For years I thought I had a stiff back.  I lived with low level back ache and referred aches and pains through my legs, occasionally seeing the physio if the symptoms became acute, usually after exertion of some kind: continuous bending and twisting to pick up leaves, lifting boxes and twisting when we moved house.  Generally, I’m not particularly mobile and certainly not hypermobile: in fact, I thought I had the opposite problem and spent more time stretching and loosening up with yoga.  Then the clicking started!

Mobility needs to be counterbalanced with strength and flexibility

Since teaching Pilates, I have been surprised at how many people come to see me on the advice of their therapist to address the problems of hypermobility.  A few have had operations to correct the problem in situations where they have suffered multiple dislocations, normally of the shoulder and a couple have had back operations to fuse the vertebrae.

Whether unstable in some areas of the spine or hypermobile, the course of action is the same: start creating stability by strengthening the supporting muscles.  Our Featured Pilates Video this week concentrates on the core muscles and some of the other abdominal and back muscles.  Repeat every other day, if not daily, and after a couple of weeks you will start to notice the difference.  If you have never done Pilates before, please make sure you are familiar with neutral position and thoracic breathing.  This is explained in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRFGOveevEw

Supporting articles: http://vitalflow.tv/2009/11/hypermobility-the-unstable-spine/  and  http://vitalflow.tv/2009/11/dealing-with-an-unstablehypermobile-spine/

Start a Pilates course today: click on DOWNLOADS and see the selection.

The first things you learn when you enrol on a Pilates course are:-

Don't attempt a Pilates exercise until you know your neutral position, can engage your core muscles and can breathe laterally

• how to find your neutral position,
• where your core muscles are and how to engage them,
• thoracic/lateral breathing and
• pelvic/shoulder stability. 

You need this knowledge to make your practise safe and effective.

Now with so many Pilates video clips popping up all over the internet, anyone can have a go at a Pilates exercise – even the most advanced versions – without knowing the basics.   With this in mind, the featured video this week is a beginners guide to the fundamentals so that you can safely try each new exercise every week.   To get the most out of this, practise several times, particularly the alternate leg lift exercise to start strengthening the core.

The featured videos change every week but this is available on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRFGOveevEw

For further information, read these articles: http://vitalflow.tv/2009/09/core-muscles-core-stability/ ; http://vitalflow.tv/2009/09/correct-breathing-for-pilates/

Once you’ve got the hang of it, why not embark on the Beginners Course and change your body?  These Pilates video downloads can be stored on your laptop/PC or stored on your iphone or MP3 player.

The one thing that confuses most people in Pilates is the breathing.  Breathing is a natural, spontaneous, subconscious process, something we pay little attention to during our day to day life.  Put us in a Pilates class and suddenly it becomes the most confusing, difficult thing to do!  This article will hopefully answer a few questions.

Pilates breathing can be confusing

So, here are 5 points you need to remember:-

1. Thoracic Breathing:  In order to offer the greatest support to the lower back and pelvis and to enable us to maintain our neutral position, we need to engage our core muscles.  Therefore you do not want to be breathing deep, otherwise you will find that the abdomen expands and we need to draw it back, hollowing out.  So breathing into the ribcage, lateral/thoracic breathing, is vital.
2. Breathe Continuously:  Don’t hold your breath.  One of the principles of Pilates is the flowing movement and the breath dictates the speed and flow of the exercise.  You need to constantly be taking in oxygen and ridding your body of carbon dioxide.
3. Exhale on Exertion:  The general rule is that you exhale on exertion or effort.  You will find that with some exercises, such as the 100, you are exerting constantly for up to 10 complete breaths.  This particular exercise is great training for control of the breath and learning to maintain neutral position and thoracic breathing constantly to support the lower back.  You would also exhale when closing through the front of the body, e.g. rolling down or up in the roll up, arching the back to the ceiling in the cat stretch.
4. Inhale to Prepare:  For beginners, it is easier to maintain the core contraction when doing nothing or during the easier part of the exercise, e.g. inhale and lift the first leg, pause to inhale to prepare and exhale lift the second leg; or in shoulder bridge, exhale raise a foot off the mat, inhale as you bring the foot back down in preparation for the more difficult part of the exercise to come.  You would also inhale when opening up and lengthening, e.g. when lifting the head and tailbone during cat stretch; later on in swan dive, when you lengthen through the spine and raise the upper body.
5. Experiment:  Of the points above, 1 and 2 never change during your practice.  When it comes to when you inhale and exhale, suggested breathing patterns may not work for you.  You will also notice that as a beginner you may be directed to exhale and raise the upper body in spine extension, but once you start to add a side bend or full swan dive with the legs coming up, this changes.  When you first start Pilates, maintaining the core contraction on the inhalation can be a challenge, so exhaling on exertion is the way to go - simple as that.

These will differ depending on which books you read, which teachers you have, the websites you have looked at.  The following are the principles which govern my practice and make it safe and effective:-                                        

RELAXATION

I know it sounds odd to start any exercise class with relaxation, but you need to let go of tension in the body.  One of the key benefits of Pilates is that it addresses muscle imbalances: you need to relax your shoulders, your neck, your face; you need to release the pelvic floor and abdomen.  We don’t want tension and we don’t want some muscles doing more that their fair share of the work.  Classes may begin in any position – standing, supine, seated – but you can still relax the muscles that are tense.  The mind needs to become still and focused.

CONCENTRATION

So with the mind still and focused, we can start to concentrate on our bodies.  Pilates is a mind/body form of exercise and you must be present with the mind.  Think about how your body feels, be aware of areas of stiffness and tension, focus on every movement you make and how that affects the rest of the body.  This will lead to quality and precision of movement, increase your body-awareness, keep the practice safe and effective – all important, especially when you are working by yourself.

ALIGNMENT

Alignment, neutral position, posture, core, centring: all part of the same thing.  You’ve relaxed your body and released any tension, you’ve cleared your mind and your focus is on your body, now you need to check your alignment, depending on what position you are in: if you are supine with legs extended, you will be more or less in neutral.  If you are standing, you need to pay a little more attention to your posture.  If you are seated or in box position, think about the alignment of the pelvis and the spine.  

BREATHING

Breathe fully and wide.  This serves several purposes:

• it will remove any toxins from the lungs
• the exhalations will relax you, the inhalations energise you
• it will help focus the mind
• it will help you engage the core muscles
• it will dictate the speed of the exercise, leading to flowing movements.   

Pilates uses thoracic/lateral breathing, enabling you to breathe fully, but still maintain that all important core contraction to stabilise the pelvis, support the lower back and keep the neutral position.   

CO-ORDINATION

Trying to co-ordinate movement with breath and remember all the principles will seem like an impossibility at first, but it does come with practice.  Beginners courses can sometimes appear slow and boring, but it enables you to gradually build, layer on layer, until you can do everything all at once.

PRECISION

Every movement has a purpose, every instruction vital to the success of the exercise.  Perfect, precise movement is what you are trying to achieve rather than many poor, inadequate repetitions.  This is important for you to attain the results you are hoping for safely, efficiently and relatively quickly.

FLUIDITY

The human body is perfectly formed for movement, therefore every exercise in Pilates is dynamic (some modifications may hold a position, but the final form involves movement).  They flow with the breath like a perfectly executed waltz, lengthening away from your strong centre, controlled, free from tension and stress, and rhythmic.

STAMINA

Your deep postural muscles need to be working gently, but constantly in order to keep your body correctly aligned.  For this to be possible, they require stamina.  All your supporting muscles need stamina so that your body can work as a whole: think of a car – a great gear box or new brakes are no good without the rest of the engine being in good condition.  Some muscles will tire very quickly without the support of the others and with practise, an exercise that seemed difficult to perform one week will soon appear relatively easy.  For example, everyone complains about their arm, shoulder and neck when they perform a side plank the first few times.  As they progress, they learn to use the torso muscles which become stronger with practice, they learn to engage the muscles of the legs which also have a role to play.