Kierstin Elliott Exercise: Thoracic Mobility Set Up: Set up your foam roller vertically (so it runs up and down your spine). Sit on a mat with the end of the foam roller placed right between the bottom tips of your shoulder blades. Lean back into the roller with arms stretched back so hands are gently …
Tag: pilates tip
Pilates with Kierstin! Scissor Kicks
Kierstin Elliott Exercise: Scissor Kicks Set Up: Lying supine on the mat, press your back into the mat, legs in table top with hands behind the head. Execution: Inhale to prep, exhale to curl head to your chest, neck and shoulders off the mat driving your naval closer to spine. Inhale to extend your right …
Pilates with Kierstin! Standing Side Splits
Kierstin Elliot Exercise: Standing Side Splits Set Up: Stand with one foot on the carriage and one foot on the platform with weight distributed evenly between both legs. Slightly turn out your legs to help engage outer rotators and glutes. Lighter spring setting will focus on adductors (insides of legs) while a heavier spring setting …
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Pilates Tip: Supine Toe Taps
Kierstin Elliot, Pilates Instructor, BBPT Exercise: Supine Toe Taps Set up: Lying on back, imprint spine, legs in table top, arms resting by sides. Execution: Inhale to start, exhale to hinge right leg down towards floor (about 45 degrees from hip) and then return back to table top. Repeat on left side, alternating for 8-10 …
Pilates Blog: Balanced Muscle Development
Denise Small PT, DPT In today’s Pilates’s blog, we will discuss another of the eight movement principles, Balanced Muscle Development. Using the example of the Pilates swan, we can see how both the front and back of the body are benefitting from the movement. As we inhale and move our spines into extension, the back …
Pilates Blog – Concentration
Denise Small, DPT Every Wednesday the PTs at Beyond Basics are fortunate enough to listen to lectures from medical professionals who specialize in pelvic pain. One of my favorite lectures was given by Melissa Farmer, PhD, a clinical psychologist who specializes in how the brain changes overtime in response to chronic pain. Melissa spoke about …
Pilates Blog: Centering
Denise Small, PT, DPT In today's Pilates blog, we are going to discuss the basic principle of Centering. Pilates used the word centering to refer to the “core” musculature. He believed that all movements should radiate out of the core for maximum stability. There is a lot of use of the word “core” in exercise …
Pilates Blog- Rhythm- Coordination of Breath and Movement
Denise Small, PT, DPT Today’s Pilates blog will focus on another basic movement principle of the Pilates method, Whole Body Movement. In the last blog, I wrote about the importance of breathing three dimensionally, both expanding and contracting your abdomen and ribcage when breathing. Joseph Pilates wanted to help exaggerate these physiologic functions with movement, …
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The use of Breath in the Pilates Method
Denise Small PT, DPT The following series of Pilates blog posts will focus on the principles that define the Pilates method. Joseph Pilates developed his methodology using eight basic movement principles: whole body movement, breathing, balanced muscle development, concentration, control, centering, precision, and rhythm. Today’s blog will focus on the principle of Breathing. Breathing is …