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Hi, I'm Katherine Shapiro, and I teach Pilates at HSS.
Overall, Pilates is a gentle, non-impact form of exercise,
but like any other physical activity,
requires a good biomechanics.
After establishing a neutral position, which is our start
point, we can practice floor exercises
that help to maintain and strengthen that position.
If you are unsure what a neutral spine is or do not
know how to find neutral spine, please
be sure to watch my video on finding a neutral spine
for injury prevention, and then proceed with these exercises.
Today, I will demonstrate the following exercises
from neutral position, clocking, bracing, bridging and bird-dog.
Sounds fun.
These are exercises where it is common to fall out
of neutral spine and risk injury.
However, practicing these exercises correctly
can help to maintain a strong core and maintain good posture.
So let's begin.
So to help you understand clocking,
I have this little disk, which you won't need.
It's just a visual.
So imagine this is the clock face.
And I'm going to put it under my sacrum.
And just to get to know the pelvis and its position
a little better, I'm going to move my pelvis as if it
was going around a clock face.
So going down and all the way around
and also counter clockwise around the clock face.
So now, do it without the disk.
So you want to start with your knees bent and even.
And just let the spine settle for a moment.
And then take your hands and find these bony landmarks
of the pelvis.
You could feel the bones where the pelvis comes up and around.
And then I'll begin to go around the clock face
starting just below the belly button
and then circling all the way down.
I'm about at number 6 clock and around to 9:00
and back up to 12:00 and then going back the other way.
So 12:00, 9:00, 6:00, and 3:00 and back up to 12:00
and then settling in the center where
I'm not tipping too far to one side, not too far
forward and back.
Now, I come to my second exercise, which is bracing.
With bracing, if you take your hands in this position--
I'm touching my thumb and index finger together.
Going to put my thumb in my belly button and my hands flat.
And now, again, within the pelvic, belly, the lower
abdomen, and to brace, if I push my hands back,
I can feel into the muscles underneath the hand.
I want to firm those back.
Actually there's a sense of firming back
and a slight scooping upward.
So it's slightly back and slightly up.
So right here I'm bracing the lower abdomen
to maintain the neutral pelvic position.
And then I can move on to the third exercise,
which is bridging.
So going to push my feet straight down into the floor,
maintain the bracing in the lower abdomen,
and also I'm going to add tightening the bottom.
So I'm going to squeeze tight and lower back down.
So you want to push your belly out,
and you don't want to push your ribs out,
bracing the lower abdomen, pushing the feet straight
down into the floor, and tightening the bottom,
lifting up.
So working on those strong postural muscles, push down,
lifting up, hold it for a count of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, and lower
down.
Just going to do it one more time,
pushing the feet down, tightening,
bracing the lower abdomen, and holding for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,
and back down.
So those three exercises were aided by gravity,
a little help pushing this way.
The next one is going to be a little harder,
as we work against gravity coming into bird-dog.
So coming on the hands and knees.
Going to start with my knees together,
my hands shoulder-width apart.
Just extend the left leg back.
For now, I'm going to keep the toes on the ground.
And again, look for--
I'm sticking my thumb in my belly button,
finding the lower abdomen, firming the belly.
I'm going to keep that firm, extend
the right arm, and if possible, lift the left leg.
There's a strong balancing work here.
Hold it for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.
Hand down and knee down.
Switching sides, I'm going to stretch my right leg back,
toes are tucked under.
And again thumb in the belly button,
finding the lower abdomen, firming the belly,
maintaining neutral spine position
as I lift the right leg and the left arm up
and hold for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Hand down and knee down.
So practice these exercises.
It will take a little while to get more familiar
with the position of the pelvis and the neutral spine position.
And come back again, we'll continue on.
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