Pilates exercise routines are designed for a variety of interests. Pilates is one of the fastest growing trends in fitness. Before you start your Pilates training, you need to decide how you are going to learn Pilates. Will you begin with a private lesson, a group class, or go it alone?
We recommend taking a class or some individual sessions first; but if you can’t do that, there are many instructional DVDs
Below we outline exercises for abdominals, legs and hips and a few strength and stretch routines. We will continue to add more…. keep checking .
1. Pilates Principles – Centering, Concentration, Control, Precision, Breath and Flow
2. Pilates Warm Up Set – Be centered and aligned before you begin exercising. These easy Pilates exercises will give you an opportunity to tune in to your body, find your alignment, and set your mental focus for your workout session.
3. Imprinting - one of the most basic Pilates exercise there is. Yet it can also be one of the most profound. Imprinting is deeply relaxing and centering. It is wonderful for stress reduction, and as a way to center yourself before beginning any exercise routine, Pilates or other. It helps you get everything in place before your begin.
4. Arms Over - Arms over is a fundamental Pilates exercise. It helps improve posture, range of motion in the shoulders, and trunk stability.
5. Knee Folds – Knee folds is a Pilates fundamental exercise. It teaches pelvic stability and efficient movement principles. This is one of the Pilates exercises that is often used to help relieve back pain.
6. Pelvic Tilt – Pelvic tilt is one of the very best ways to begin any Pilates workout. It strengthens core muscles and helps center alignment. Pelvic tilt is often prescribed therapeutically for back pain.
7. Swimming – a challenging exercise that brings every part of the body into play.
- Lie on your stomach with the legs straight and together.
- Keeping your shoulder blades settled in your back and your shoulders away from your ears, stretch your arms straight overhead.
- Pull your abs in so that you lift your bellybutton up away from the floor.
- Reaching out from center, extend your arms and legs so far in opposite directions that they naturally come up off the floor. At the same time, get so much length in your spine that your head moves up off the mat as an extension of the reach of your spine. Keep your face down toward the mat; don’t crease your neck.
- Continue to reach your arms and legs out very long from your center as you alternate right arm/left leg, then left arm/right leg, pumping them up and down in small pulses.
- Coordinate your breath with the movement so that you are breathing in for a count of 5 kicks and reaches, and out for a count of 5.
- Hopefully you feel like you are simulating swimming!
- Do 2 or 3 cycles of 5 counts of moving and breathing in, and 5 counts moving and breathing out.
8. The Hundred – a great Pilates Exercise that builds strength, stamina and coordination. One must use the breath and really activate the powerhouse simultaneously. Here’s How:
- Lie on your back with your knees bent, and make your shins and ankles parallel in height with your knees. Put your hands behind your knees. Inhale & then Exhale
- Bring your head up with your chin down and, using your abs, curl your upper spine up off the floor. Keep the shoulders engaged in the back. Stay here and inhale & then exhale
- At the same time, deepen the pull of the abs and extend your legs and arms toward the wall in front of you. Your legs should only be as low as you can go without shaking and without the lower spine jumping up off the mat. Your arms extend straight out low, just a few inches off floor, with the fingertips reaching for the far wall.
- Hold your position and take five short breaths in and five short breaths out (like sniffing in and puffing out). While doing so, move your arms in a controlled up and down manner – a small pumping of the arms.Keep your shoulders and neck relaxed. It is the abdominal muscles that should be doing all the work.
- Do a cycle of 10 full breaths. Each cycle is five short in-breaths and then five short out-breaths.
The arms pump up and down a few inches, in unison with your breath.
Keep your abs scooped, your back flat on the floor, and your head an extension of your spine, with the gaze down. OK – not hard! - To finish: Keep your spine curved as you bring your knees in toward your chest. Grasp your knees and roll your upper spine and head back to the floor. Take a deep breath in and out.
Helpful Tips for The One Hundred
- To make the hundred more challenging: Lower your legs. Do not lower your legs past where you can control the movement. Don’t let your spine peel up off the floor as you lower the legs.
- To modify the hundred for back or neck problems: Do this exercise with your knees bent and the feet flat on the floor.
- You can do this exercise with the legs extended but the head left down on the floor. This modification is often used by people who need to protect their necks.
- Equipment: All you need is an exercise mat.
