endorphin August 25th, 2007
I have wanted to do Pilates for a long time. The reason was simple; I am looking for its benefits on strengthening the core strength for any athletes. Attending Pilates classes was one of the alternative. But even that, Pilates classes are so few as compared to Yoga. I have attended several Pilates or Yogalates classes. The best class was conducted by Yvonne at California gym. Apart from her teaching/techniques, she reflects that essence of Pilates. She is lanky, superb standing & walking posture, 6 packs, nice muscles cuts,…All in a nutshell, she is my picture perfect of beautifully healthy.
My desire was to have a personal coach on Pilates because I felt that I needed personal attention & proper coaching on the breathing techniques. Law of Attraction with a slight twist!!  I was introduced to a qualified Pilates instructor. Wow, was I excited ? Sure I was. With all the description & what not, I was anticipating to get to know the Pilates Instructor who reflect my picture perfect. Oh well, a twist, is a pilates instructor with the same name and similar dance background & etc. But it was a totally different person with totally different personality. Was I disappointed? Yes I was. But I am also happy to have at least found a qualified Pilates PT. Aug 18, my first Lesson.
Let’s put that picture perfect expectation aside & focus on my objectives. Objectives :
- Builld Core Strength to complement the sports I want to do – Swim, Bike, Run
- Muscle Tone on the upper body, specifically the nice muscles cut at shoulders & arms; Nice defined muscle tone at upper back & 6 packs
It is an expensive engagement, so it better do justice to my objectives. So the lesson starts by me walking to & fr in front of her. It felt weird but she was assessing my posture, symmetrical muscle strength, Core use…etc.
Breathing technique
The correct breathing technique in Pilates breathing using Fit ballSitting on a fit ball, it quickly showed that my sitting position was wrong, eg. I wasn’t sitting my seat bone, my legs width was bigger than shoulder width to gain stability instead of using core, thus body posture was wrong as the body was trying to compensate. What is the correct breathing technique:-      Breathing thru diaphragm, ie. As you breathe, it pushes open your rib cage and you can see it expand to the back leaving the upper chest & the lower abdomen with slight or almost unchanged. One can breathe to diff levels of depth. The last level is almost to the lower back. A lot of use of imagination/the mind to control.
2nd stepThe neutral lying down position & the imprintTo gain neutral position, you will need to “rock†the tail bone upwards leaving the floor but the pelvic remain on the the floor and back. Do this a few times & when you relax, your back will come to a proper neutral position. Then, inhale, expand the lungs & ribs but not harden the tummy. On exhale, start to curl the tail upwards without rocking while exhaling. As you do that, the lower abdomen, the power house, will sink & solidify and the lower back will naturally make an imprint on the floor but w/o lifting the pelvic & w/o the push of the backbone downwards. 3rd steps will be after exhaling, is to open the thigh without rocking, isolating only the join & leg.
4th steps is to strengthen the inner tigh. That is stand on on foot while the other on bended knee on a fit ball. Posture is key here – standing upstraight & balance, symmetrical, core engaged, push the ball down extending from inner thigh. Sounds easy, but it hurts J I have a lot to work on to get the nice tone physic that I wanted.