A ‘Proper’ Crunch

The second installment of the 2 things I’d like to impart to the fitness world in one swoop of a magic wand!

Number 1 was a proper hamstring stretch. Number 2: A proper, more efficient, results resulting crunch!

It all has to do with the tailbone and a nuetral spine. From the pilates perspective, a proper crunch intails the the actual abdominal muscles do more of the work. Sounds logical right? However, most of us learned to do our first crunch in PE class or from a Jane Fonda VHS. Lot’s of booty squeeze, curled and tucked under, elbows narrow, chin mashed and crucnching our cervical spine in the wrong direction….working more of our hip flexors and tush then our abs.

Oh how science has changed. Nuetral spine and nuetral pelvis will allow the abs to contract and actual PULL you up, floating the head and neck, rather then HAULING your head and neck with your hands and neck. If your core is doing the work, guess where the results are going to show up? YOUR CORE! Yippeeeee for results and a linear path of thought.

How to execute A Proper Crunch:
1. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet planted boney hip distance apart
2. Lace your fingers together, place behind your head and neck
3. Cradle your head, at the occiptal lobe (where your head joins your neck…..like you’re cradling a baby’s skull)
4. DROP YOUR TAILBONE. You are welcome to engage your glutes, but do not squeeze your but for dear life and allow that to mash your low back into the floor. Depending on how you are shaped, there may be a small arc in your low back. THIS IS GOOD! You are respecting the curve of your lumbar spine. Let it be.
5. Take an inhale for free, on the exhale, allow your belly button to sink away from your clothes and feel your core FLOAT your head and neck up.
6. KEEP YOUR TAILBONE DOWN. You will feel like you are barely moving, like you can’t curl up very high…..in turn, you SHOULD feel more senstation and more work in your core. (Exactly where you want it!)

Repetitions can range from 5-60…..depending on your strength and form. FORM is the most important thing. Endurance will follow. As will results;)

Stop doing crunches with your hipflexors and butt. Try your tailbone and core!

subbing at Santa Monica Equinox tomorrow

I’m subbing the 11am Pilates mat class tomorrow Sunday May 31st!
Come play with me!

Hamstrings and Crunches, a better way

If there were two ‘tricks’ I could teach the fitness community (meanng anyone trying to ‘get in shape’ for whatever reason) it would be:

1. a hamstring stretch that’s actually effective
2. a proper ‘crunch’

All too often you see a fitness enthusiast, completely well intentioned, on a mission to ‘change their body’..doing the saddest version of a hamstring stretch or a crunch. The poor dears. They think they are helping, they mean to help, they are TRYING to help themsleves! I want to walk up to each and every one of them and say, ‘You know, You can get better, faster results, with FAR less contortion. Please let me show you!’.

So here we go. If you can’t come to my class or come train with me, follow along best you can.

1. A proper hamstring stretch
Does not require that your knee is at or even near your nose OR require a completely straight leg! Real efficiency requires that your hips and pelvis be in alignment.

The origin of your hamstrings is at your sits bones (layman’s terms.) Hour hamstringsstart at the only bones in your butt and they insert right behind the knee. In order to properly and EFFECTIVELY stretch them, you need those bones to be as even or ’square’ as possible. NOT to hike your knee in some twisted rotated, icky- owie (yes I said OWIE, I have a 2 year old) postion that negates ALL form and alignment in order to be get it closer to your face.

You will get more release if your leg is in alignment, farther away from your face and possibly even bent, dependong on how tight your hamstrings are. Any variation can work i.e: laying down, standing with a foot or heel propped, forward fold etc…..as long as you start from a nuetral, aligned position. NO CHEATING. Bodies cheat even when we don’t know it.

So…..Hamstring Stretch (one variation):
1.laying on your back, wrangle the ball of your right foot in a yoga strap, a magic circle, theraband or even a belt or towel.
2. externally rotate your right hip (down towards the foot that’s on the floor) creating length in the side torso and attempting to balance and ’square’ your hips best you can manage today.
3. reach out and down in your tailbone (drop your tailbone, toward the floor)
4. focus on opening the back of your knee crease, not neccessarily straightening it.
5. reach the heel of your foot for the ceiling, pull down on whatever you have wrangled your foot in
6. focus on reaching OUT of the sits bone and down in that hip
……you should FEEL more stretch. Sensation is key. If you can feel it and specifically say ‘I feel it HERE’ and can point to it (hamstrings being behind the knee to your tush crease) you are in business.
7. Hold up to 1 min
8. switch sides

By addressing the nature of the muscle, you will get better and longer lasting results (perhaps increased flexibilty???). Not the same awful result of doing a million stretches and never seeing any improvment.

Check back for the schpeal on the proper crunch…..I’ll post it tomorrow. It’s a favorite of mine!

Winning Traits of a Great Pilates Session

Last week was officially the start of my new position as Regional Pilates Manager. As in all transitions, there is excitment and anxiety. A healthy mixture of the two is what all good things are made of……including pilates lessons. This week I had the opportunity to be a student again, mulitple privates and mat classes from multiple instructors. Point being to see where our program is; instructors, quality of instruction etc etc. The best part is I can genuinly say, Equinox, on the average, has incredibly talented instructors. Whatever the flavor, East Coast, West Coast….the instructors deliver a good lesson.

But what exactly is the difference between a good and a great lesson? And what coaching can be givent to drive one instructor from good to great?

Too much flow sometimes leads to too little content. The lesson has so much ‘go go go’ to give the caloric burn that there is no time for personal adjustment to really get to the ‘personal best’ and ultimate connection. On the other hand, there can at times be too much creativity…too much effort on the ‘wow’ factor and doing variations no one has ever seen before that there is little to ‘connect’ too. Then there’s the talented instructor who wow’s you in a private, then to your disappointment, wares you out with over-cuing in a mat class.

So what is the winning combination of flair for an instructor? As always…..depends on the environment and depends on the client. However, these are traits that work no matter the environment or client.

Winning Traits of a Great Pilates Session:

FLOW - or pace, keep it up enough that it’s challanging. This is particularly important in a mat class. Try not to overkill on the cueing. Remember that the real reason most clients are coming is to get a workout….not to hear all of your knowledge on the method in one single hour.

VARIETY - even creativity in the combination of choreography. We can all fall back on our training and do the absolute rote routine, but if you have clients training with you long term (or want them to be) variety IS the spice of life. Muscles respond by doing different things. For the greatest benefit for you body and true balancing, variety and creativity is neccessary.

PLANES of MOTION - Make sure to hit them all. One of the biggest complaints about pilates is that it has too much flexion. Prove the scepics wrong. Hit every plane of motion.

CORRECTIONS - Walk the room and make corrections. Put your eyes AND your hands on your students. Do them and the method justice by helping them get better. All the verbal cuing in the workd may not do that for them. Even as a student myself I still need personal correction.

FUN - Could arguably be the most important. If it’s not fun, why do it? We have so many stressors and responsibilities in life, the time we actually do give to ourselves should be enjoyable. Crack a smile, heck, crack a joke.

If you are not an instructor, these are teh things you should EXPECT from an instructor, not be blessed if this combination shows up in one room at the same time. Demand excellent instructors and instructors, don’t ’spoil’ your clients, DELIVER consistantly.

PMA Conference

was canceled today. sales were down…..obviously the pilates community is not seperate from the financial climate.

Pilates Pro

Is one of the best PIlates resources online so far…and they just posted the Joseph youtube link I posted a few weeks back lol. Check it out.

Therabands

Therabands may be my favorite prop. And I like props. Props are the basis of my mat classes; blocks. blankets, magic circles…I love them all. They are the best way for people to understand where the work comes from when they may not make the leap to the studio. Props are simply poor man’s apparatus. When you don’t have a reformer, try a gliding disc.

The theraband may be the best of them all for the money. They mimic the actual work of the pilates method. Isometric contraction means equal and opposite tension. The pull is equal to the push. Isometric work stretches the muscle and makes it lay flatter to the bone creating a longer line in the muscles….when therabands stretch, they get longer, more taught…just like our muscles under the influence of the pilates. The visual representation drives the work home. Incredible strength and resistance with the wonderful feeling of space and release.

If you haven’t tried one yet. Do. It may be the piece of equipment that makes the connections make sense.

tricks to get you deeper into your lower abdominals: Bent knees.

The class I taught today had a focus on lower body. Although pilates is always full body, head to toe, I like to have an emphasis, especially for a group fitness format. So today, the magic circle found it’s place in the inner and outer thighs with a final stop at wall squats.

The goal with this workout, which may be the first podcast post, was to engage the inner thigh and open/release the low back to allow more opportunity for the lower abdominals to engage. a technique I feel most pilates sessions overlook. Most sessions head straight for the core without addressing the issues that may hinder real core contraction.

The most simple modification that everyone should try in order to dig deeper into the lower abdominals, is to slightly bend the knees. Our bodies all sit too much (*ahem* in front of computers and in cars. God bless LA traffic) Our hamstrings and low back take the brunt of these sedentary activities. We’re all a little tight there….. even the most flexy of us. The bend allows your body to take a ’shortcut’ to your core. Yes, it lessens the lever. shorter lever, less resistance on your core. HOWEVER, if the exercise is executed more properly, less lever length is not an issue. you’ll work your way to the full scoop WITH lengthened legs in the long run. Only stronger and better on the journey there.

Try it. Bend your knees. slightly all the way towards tabletop if necessary. Feel how it allows you more access to your lower abdominals, you can scoop lower and deeper and feel more muscular sensation. Sensation is what you are after.

This Week

May be quiet as far as posts go….I’m taking a staycation and staying home with my son this week! Therfor, my pilates brain may be traded in for a mainly mommy brain.
although, I am planniing on checking out a couple of classes I have been meaning to take for the last YEAR. Yes, we’ve been busy at out house.
On the menu: Pilates mat class at BACE, S Factor, Circus Arts and Burlesque Cardio. I’ll keep you up to date on which ones I actually get to

National Pilates Day

Yesterday was National Pilates Day! Did anyone celebrate? …..It was also my birthday. Coincidence? I think not.