exciting you’ve decided to play along and track your Pilates progress over the years – excellent. Please let me know what you discover… our bodies are infinitely fascinating and it’s a noble experiment to monitor their progress and keep them in tip-top shape. then you can (slowly) watch the magic happen…Thanks so much for reading and Happy New Year to you and yours 🙂 xox