Exeter Pilates teacher and Spinal Touch Exeter

Pilates - let me teach you to how to take control of your body and change your life........

I teach Pilates Institute method Pilates which focuses on training the activation and isolation of the deep core muscles as its foundation - this method of muscle recruitment has been scientifically proven to help strengthen weak core muscles and this in turn will eliminate back pain.

Benefits

Strengthens

the core
the deep stabiliser muscles
the whole body - bones, muscles and joints

Increases

mobility of the joints
flexibility of the muscles

Improves

Posture
Coordination
Balance
Body awareness
Sense of well being

Aids

relaxation - mind over (muscle) matter
learning to listen to and be kind to your body

Pilates is a form of exercise that is suitable for all ages and abilities.

A Pilates session teaches you correct posture. You also learn how to connect with and condition the deep postural muscles of your whole body but more specifically the 'core' muscles;transverse abdominis, pelvic floor and multifidus.

It has been scientifically proven that Pilates exercises can strengthen these deep muscles and in turn alleviate back pain and many muscular and joint related conditions.

Whether you are looking to recondition or rehabilitate your body or just want to improve general health and fitness Pilates can deliver results!!!

See my classes page for more details of how to get started........

If you want to learn more READ ON and lets look at Pilates in a bit more depth.............

Pilates is named after the man who originated the technique - Joseph Pilates, an Austrian national, Joseph Pilates was a sickly child Pilates wasn't to be defeated by ill health and worked tirelessly on his own physical fitness.

He practised many different exercise disciplines and then combined techniques from boxing, gymnastics, tai chi, dance, skiing, self defence, weight training and yoga to form a unique exercise system called Controlology - later named Pilates after he died.

He moved to England just before the First World War and trained our Scotland Yard detectives in his techniques. During the First World War Pilates was interned on the Isle of Man due to his Austrian nationality. In the camps he helped to rehabilitate the injured men and kept the healthy men fit with his exercise regime.

It was here that his studio equipment was invented as Pilates the inventor devised systems of weighed ropes and pulleys to rehabilitate bed bound men whose muscles were wasting.

Pilates moved to New York after the war and opened a fitness studio teaching his Controlology programme. He became well known for teaching and rehabilitating injured ballet dancers some of whom went on to set up Pilates schools of their own.

He died in 1967 at the age of 87 after trying to rescue some equipment from a fire at his studio. His techniques are now taught all over the world and Pilates is known to be one of the safest and most effective ways to condition and strengthen your whole body.

Pilates' original repertoire is now considered to be intermediate or advanced in its level of difficulty, requiring vast amounts of strength, control and flexibility.... It takes years of practice to master some of the moves!!

It is for this reason that as a beginner you learn modified or watered down versions of his original moves progressing to more challenging levels when you are ready.

Medical research has proven that low level modifications of Pilates original exercises are MOREbeneficial for strengthening the core and learning the Pilates technique correctly - this can mean that those seeking to rehabilitate may have to work for some time at a very low level to correct muscular imbalances and gain core strength.

We still adhere to the principles that Pilates envisioned in how we prepare for and execute Pilates movements.

The Eight Pilates Principles

1. Concentration- "The Pilates method of body conditioning is gaining mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body." - Joseph Pilates. Constant focus on every movement is required.

2. Breathing – lateral thoracic breath. In order for the body to receive enough oxygen to perform the exercise, we must breathe efficiently. In order to keep the lower abdominals close to the spine; the breathing needs to be directed laterally, into the lower ribcage. Moving on the exhalation will enable greater core stability at the hardest part of the exercise and prevents breath holding (Valsalva).

3. Centering- By engaging the core muscles either pelvic floor or Transverse Abdominis, the best stability is achieved. These muscles co contract which means when you engage one the other engages as well. The other 2 muscles that make up the core are the diaphragm (under the lungs which moves in and out as you breathe) and multifidus which is a series of back muscles the entire length of the spine – these also engage when you lift pelvic floor or draw in TA (tummy button to spine).

4. Control – maintaining the correct alignment of the body and performing the movements slowly with control creates strong, long lean muscles.

5. Precision- "Concentrate on the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value." - Pilates. Making sure you maintain the correct alignment and execution of the exercise means that the correct muscles will be recruited.

6. Flowing movements - Movements flow in time with the in and out parts of the breath, performed correctly, slowly, controlled so as not to strain. Lengthening occurs away from a strong centre stabilised by activating the core.

7. Isolation – controlling different muscles groups depending on the exercise teaches the brain to correct incorrect patterns of muscle recruitment, posture and movement.

8. Routine – practicing all of the above techniques regularly creates a routine; the brain will in time automatically remember the correct alignment, precise execution of the movements with specific muscles. The more practice we do the further we can advance in skill, strength, balance, flexibility and technique. Practise makes perfect!

The Core

The core is a set of deep postural muscles that provide strength and support to your body. The core muscles incorporate Pelvic Floor, Transverse Abdominis, the Diaphragm (involuntary muscle involved in breathing) and Multifidus (deep spinal muscles throughout your whole spine).

In Pilates we isolate the core muscles – there are 3ways to do this – we can engage EITHER pelvic floor OR Transversus Abdominis to activate the ‘core’, or we can learn to engage both the pelvic floor and the TA together. Then we do specific exercises to strengthen it.

The Core Muscles

The core muscles work in conjunction with each other so when you engage one you are engaging them all but you may feel happier focusing on a TA engagement or a PF engagement or you may like to change the focus depending on the exercise.

Transverse Abdominis

Your Transverse Abdominis is another part of your core – it is the deepest layer of abdominal muscle – it is a bit like an internal corset – joining the ribs to the hips around the whole of your trunk.

Engaging TA

To engage all of your outer and inner abdominal muscles; draw the tummy button back towards the spine to an 100% contraction, then release to 0%, draw it back in to 100% release to 50% then go to 25% - what we are looking for is that the outer layers of abdominal muscles have released and that just your deep TA remains engaged. Release to 0% then draw gently in too that 25% contraction - use an image to help you - imagine that your insides are a wet sponge - you want to gently take hold of your sponge but not squeeze it – ideally you will keep this 25% contraction of these deep muscles in all you do in your Pilates class and your daily life - use the sponge image to help you to make sure you are not holding yourself 'sucked in'

Exercise for building awareness of TA

Imagine on your 100% contraction that you are at notch 10 on a wide belt or 100% – release your belt down to notch 9 or 90% then 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 or 10% then 0 – no contraction. Then go up through the levels again to help you get to know this muscle and the levels of contraction – it also is a simple exercise to do to gently strengthen this muscle

Your Pelvic Floor

Your Pelvic Floor is part of your ‘core’, it sits in the bottom of your pelvis a bit like the weave in the bottom of a wicker basket and holds everything in, it is obvious that when the pelvic floor is week that things like stress incontinence occurs – think of the weave in the basket coming a bit loose.

Engaging Pelvic Floor

To engage Pelvic Floor imaging the muscles that you would engage if you were trying to stop the flow if you were having a wee – draw these muscles in to 100% then go to 0% draw in to 100% then release to 50% then go down to 30% then go to 0% then draw back into 30% – the ideal contraction for this muscle – we are training this muscle to engage and support us at 30% continuously. Try this exercise with your hands on your bottom – try to do this exercise without feeling that you are squeezing your bottom super hard – we are trying to work Pelvic Floor on its own!!

Exercise for building awareness of Pelvic Floor – do this exercise standing, sitting or lying down!

Imagine that 100% is floor 10 of a building and you are at floor 10 in a lift – take your lift down to floor 9 or 90% the 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 or 10% then 0 – no contraction. Then go up through the levels again to help you get to know this muscle and the levels of contraction – it also is a simple exercise to do to gently strengthen this muscle. Try this exercise with your hands on your bottom – try to do this exercise without feeling that you are squeezing your bottom – we are trying to work Pelvic Floor on its own!!

Super challenging Pelvic Floor exercise

Don’t worry if you feel really weak in these muscles and find it hard - just keep practising and you will increase your strength and awareness of your pelvic floor in no time!

This exercise is done best lying on the floor. Take a good look at the diagram of the female pelvic floor above (apologies to men - you can do the same exercise just without the vagina - if you haven't already stopped reading!!). You will see that you have 3 openings – the urethra U, the vagina, V and the anus, A. This exercise gets you to isolate each of those areas and work them separately.

First engage the muscles around the urethra – imagine you are going for a wee and that you are trying to stop the flow. Hold for a couple of seconds and release.

Then engage the muscles around the vagina – you can put your finger in there and feel your muscles squeeze onto the finger if you don’t feel that you can isolate these muscles. Hold for a couple of seconds and release.

Then engage the muscles of the anus – imagine you are trying to stop yourself from breaking wind! Hold for a couple of seconds and release.

Then you do the exercise in reverse. U, V, A – A, V, U – U, V. A – A, V, U etc.

You can vary the length of contraction of the muscles from a couple of seconds to up to 10 seconds to increase the challenge.

Pilates or IDEAL posture

Alignment of your legs - Place your feet beneath sit bones and hip sockets, find the knobbly bones at the front of the pelvis and line your knees and ankles directly under them.

Weight even through the feet - Rock into front of foot then the back then come to the centre placing the weight evenly through the whole of the foot – imagining if you like a triangle between big toe, little toe and heel and placing the weight evenly through those three points.

Soft knees -Shake out the knees – we work with soft joints in Pilates – encouraging the muscles and around the joints to work and strengthen.

Neutral pelvis – hands on hips imagining if you like that the pelvis is a bucket of water – take the pelvis forward and back pouring the water to the front and the back – make the movements smaller between the two points until the bucket of water is level. To check that you have neutral place your fingertips on your pubic bone and make a triangle with the thumbs at the top – when you look down if you see a straight line this is your neutral pelvis – make micro adjustments to ensure you achieve your neutral pelvis.

Lengthen up through the spine – when we have our neutral pelvis our spine is in the correct position all the muscles tissues, vertebrae and disks are in their natural position, it is the safest position for our back and ensures we recruit our muscles correctly, poor posture on the other hand can lead to pressure, tension and pain as the muscles, tissues, vertebrae and disks may be compressed and pulled out of the natural position.

Locate and engage the core muscles to 30%– The core muscles consist of Transverse Abdominis or TA - deep internal postural abdominal muscle - a corset like muscle which if joined at the bottom of the ribs and the top of the pelvis supporting the lower back and stabilising the rib cage and pelvis, Pelvic Floor or PF a series of muscles in a hammock like shape in the pelvis, Multifidus - postural back muscles that run up alongside our spine and the diaphragm at the bottom of the rib cage which is involved in breathing.

The core muscles all work in conjunction with each other so when you engage one you are engaging them all but you may feel happier focusing on a TA engagement or a PF engagement or you may like to change the focus depending on the exercise. (See earlier information for more instructions about activating these muscles.)

Breathing - We practise lateral thoracic breathing in Pilates – breathing wide and deep into the ribcage whilst maintaining our 30% contraction of our core muscles. Interlace the fingers wide onto the ribcage and breathe in deeply through the nose feeling the ribs expand out to the sides and the front and back. Exhale a little bit more than you would do on a normal out breath this helps to exercise the muscles around the ribs a bit more, repeat a few times.

Shoulder Placement - Open the chest by rounding the shoulders gently so that the hands come to face the sides of the body. Then draw the shoulder blades gently down the back towards the pelvis - you should feel muscles firing up under your blades and around the sides of your upper rib cage.

Lengthen the neck – lengthen up through the back of your neck and the crown of your head to the ceiling as if you have a chord attached to the crown and you are being pulled upwards. When we lengthen through the neck the chin folds down a touch – to check you have the correct position bring your fist in sideways under your chin it should touch the chin and the chest – imagine you are holding a ripe peach under your chin as you work.

Always remember to keep the neck long during the exercises – the eyes will be looking forward at all times – if you are kneeling the eyes will be looking at the mat and if you are lying on the mat your forehead will be on the mat eyes looking directly down – if you lift the chin the neck shortens – this puts pressure into the base of the neck as the head is very heavy and the vertebrae of the neck are the smallest vertebrae of the spine. Always be conscious of protecting your neck with correct alignment.

Now come to a class and learn some moves!!!

Promoting pain free posture for life xxx