Peak Performance Pilates

Coccyx curl to bridge: Lie supine, hands and wrists flat, shoulders down and wide. Inhale into the back and sides,  curl your tail towards your belly button, sacrum slides toward your feet. Kidneys and last ribs heavy on the ground. Exhale, continue to slide your sacrum forwards and up the wall keeping the last ribs and kidneys imprinted. Pretend someone is pulling the bottom of the back of your shirt forward and up. You can roll up to a hammock position or go farther until your body is like a plank from the back of your heart to you knees. Keep the abdominal cavity hollowed, do not overwork the outer abdominal muscles (and pooch). Do not lift the chest up. Keep the chest away from your chin. Pretend there is a lemon or grapefruit under you chin and you do not want to squash it. Shoulder blades on the mat. Fingers slide towards the front wall (especially the little fingers). Reach forward through the knees. Inhale, exhale to roll forward and down sequentially: heart, lowest rib, kidneys, upper lower back, middle lower back, lower lower back sacrum and then tail. Add space between the vertebrae by lengthening forward. Repeat 2 – 3 times. Stretch your hamstrings when you have finished.

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some holiday tips: Even if you only have 10 minutes in your day, try to go for a walk outside. Any exercise is better than none, and you will feel refreshed by being outside. If you feel like snacking take some ham, chicken, tuna, turkey, tofu or any protein and wrap it up by itself or in a piece of lettuce or kale or any vegetable. You can heat it up if it is cold out. Then eat it with your fingers.

Thank you everyone for participating in the fun workshops at The Pilates Lab, Tokyo.  You are a fantastic group.  Great questions! It was very enjoyable teaching the workshops. Arigato gozaimas!

In the Spine Stretch, sit and place a thera-band or small towel on top of your head. Push your head up into the thera-band or towel.  Inhale, slide the crown of the head and the thera-band up along the ceiling and reach the back of the heart and lungs up to the top of the back wall.  You should be rotated around the xiphoid process. Exhale, roll sequentially up the back wall.  You can hold onto the ends of the thera-band but do not pull down on the theraband.

Use your eyes while moving. Use different focus levels. It distinguishes the elite dancer and actor. Think of the eyes as part of your nervous system. Kathy Grant used “Paint the Wall” with your eyes as you roll down. Try this: During the Circle Saw look at your hand the entire time the first repetition, look beyond the hand at the walls on the second rep, and look past the walls and hand on the 3rd rep. You can also change the focus levels during the Rowings and many other Pilates skills.

The Side Stretch (Mermaid): To learn how to perform the Side Stretch sit on a chair with your arms reaching up to the ceiling. Perform Kathy Grant’s song to align the spine (“Zip our pants, belly button to the lowest part of the waistline, put your belt on, put your vest on, tape measure, sit on a hot seat”).  Do not hyperextend the spine or lift your chest up.  Inhale into the right lung, push down through your right sit bone, reach up and over with your arms and crown of your head, slide your right lung up and over your heart and left lung (an image inspired by Eric Franklin). Pivot around your xiphoid axis. Do not shorten your left side, reach up through that left arm.  Exhale push down into the chair and roll up to sitting upright.  You can also try to inhale and exhale as you reach up and over sideways, then inhale into the right lung to expand the intercostal muscles as you roll up to sitting upright. Exhale once you are upright. Repeat on the other side.  Try to feel the space between the ribs expand as you are stretching.

In Tokyo, Jennifer Stacey, M.S. will present several workshops. Nov. 2 – 4. Jennifer will teach the following: Friday, Nov. 2:  “Kathy Grant Mat repertoire” (1 hour), “A Classic Pilates Mat class inspired by the Pilates Elders” (2 hours), “Spine Corrector and Arc class” (2 hours).  Saturday, Nov. 3: “Honoring the Psoas”, “Pilates from the wings (and arm alignment)”.  Nov. 4: “Release the Ribcage, and the pelvis and scoop will follow” and “Follow your Head: Understanding and cueing head and Spine position in Pilates”. https://www.pilates-lab.com/      and peakperformancepilates.com/workshops   More information will be posted in the future on the peakperformancepilates blog and workshop sections of the website.

Jennifer Stacey, MS is pleased to present workshops in Singapore (Oct. 25) and Japan (Nov.2 -4). At the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science conference in Singapore “Nourishing the Spine in Dance” in Singapore. www.IADMS.org.  In Tokyo, Jennifer will present several workshops Nov. 2 – 4. She will teach an apparatus class on Nov. 2.  The topics of the workshops Nov. 3 – 4 vary: “Honoring the Psoas”, “Pilates from the wings (and arm alignment)”,  “Release the Ribcage, and the pelvis will follow” and “Follow the head and spine in Pilates”. https://www.pilates-lab.com/      and peakperformancepilates.com/workshops   More information will be posted in the future on the peakperformancepilates blog and workshop sections of the website.

During the Olympics one could see how different athletes trained by looking at the shapes of their bodies. In fitness they say “you get what you train for”. In track, the Richards Ross and Felix had balanced, elongated muscles and flat abdominal muscles.  They looked like they trained biomechanically efficiently in a balanced, elongated, Pilates way. Jeter on the other hand looked imbalanced, had overdeveloped muscles and had a very round torso.  You could see the two distinct shapes on the field. 1) The athlete with open shoulders and a flat stomach.  and 2) the overdeveloped, bulky body, round torso that reflects the athlete training in a shortened manner.  The round torso indicates the athlete performs roll up type exercises by shortening the body and pooching the rectus abdominis, rather than lengthening the body back. The large upper trapezius indicates overuse of that area, and a lack of efficient scapular recruitment and Serape muscular wrap that connects the centers. While waiting for the take off, the athlete will use the deltoids. At the take off of the race, the athlete will definitely use the latissimus dorsi to pull the ground back.  When the arms swing during the running phase, they should be under-swinging and coming from the armpit, so I wonder why certain athletes want to have bulky upper trapezius muscles. You will see them swinging their arms with their shoulders up (which does not look comfortable). You could also see the gymnasts with different bodies.  Some had rounded shoulders, some had nice open shoulders.

It is wonderful to observe the long strides of athletes such as Bolt, Rudisha, Blake, K. James and the other athletes mentioned in posts. Bolt’s stride is 10 feet. If you watch them you can see them pulling the ground back with the hamstrings and gluteus.  The successful athletes do not bring their legs up and forward, they plant the foot and pull (or push) the floor back to propel their bodies forward. As mentioned in Movement Perspectives (p.124 in the Movement Analysis chapter) when you walk you should think about pulling the floor back. It seems to correct a lot of gait problems. We always work on this technique during the client’s Pilates session.