Begin by lying on your side. Slightly bend the bottom leg for stability. Now bend the top leg until the knee is directly under the hip. Tuck the tailbone under and rest the Sissel Body Toning Bar on the top foot to deepen the stretch. Hold for 45 seconds toa minute.
Rest the mid-back on the Sissel Exercise Ball with the Sissel Body Toning Bar resting on the upper shoulders while crossing the arms to secure the bar. Tuck the chin in and place the tongue on the roof of the mouth to engage the deep neck flexors. Exhale and slowly twist into an oblique crunch engaging the movement from the abdominals. Hold for 2 seconds and alternate sides. Repeat 20 to 26 times
Begin by kneeling on a mat, grip onto the Sissel Body Toning Bar with both hands and sit back into the stretch. Keep the arms straight and hold for 45 seconds to a minute.
Start by straddling the Exercise Ball, keeping the knees directly below the hips, and gripping onto the Power Weight Balls. The arms start extended downward and forward of the body, palms facing inward. At the same time, squeeze in with the knees and raise the arms to the side then overhead. The arms remain rigid throughout the movement. When the arms are at shoulder level, it is important to twist the palms upward before bringing the arms together over head. Release the squeeze and slowly return the arms to the start position. Repeat for sets
To the well-informed Pilates practitioner, the Wunda Chair is the most challenging apparatus in Joseph Pilates’ system. A variety of exercises can be performed on the chair, most done with one or two springs stretched between the pedal and the back edge of the apparatus. Try these challenging push-ups Joseph developed to be performed on the Wunda Chair.
Beyond the Movement is the very first Podcast dedicated to the Pilates Method. Your host, Heidi Miller has an extensive fitness background and has dedicated herself to her Pilates studio and her many students. While teaching, Heidi has recognized the need to inform and inspire. She has an intuitive understanding of the mechanics of the body and a passion for helping others to unlock their body's potential. Pilates is based on movement, but after only a few sessions, most people begin to understand that Pilates can be so much more than movement alone. This Podcast is dedicated to providing insight and exploration into the body's awakening as you progress beyond the movement.
Lie on your side, bend your knees and support your head with your bottom hand. Place a towel under the elbow of your top arm and grip onto a light Body Toning Bar, palm facing toward the floor. Keeping the elbow on the towel, slowly raise the forearm away from the floor. Repeat 12 to 15 times each side
Begin with a seated position on the Exercise Ball, maintaining a neutral, stable posture on the exercise ball, a SPower Weight Ball in each hand. The arms begin extended forward of the body, straight out from the shoulder. The elbows are bent, the wrists staying above the elbow to begin the movement. Basically, the elbow is bent at 90 degrees at the start position. This is a four part movement. Part one, keeping the wrist above the elbow, extending the arms upward. Part two, turn the elbows out to the side without dropping the arms. Part three, let the elbows drop back to the 90 degree angle, but out to the side (as opposed to the front as in the start position). Part four, return to the start position. To make this exercise more challenging, you can alternate sets or repetitions by stabilizing with only one foot on the ground. Switch legs between sets.
Begin in a bent over position gripping onto the Body Toning Bar. Feet should be hip-width apart, gaze toward the floor. Contract the abdominal muscles and with a power lunge slowly raise the Sissel Body Toning Bar over the head and jump up in the sky landing in a lunge position. Jump back to starting position. Repeat 10 times each side. 20 times total.
Caution: do not do this exercise if you have any knee problems or lower back problems. When jumping into the lunge, front foot should land flat on the floor and front knee should not go over the shoelaces.
Start from a ball bridge position, body weight centralized to the top of the shoulder blades while the hips shoulders and knees are maintained in parallel alignment. Keep the knee directly above the heel. The arms begin out to the side from the shoulder, palms facing toward the ceiling. Slowly lower the arms to the floor, allowing the chest to relax while maintaining a stable body position. Lower the Sissel Power Weight Balls to a comfortable stop, then hold for a minimum of 30 seconds
Start with your feet hip-width apart and Sissel Heavy Bar straight out in front of you, palms facing down to floor. Inhale contract abdominals, lift chest and posture, and exhale step behind you diagonally coming into a lunge. Keep the knee in one line with the ankle and the front toes lifted in the shoes. Inhale back to center and alternate to the other side. Repeat 6 to 10 times each side.
Start from a ball bridge position, body weight centralized to the top of the shoulder blades while the hips shoulders and knees are maintained in parallel alignment. Keep the knee directly above the heel. The arms begin straight up from the shoulder, palms facing toward the knees. Bending only at the elbows let the forearm lower the Sissel Power Weight Ball to the outside of the ear, then return to the start position. Be mindful of keeping the elbow stable, not swaying side to side, or forward and back. Repeat for sets.
People spend millions, if not billions of dollars, each year in the quest for a flat stomach. Right now there are about 200 or more ab exercise devices out there. There's the ab do-it, the ab rock-it, the ab roller, the ab dolly, and so many more. You would think that with all of these amazing new products that most people would be walking around with that nice, lean mid-section they've always wanted. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
Most, if not all of these products, will do little or nothing to flatten your stomach. And that's because these exercise contraptions cannot eliminate the layer of fat that lies on top of your abs.
In order to be successful at thinning your waistline you must have a basic under standing of how the ab muscles function and how your body burns fat. The first thing that needs to be understood is the difference between fat and muscle. Fat is excess calories and is primarily stored in layers on top of muscle tissue. Muscle is made up of fibers that contract or shorten to produce movement. Fat cannot turn into muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat! However, you can lose muscle and you can gain fat. That's what happens to most people.
So if your goal is to thin your waist line and have a nice flat stomach, the first thing you need to do is decrease / eliminate the layers of fat that are on top of your abs. We all have a flat stomach; it's just some of oar's are covered by excess fat.
The most effective way of flattening your stomach is a combination of strength training (with a extra focus on mid-section), cardiovascular exercise (short, hard workouts), and stable blood sugar (keeps you from adding additional fat and makes it easier for the body to use body fat for fuel).
Continue reading "Do You Want a Flat Stomach" »
Begin with feet wide, toes facing out, knees should be facing the same direction as feet. Tuck the tailbone under and grip the Sissel Body Toning Bar, palms facing toward the body. Engage the abdominals, and exhale lower into the plié dropping tailbone toward the floor. At the same time, slowly raise the Sissel Body Toning Bar to shoulder level. Hold for 2 seconds and slowly inhale return to starting position. Repeat 15 to 20 times.
Most people who want to burn off some excess pounds and tighten and tone their bodies simply don’t have 2 hours each day to spend in the gym performing the bodybuilding style workouts that most “fitness experts” recommend.
Plus, these workouts consist of exercises and techniques that do not exercise the body in the way it is normally used so they end up building a somewhat unusable strength. In my opinion, most people, unless their main objective is body building, shouldn’t perform the traditional style workouts
While I do still believe that machine and free weight strength training is the best choice for body building, it is NOT the best choice when it comes to general fitness goals like strength, flexibility, endurance, etc.
I don’t know about you, but I can barely fit in 15 minutes for exercise let alone 2 hours… and I personally am not interested in muscle size alone (which doesn’t mean strength and usually leaves you stiff and inflexible)! I’m sure your schedule is probably the same. The good news though is you don’t have to… you can burn fat, increase flexibility, build unbelievable strength and endurance, reshape your body, and build a level of fitness that is truly functional.
I want to share with you a workout that I do personally that delivers a great combination of strength, flexibility, cardio and muscular endurance, and fat burning.
Start with feet hip-width apart while holding on to Sissel Body Toning Bar, slowly lift one leg by gripping onto to the back of the foot, heel moving toward the buttock. Knee should point down to the floor. Tuck the tailbone under and maintain an upright posture. Hold for 45 seconds to a minute.
Directions:
1. Lie on your back with legs straight and arms stretched above your head, shoulders down.
2. Keeping your back flat on the floor, slowly lift your arms toward the ceiling as you breathe in.
3. As you breathe out, slowly roll forward, peeling your spine off the mat. Head remains straight, eyes focused forward. Stomach remains taut, not crunched.
4. Breathing in again, stretch out over your legs. Breathing out, slowly roll back down to the floor.
5. Do not pause, but as you breathe in roll up again, to begin the second repetition. Do 10 repetitions.
You are tense, tired, edgy, perhaps even angry, hurt or feeling abused. But before dealing directly with the source of whatever provoked your feelings, get yourself into a more balanced and resourceful state of mind. Then you will be able to see your situation more objectively and work on a more permanent solution. Here are four easy ways to pivot:
1.Take a Break. No matter how difficult the situation may appear to be, a change of pace can help you open up new ways of looking at the problem. Stop what you’re doing and find something else to do. Focus your mind on anything but the cause of your stress. For example, if you are working on a stressful task, find another task to work on.
2. Practice Deep Breathing. Breathing! It's one of the simplest yet most effective ways to manage stress's effects on your body. When you are stressed, you have a tendency to breathe more shallowly and rapidly; some people even hold their breath; depriving your body of vital oxygen. To promote a relaxation response, breathe slowly and deeply.
3.Work It Off Physically. Physical activities like stretching, walking or yoga can help relax both your mind and your body. Even a five- or ten-minute movement break can go a long way toward helping your body reduce the tension caused by stress.
4. Appreciate What is Working. The more you focus on problems, the more stressed out you will feel. Likewise, the more you dwell on what is working, the better you will feel. Review in your mind or make a list of everything that is "right" with your job. You may discover that you cannot be in a stressed out state and an appreciative state at the same time. For this reason, appreciation can be one of the most powerful tools for easing tension and feeling better immediately.
You may find that once you release the tension and take your focus off the problem, the solution will magically appear.
Start with your head and shoulder blades on the Sissel Exercise Ball, hips parallel to the floor. While exhaling push the Sissel Body Toning Bar away from your chest until arms are straight but not locked. Inhale, return Sissel Body Toning Bar to chest. Keep bellybutton pulled in toward spine and hips parallel to the floor while performing this exercise. Repeat 10-12 times.
Start by sitting on the Sissel Exercise Ball, standing on the ground, or for more advanced, kneeling on the Sissel Exercise Ball and hold onto Sissel Body Toning Bar, palms facing the body. Contract abdominals, inhale bending forearms, bringing hands toward shoulders. Keep the abdominals contracted and exhale slowly push the bar over your head until your arms are straight but not locked. Return back to starting position. Repeat 10 to 12 times.
A team from Seattle's Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies assessed 101 adults with back pain. Those who practiced weekly 75-minute yoga classes made greater progress than those who took part in strengthening and stretching classes. The Annals of Internal Medicine study also found yoga was more effective than using a self-care book on back pain. The researchers found that at the end of 12 weeks patients in the yoga group were better able to do daily activities involving the back. After another 14 weeks they also reported less pain, and used less pain relieving drugs. Researcher Dr Karen Sherman said: "Most people have experienced back pain at some point in their lives. "Sometimes the pain goes away in a few days, but sometimes it lasts for weeks. "And unfortunately, the treatments offered by modern Western medicine are only modestly effective."
Continue reading "Yoga Helps Back Pain" »
SEX-READY CORE
Nothing is more crucial to making sweet love than a solid core. It's the midsection muscle that puts the motion in your ocean. And while nobody's knocking the usual array of crunches, leg lifts, trunk twists and spinal extensions, nothing will prepare your torso to tango like Pilates.
"The truth is, Pilates is not only great for strengthening your core, it's also great for improving your flexibility," says Mari Windsor, author of Pilates Powerhouse. "And flexibility is also important for sexual performance. After all, you don't want to stop the flow of sex because your muscles are cramping or you're not flexible enough to get into a certain position."
Granted, there are dozens of Pilates exercises, but Windsor suggests the beginning sexerciser do the following: While lying on your back with your arms straight by your sides, use your abdominals to slowly stretch your legs up, continuing until your toes reach the floor behind your head (or as near to the floor as your creaky spine allows). Then slowly lower your legs back down, while exhaling, until they reach a 45-degree angle to the mat. Repeat, remembering to "peel" your spine from the mat and not "throw" your legs over your head. A few weeks of this and you'll be able to assume any position her naughty little heart desires.
Healing through back pain exercise
Active forms of back pain exercise (physical therapy) are typically necessary to rehabilitate the spine and help alleviate back pain. Importantly, a regular back pain exercise routine provides patients with the means to help avoid recurrences of low back pain, and helps reduce severity and duration of potential future episodes of low back pain.
The natural stimulus for the back to heal is active back pain exercises, done in a controlled, gradual, and progressive manner. Movement distributes nutrients into the disc space and soft tissues in the spine to keep the discs, muscles, ligaments and joints healthy. And the converse is true too—lack of exercise can worsen back pain by leading to stiffness, weakness, and de-conditioning.
Continue reading "Exercises for Back Pain" »
Begin in a prone position, Sissel Exercise Ball situated underneath the hips. Keep the upper torso neutral maintain a subtle back extension. Chin is tucked in and the neck is kept in line with the spine. Toes are turned downward, touching the ground, and the legs are rigid with a slight bend at the knee. One arm is extended forward from the shoulder the other arm is extended along the side of the body. Keeping the arms rigid, slowly circle the Sissel Power Weight Balls in a clockwise manner, keeping the arms parallel throughout. Repeat for set, and then switch to rotating in the opposite direction.
Begin by sitting and cross one leg over the other placing foot flat on the floor. Maintain a good posture. Place Sissel Body Toning Bar between calf and hamstring of the bottom leg and rest there. Hold for 45 seconds to a minute.
Exercise Description:
Seated Lateral Stretch with Body Toning Bar.
Instruction:
Sit on the floor stretching one leg to the side and tuck the other foot into the inner thigh. Place the Body Toning Bar to the inside of the ankle of the leg that is extended and grip onto the Body Toning Bar, palms facing away from the body. Keep top arm straight and slowly stretch to the side, keeping top shoulder spiralling back and the bottom shoulder moving forward.
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How does pregnancy affect the stable core?
During pregnancy, your tummy muscles are stretched over your growing baby and may weaken as a result. Your pelvic floor muscles are also placed under great stress and tend to stretch and move lower down into the pelvis under the weight of the baby. As a result, you may find it harder to contract these muscles and to hold them for very long. If your pelvic floor muscles are very weak, you may find that you are leaking urine when you cough or sneeze. If your tummy muscles are weak, you may have back or pelvic pain. During pregnancy, the hormone relaxin causes your ligaments to stretch more than normal and if you overload them further you may cause an injury.
Is Pilates useful during pregnancy?
Because Pilates targets the tummy and pelvic floor muscles and these muscles can weaken during pregnancy, Pilates exercises can be useful. Many Pilates exercies are performed on a "hands and knees" position, and this is an ideal position for pregnancy. It helps to take a lot of stress off your back and pelvis and towards the end of your pregnancy can help to position your baby ready for delivery.
Am I safe to do Pilates whilst I am pregnant?
Before trying any Pilates exercises, it is important to ensure that you can perform a strong pelvic floor contraction by squeezing in your pelvic floor muscles and holding it for at least 10 seconds. If you cannot maintain a "stable core" by tightening your pelvic floor and lower abdominal muscles then you are at risk of overstressing your joints and ligaments during the exercises.
Continue reading "Pilates And Pregnancy" »
Lie face up on a mat with hands by your sides and legs straight. Wrap tubing around your feet and hold tubing handles in each hand. Inhale and exhale as you draw your navel in toward your spine. Draw your chin toward chest as you lift your torso and legs off the mat. Continue lifting until you are sitting in a V-shape and balancing on your sitting bones. Extend the spine in neutral and reach arms above chest. Inhale as you balance. Exhale as you slowly return to starting position.
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Lie face up on a mat with arms by your sides. Hold legs in air with knees bent to 90 degrees. Place SitFit under low back and hips. Lift your head and shoulders off mat and take 5 short, consecutive inhales, followed by 5 short, consecutive exhales. At the same time, lift arms off mat and pulse them in unison with the breath — palms face up on inhale and down on exhale. Repeat 10 times for a total of 100 breaths.
Caution: The neck should be flexed but not tense.
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Pilates is an exercise program that focuses on the core postural muscles that help keep the body balanced and are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of neutral alignment of the spine and strengthening the deep postural muscles that support this alignment, which are important to help alleviate and prevent back pain.
The important principles of pilates are consistent with an exercise program that promotes back health. In particular, learning awareness of neutral alignment of the spine and strengthening the deep postural muscles that support this alignment, are important skills for the back patient. Patients with back pain stemming from excessive movement and degeneration of the intervertebral discs and joints are particularly likely to benefit from this exercise program. In addition, postural asymmetries can be improved, thus decreasing wear and tear resulting from uneven stresses on the intervertebral joints and discs.
Pilates improves strength, flexibility and suppleness of the muscles of the hip and shoulder girdle. Fluid and supported movement through these joints helps prevent unnecessary torque on the vertebral column. Awareness of movement habits that may stress the spine helps the patient change these habits to those that preserve neutral alignment. Awareness of excessive tension and the use of proper focus helps the patient use the body efficiently.
Buy the Pilates Back Book @ Amazon.com
After researching and writing my first article on Pilates, I became fascinated by the subject matter and decided to do some further investigation. Learning and writing about a new form of exercise can be interesting, but nothing beats going out and doing it. So I began private sessions with Melissa Pope, a certified trainer who I had interviewed for the article. Not knowing what to expect, I arrived for my first session eager but apprehensive. Now, nearly 2 months after starting the training, I believe that this is one of the most effective and satisfying fitness programs I have experienced. In other words, I haven't felt this good since putting away my ballet shoes a long time ago.
Continue reading "Pilates - What's it all About?" »
Tone your triceps, biceps, shoulders and upper back using Gaim’s exclusive, cushioned Pilates BodyCircles and included workout DVD (14 minutes) with Ana Caban. BodyCircles: set of two, 13¼" diameter.
Buy it online @ Gaim.com