Pre-Pilates

Chapter 1

Introduction: Pre-Pilates

What we're going to do, uh, this afternoon is what I call pre polite is it's, it's getting people to understand their own bodies before they start the more difficult exercises. And I'm very, I'm very strong on recruitment, the correct recruitment of the exercises and also the correct posture. I think if someone is standing or sitting in the correct way or even lying in the correct way, the exercises themselves work much more. Um, so we're going to start with just what I think should be the correct posture and what goes wrong if it's not correct. So Kathy, could you stand up for a second? Just stand a sideways if you look out this way so that people can see what, what I want and what we work for is a straight, we're looking through the central line is usually okay. Unless there's a leg length difference or um, Osteo, uh, osteoporosis or anything that any disease can cause this one to go different scoliosis, all those will be have to be addressed.

But today we're going to deal with this alignment. And what I want is from the just behind the ear here, through the shoulder joint, through the hip joint, through the knee joint, and hitting the floor just at in front of the ankle joint at the front of the heel because anything behind that or in front of that will cut out the muscles we want to work. So I'm going to ask Kathy to go into a lordotic posture. She does it so well and we get a lot of this and what happens is because of that, she has cut out the glutes, the hamstrings, the abductors, and the abdominals plus the letters. Ms. Dorsey, as soon as she goes into that position, she's cut out the major muscles that she needs to stand upright.

And it's the same if you go into this posture here, the muscles are wrong because we've taken out the natural curve. So we're tightening the hip flexors and not really getting this working. The other way is if she goes into a thoracic of issue, goes into a kyphotic posture, which I'm sure you see a lot of this. What do you think has what's happened to her there? What is she going to have had in difficulty to do in this position?

Breathe. Yeah, absolutely. Because she's closed off all this area here. She shortened the Pex, she's very tight in the thoracic spine and her breathing has cut out. So these are the areas we're going to work on to begin with. So to get this area in this position, we're going to work on the abdominals. All three sets, the litter, Smith's door, sigh, the glutes, the hamstrings, and the adductors, the inner thighs. And to get that, we need to get people into a really good position to start with.

I'm going to start in what we call semi supine position. So Kathy, can you hop up on here? Can you lie on your back? Okay. So first of all, what I want is to, I don't know if any of you who've done the Alexander Technique, which is that elongation, and you must never, we don't lie like this. So whenever people are in the semi supine position, I always play something under the head. So immediately it softens the muscles of the neck. And then we go start. We'll start from the feet.

The feet are parallel in line with the central, the hip joints and the the feet you've got. Imagine the base of your foot or triangle. So the base of the triangle is across the metatarsal or five of them. So you've got that triangle and the apex of the triangle is at the front of the heel, so we always keep that. So the this, there's no movement in the legs. If someone is overdeveloped in the quads and the quads want to move outwards, we'd put a small pad between the knees that I move up to the pelvis.

And again, this triangle feeling is from the cock six up across the top of the pelvis. That triangle is down, so you imagine a triangle at the, on the base of the back, and also the lower torso, the front. So we had that across that angle there. Then leaving the middle of the torso, we then go up to the rib cage and feel that the ribs of they wide in this position and then gently elongate the spine. Then we'll go back to the lumbar spine.

And for me the neutral spine is something you've got when you stand up that this is to help you to stand correctly and act as a shock. Absorption when you're lying down, it changes slightly. So we'd need to think of the weight of the organs, finding their own level so it's not imprinted, but it's at a much, much softer position. The main thing to think about is the neutral pelvis. So the pelvis stays absolutely still, so there's no arching or contraction. Okay?

Now in this position we're going to do a simple breathing pattern, but you're going to think of three areas. You're going to think of the sip burns, the hipbones and the bottom rib, the floating ribs, and as you exhale you're going to feel that all three of those positions are going to come together like this as if you've got a bay wide belt or a pair of hands around your waist. So as you breathe out, you feel this pulling in this way because you're drawn in through here, here and here. I used to say draw your navel to the spine a lot and everybody is got everyone doing this all the time. Whereas this way you're getting the obliques working as well as the transverse and you're not disturbing the position of your lower back. So the lower back stays quite soft. Okay.

I will say towards the end of this feeling of drawing, and now just think of your navel to slightly depressing it towards the spine, but not this pull in. Shall we try that? Can you, do you want like quite happy to stay there? Okay. If you lie on your backs, I have the pillow. Ah, sorry. The the towel under your head. Put your arms by your sides. [inaudible] think of your feet first. I want your feet in parallel in line with your hip joints. Think of the angle of your legs to about 90 degrees.

So hip with the part and just feel that foot flat on the floor. Feel the triangle where the base of the triangle is and where the apex, the triangle, and I'll move up to your pelvis and make sure your pelvis is, the tailbone is done. You've got that apex of the triangle is the tailbone and the base of the triangle is just the top of the pelvis. Now the rib cage, feel that your ribs have a wide. Just imagine your low, your upper back is spreading out to wards the sides of your mat and just take hold of your head with both hands and gently give yourself a little traction with the head and place it back onto the mat, not just they very gently move your head from side to side to make sure that muscles of the neck are quite soft. Another place your arms by your sides. Okay, slightly bent elbows with the palms down. Pay Slight Bend.

Hellebores. Okay, so we're going to think the sip burns, the hipbones and the floating rib. Take a deep breath in through your nose and as you breathe out, just bring those areas towards the center of the torso. Just imagine a large pair of hands wrapping around your waist. I let you use your own imagination whose hands they are, but feel free and then relax. Breathing in and breathe out and just gently wrap around. Think of the, I mean, obviously the hip bones don't move, but it's a sensation of narrowing across the lower torso and breathe in and breathe out and just to feel it all pulling together.

That's it. That's nice and relaxed. Breathing in and breathe out. Remember, you're not going to feel any pressure down onto the lumbar spine. One more time, reading in and breathe out and pull across. Let's do one more time. And when you've completely exhaled, just drop your navel down a little. So take a deep breath in and breathe out and wrap. And when you've almost fully exhaled, just drop the navel down just a little and you just get a little more work there. Good. Do you feel that working on that with your breath, can you imagine that you're breathing out to a very thin straw so the breath comes out very slowly so you have time to organize what's happening with the muscles as you breathe out, rather than getting it out. I, I don't like hearing the breath coming out.

I want it to just trickle out almost. Let's do one more with a very slow breath. Breathe in. Wraparound, sit bones, hip bones, and floating rib and just very thin breath. That's better. It lasts much, much longer. Okay. This time you're going to do exactly the same.

You're going to use one third of the exhalation to stabilize the two thirds to do a vase, small pelvic tilt. So just imagine your tailbone curling between your thighs towards your navel. So take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, wraparound, stabilize and tilt. Feel the tailbone coming away from the floor. Just just a small curl of the tailbone and then relax it back down.

Breathing in and breathe out. Stabilize until, don't think of squeezing anything. It's just the curling through. The muscles will work because of what you're doing and breathe in and relax and read out and code. There you go. Just soften through here and that's it. Okay, and one more time within stabilize and curl undressed. [inaudible] this time will you just place your right hand onto the sternum? Just like this. Just with your insight, your think of your little finger on the sternum. Okay. [inaudible] excuse me. Take a breath in. Now we'll do the same thing.

Read out, stabilize and Karl, and just feel a slight weight on your little finger onto your sternum and then relax back down and breathing in. Just so you aware of the relaxation of the, of the ribs. What? I don't want it because in this position, because you're lying flat, you've taken out the lumbar spine, so in fact your rib cage will be slightly more prominent than when you're lying when you're standing up. So I really, if I see teachers touch the low ribs and say, close your ribs, I get very excited and annoyed because immediately do you do this? You get this sensation here of closing. So it's always just a slight movement onto the sternum.

Okay. Right. Let's just take, Kathy will show, his watch is going to donate. It's just we've just moved on to there. So we're going to do the same pelvic tilt. I'm not going to say sit bones, hip bones, low rib. I'm just going to say stabilize, which will mean wrapping around.

So you take a breath in. Now as you breathe out, you stabilized first and then you're going to hurl up towards your scapular keeping flection as you grow up. That's on the outward breath. So you keep the curve. It's like a hammock effect. Then as you breathe in, you bring both hands up to 90 degrees, palms facing each other. Then as you breathe out, you slowly roll down that stretch your fingertips to the ceiling. So it's almost as if you're bringing your scapular away from the floor and then you breathe in and bring your arms down. Okay? You could make a big circle of people on the sides can make a big, rather than just bringing them down, you can circle them all the way around, whichever you have room for. Okay, so shall we try that?

So remember it. There's no bridging. It's a curl. It's uh, uh, the back stays in flection. As you go up, take a breath in and as you breathe out, stabilize, color up. Go right onto the skeptic, keeping the back of the neck. Long as you go up, you're a little higher. Now bring your arms up straight. Breathing in, palms facing each other. Now as you breathe out, slowly, take the spine down. Feel as if you've got a weight on your abdominals. As you go down and when you feel the tailbone touch, bring your arms by your sides or if you want to tip, go run in a wide circle and breathe in. Breathe out and curl all the way up onto the shoulder blades. Bring your arms up, breathing in, palms facing and breathe out and cold on and bring your arms down or in a circle, whichever you like.

What are you thinking about as you called on? What's your, what's your feeling as you roll down? What do you thinking about [inaudible] yeah, the anything else? [inaudible] what? What do you thinking? What do you, are you thinking of your spine at all? You don't what I, what I used to s I mean I used to say think of rolling down vertical by basketball, like a string of pearls or whatever. But I found that if I was working with someone that had an uneven flexibility of the spine, they would reach the stiff part and try and get it to move, which would stop the flow of the movement. So what I'm gonna just watch Kathy for a second as you, she's going to go up and she breeds in obviously with the renew their arms up and she's going to ignore her spine.

But what she's going to think about is the rounding of the front of the torso. So it's the front of the Tulsa that's going to do it all the way down and then place the arms back. Because if you think, if you do the standing [inaudible], excuse me, you do the Standing Rhoda, you know, over the rolling Dan standing at the, from the standing position. Do we think of the spine or do we think for the front? The Torso? Think of the front, which when in fact will open the back out as you go down. So this is what we're going to try.

Let's do two more with the spine doesn't exist. It's just the front of the torso. And tell them if you disagree with something, I say, let's talk about it. Okay? There's not a problem yet. Take a breath in. And as you breathe that stabilize, come up onto the scalp pillar. Bring your arms up to the ceiling, breathing in, palms facing.

Now reach your fingers to the ceiling and just think of the front of the torso. Just think of that hammock and bring your arms back down or in a circle. One more time and breathe out and curl. Curl in a little more. That's it. Yeah. Arms Up. Breathing in and breathe out and stretch your fingers and just think of the front of the torso. Reach up, reach up, reach up, and then bring your arms down. How does that feel? Do you see the difference?

Chapter 2

Pre-Pilates with Coordination

So what you're going to do is you're going to stabilize and then very gently slide your right leg away. But at the same time, although you've stabilized your center, you're going to concentrate on the right side. So it's as the heel goes away, you're going to feel a pull up to the right side of the torso. So that's this area here. And then just place it back in, breathing in. We'll alternate that.

We'll do it twice on each side with just the leg and then we'll do it twice on each side. Taking the arm back at the same time. So your coordinate the movement, leg and arm, so the the foot and the hand ends the movement at the same time. Okay, so we're beginning to teach the client coordination here. So take a breath in, stabilize. And as you breathe that, just slide your heel away. Just imagine your heels on a wheel. Sorry, not the arm. Yeah, just the leg. Keep the heel on the ground all the time and then breathe in and bring it back up.

And on the other leg, stretch away and rich drawing up on this side, the leg that's moving away, pull up a little more and back once more to each side and breathe out and stretch. Just an easy soft foot. You don't have to have it flexed, appointed 20 through here. Just a little more. That's it. That looks good. Now with your arm and legs, it's a simultaneous movement and breathe out. Um, it's on the same side to get that feeling of the elongation through the whole side. Well, same arm, same leg. Yep. And back. Breathing in and again, all to go that to the other side. Let's alternate this one and kind of back one more to the side and stretch. Good. Kathy, can you, can I displace you?

Could you come up onto the side? What's your name? Mary. Mandy. Mandy. Come up onto the, onto the operating table. I just wanted to show you something that we get. So lie down. Maybe we're just going to use your arm. Sorry, Ben. [inaudible]. So, um, both up.

So we're just going to look at the arms. So if you watch where Mandy's arm is, as she goes back, she gets to a point where the shoulder is not going to allow it to go anymore. And what I get is a slight bending of the elbow to try and get, cause the teacher said, put your hand back if it doesn't go, this is not going to help. First of all, you would get a position that you'd see, I would see where Mandy goes to begin with. And then obviously in this sort of vironment you can't do it, but I would put a pad or something there. So she would reach the end of her movement to be able to rest it on something so that it wouldn't be hanging the, so the muscles would be uh, be able to let go.

Then I would ask her to work from thee rather than working from the hand. I'd ask you to work from the low rib to the elbow. So from him, Andy, when you turn, you turn your to that way. Now you're going to turn your hands slightly that, no, just think of there to there to open it out. Just stretchered statutes to think of opening it armpit that we go and you get much more movement. So rather than going from here, it comes from this part. So you're getting fat. If you think of opening from your elbow to your lower ribs, your s scapula goes down and there's much more freedom.

So if you, the best thing is to have their hand slightly outwardly rotated. They are rotated that, so it really gets a little more movement. But we need to get this opening rather than than that. Thank you. Welcome. Okay, and are you any questions about that?

It doesn't have to be the full movement. It doesn't have to be the full range. Go to the range of what the person can do. Okay. This time we're going to do diagonally, right arm, left leg with armpits operated. Okay. Okay, so let's do right arm, left leg, and then left arm, right leg twice on each diagonal. So imagine that your heel is on a small wheel and just glides away as you do it.

So take a breath in a stabilize and the diagonal stretch. Think of your armpits and breathe in as you come back. And uh, the dogma would breathe out and stretch. Yeah. That we'll miss that sling effect to the front of the toss. As you go back and read in and return, stretch and come back.

Just look through the center just a little more and soften through here. That's good. That's nice. Just keep the stabilization of the lower torso. Don't let the pelvis shift from side to side. Must stay absolutely still.

Even if you don't fully stretch your legs again, if you feel your pelvis moving, stop the movement and then just keep working on until you get a little more movement with the pelvis in one place. And Nice. I think we should, we sometimes are too concerned to get the end range of the movement and it's best to go halfway until you can maintain the stability. Take your towels and just fold them. Um, just roll them like this. Okay. Just so you have your head roughly so your arms are roughly in line with your shoulders and just rest your tal onto your thighs with your knees bend. Same thing. Take a breath in as you breathe out. Stabilize.

Now as you slide both heels away, you're going to take your towel. Think of your towel rather than your arms back over your head, but keep the stomach muscles working. Soften the chest as you go back. Go as far as you can, but no further. Don't go. If your back is moving and breathe in and bring it back. Coordination, finished the movement all at the same time. Stabilize, stretch away. Take care of arms back as your legs go away.

Putting up through the center of really feeling the lift. Imagine you're standing up, pulling right up away from your legs. Good and breathe in and come back. Couple more like that and stretch away. Feel your heels a little lighter on the floor and breathe in. Come back last one and stretch away and come back. Very good.

Okay, very nice.

Chapter 3

Activating the Gluteals and Hamstrings

We're going to go into prone position and I want to share just a, and again, this is when I'm working individually, we do this sort of thing and it very much depends on who you're working with. So when I'm, when I'm working on a one to one, I always work on this sort of equipment so I can, they can have their feet hanging over the end. Okay. Which helps. It depends. You get a lot of people with vapes, stiff feet, and if you're lying on the, on the flat surface, the, there's a lot of pressure on to the Patella.

So on here it's helps to have the whole leg on the bet with a foot over. Also, if you're going to lie, um, for say two or three exercises in this position, if someone is suffering from weakness in the lumbar spine, that has to be supported. So we use a bed pillow out here, which means that this is supported for any period of time of lying there. The other thing is if, if Kathy had a stiff thoracic spine, she was Kyphotic, this would be very uncomfortable. It'd be a lot of gapping here. So again, I would use, depending on the gap, I'd use a pad under the armpit, which immediately relaxes through here.

Cause if the shoulder is too far down, it's causing a lot of tension in the upper trapezius. So padding here and padding here. So this works. This doesn't work. This is much softer. Okay. Either hands here, here or whatever position you want the, I don't think there's any hard and fast rule for that. Okay. And I mean Kathy doesn't need this. So now in this position, what I want, let's make her Nita fast.

Let's dress her up here. There you go. What I'm going to ask her to do is just focus on the sit bones and she's going to vape. Gently pull her sit bones towards the center line. So you take a breath in, Cathy. Now as you breathe out, just take fullest at Burns. Listen more. That's it. And just hold that for four counts. She's not using the ultra thaw, she's not ripping over, she's just taking it there. And the imagery I use it.

Just think of a Kebab stick or a meat secure between your, your bum cheeks and then relax. Completely. Relax here. Tell me what you see as she does this a squeeze. Little more. Little more, little more, little more. There you go. It's very subtle. But this certain changes have happened here. Yeah.

Sorry. The hamstrings have engaged. Yeah. Hammered straight serve the hamstrings and Vic gauge. What else has engaged in a thought? The doctors. Yeah. Great. Anything else again? Hmm. The lumbar spine has lengthened. Can you see that? How it just gently elongates down. She's not tucking under because she's against a solid surface, but the, the lumbar spine has lengthened. So if the lumbar spine has lengthened, what else has happened?

Had dominance have lifted and engaged. One more thing. If you think of the, we talked about the Latissimus Dorsi and if you think where it starts and where it finishes, it joins joins to the majority of the lumbar spine. So if she learned by doing this, if she lengthens that and pulls down through and opens this out, it means she's connecting with the letters. Mr Psi at the same time so that she is strengthening this area of the back. And this is important when you do things like swan dive or back, you know, really lifting Cobra and things that you've got the work through here.

There's something, one more thing happened and it's as theoretic what has happened? Let go, let go and a squeeze. Yeah, she's what? She's narrowing. She's got thinner and you know you skate, you get a lot of people who have an exercise, you see how their muscles sort of fall away. So this sort of helps to bring in everything into the center line. But it's not a, you're not grabbing it. It's a subtle lift and it's just something, I call it the supermarket Q exercise.

So when you're standing in line for anything you can, you can do this, you can work it and it helps to, to get this whole area working. So also it's the base for, for you to see, say you're working. Say Kathy's had a, something wrong with her leg. She's probably, how can we say, she's sprained her ankle very badly. So she's been limping for quite awhile. And by looking at this, you can see by the gluteal crease and the way those muscles work, if they're working together and if they're working equally, and you quite often get one side will recruit on the other one won't because this whole side has been weakened by bay by limping or had a, you know, someone with a hip replacement or anything that has an involved uneven gait. So what you can do in this position, let's say Kathy is left side, is weaker than the right. I'm gonna ask her to squeeze the left side only.

So Kathy, just the left one and then relax and again, so however many times I feel she needs to do it. And then, okay, Cathy, hold that and break this one into match. So rather than just going squeeze square, we do more on one side than the other. Okay. You can put music to this. Yeah. So you, what I find in the technique, there's very little hamstring work. You know, you've got the ones where you do this, the leg kicks or the singlet kicks.

But what I want is to look at the way the hamstrings are working and rather than kicking, I just want a slow hamstring curl. So Kathy is going to squeeze about us to do. Then she's going to let go 50% so the still some muscle work there, but not too hard. Then she's going to slowly bend her knee and come up. So she's getting the hamstring working and again, I would check how the hamstrings are working. Are they working at the same time or is one weaker than the other, et cetera.

So then I would adjust and then don, I want you to keep your knee down there, Kathy, for the time being and Ben just bend the knee. That's good. And she's keeping her hips. Absolutely still. What I want you to do this time, Kathy, as you bend your knee, can you stick your bum in? Yeah. Bend your knee and sticky. You see that happening a lot? What's the problem?

[inaudible] well, she's lost them because of the position. Now what I see a lot of people do is, you know, keep it down darling. For sure. God, it's the hip flexors are too tight, the quads and the hip flexors. So what you do is take them off the exercise, stretch out the hip flexors and then go back to it because it's, if you're trying get it in this position, it doesn't work. Okay. One of the things, she has knee problems. There was a lady in yesterday who had both knees, knees replaced.

So this action can be uncomfortable on the Patella and onto the joints. So what we do the again is to take whatever, um, I, this is not enough, but it gives you an idea of to place that just above your knee, sand fat. First of all, it takes the pressure off the, the kneecap, but it will also make the hamstrings work a little more pickles. We've lifted them up in line with the hip joint. Should we, should we, should we try that? Let's see. I like to give you, while we're here, let's give you a variation. So what I want to, we'll do the, just the regular one. I will. We'll do the bump squeeze first. Then we'll do the regular knee bend, a couple on each side.

Then we'll go back and we'll bend and then just to think of your soft, easy foot floating towards the ceiling and you see how it changes. He has certain works right up into the top of the hamstring. Then you can either learn it and straighten or you can keep it up. Keep it up there and stretch it in that position to get more work into your hamstring and then done. Okay. Shall we try that? Thank you. You can stay there cause I'm going to use you again.

So lying on your front and have you felt your child again for your forehead. If it's parallel legs, no, just restaurant or you can either have your hands under your forehead or out in front. Whatever's comfortable for you. And as I say, we would normally have pillows and things under the armpits and under the under the lumbar spine. Now keeping the legs parallel, there's no rotation in the leg on this. Bring your hands a little further forward on this. It helps to lax to here. There we go. Now just think of the sit bones gently pulling together. So you've got, just think of your kebabs stick or your meats secure and feel the elongation of the lumbar spine as you do it. And a slight lift of the abdominal wall.

Hold it for four counts, four seconds, and then let go and be the add and squeeze. Remember, don't allow the lead to change that position. That has to stay parallel and relaxed. Breathing in and breathe out and squeeze a little more, a little more. That's good. Excellent. Do you feel the feeling of pulling out through there and breathe in? And one more time. Breathe out and squeeze a little more. More. That's it? Yeah. Okay. Just get that and for next, do it one more time and then just let it go. 50% so it's not too, too tense when you, when you bend the knee. So take a breath and let's do the right leg first. As you breathe out, slowly bend your right knee and breathe in and lower down.

Yeah, let's do four on that side. And then four on the other side. Think of your heel going straight to the sit burner on that side. Just drop through there. Just [inaudible] and draw the scapular down. There we go. Okay. What I'm getting is with what's happening is as you bend your knee, the heel is most of the time going on a diagonal.

It's in fat. The the, the, the angle of the heel is across the center line, which means that the leg is very slightly outwardly rotated, which means that the hamstrings aren't working equally, so you need to do, as a teacher, you need to do one of two things, take the leg and physically turn it parallel and then check the movement. The other thing you can do when you're working in this environment where there's more, when you're not on a one to one, Kathy, I want you to stretch your left arm out. Now what she's going to, she's going to imagine that there's a string from the center of the heel through her middle finger here. And her imagery is going to be as she Benz how she's going to bent on a by this string being pulled from her middle finger. So she's pulling the string mentally towards her middle finger and that for some reason makes it go straight.

Can you try that? Just one on each side. So if your right arm stretched odds of your bending your right knee. So just imagine that string and as you breathe out, pull a string from your little finger and then let the string go and the leg goes back. Kathy's having a problem, which she did 22 years ago when we worked together. Um, when she bends the right knee, trying to maintain that 50% on the left side. And what you have to think about our lower lying down as we bend this knee.

This is our standing leg. So if you let it go, you've done this. So you have to maintain the lift on the leg. You're not working that. That's what you're saying about. So you have to think of both legs, even though you're working one, the alignment of your legs were much better. And it's why I should I tell you how I discovered this. We W W I was using one of these beds, uh, next to a wall in my student at my old studio in London.

And I had someone who was in this position and they were doing this exercise and the leg was going all over the place and they said, I'm uncomfortable because my elbow is hitting the wall. I said, so stretch it out in front of you. So she did and the leg just started coming in a straight line. So I said, right, let's add on a string towards that. And it's a, it's a good visual correction for people. Let's do this one where you bend lift to get a little more into the top of the leg, making sure the 50% on the standing leg, either straighten it and lower it or just lower it and straighten it. So you can either do in the dance world ton, Dude area or just take it down and low. Just try one.

Do one of each on each side. Still use your hand if you want to. If it helps because it certainly looked better. Can we have you a little straighter on it? Why don't we go, are you expecting someone else on his bed say no, it's good. Keep the pirate level. Make you keep it. Yeah, you go, that's it.

Try and relax the shoulders as much as you can on this. Just go down just a soft, easy foot. Keep it relaxed. What we have to avoid is this over squeezing because it's not using everything. It's using just the subtle bits on the inside and sometimes people can't get it at all. So to get you can ask them to overwork a little to find it. Because if you know, some of our clients have not used that behind for a long time and it's hanging there. So sometimes you have get Catholic and your read jump up on here.

I'm not suggesting maybe. So if someone really can't find it, what you can do is to take them the legs out wide and have a slight rotation outward rotation and then get them to squeeze and that will help them to recruit them in the beginning and then you would take them back into the correct position. But that position there already with the rotation, the hamstrings and glutes have been activated and that allows them to get a little more feeling into here, but I wouldn't do it all the time. Okay. The next one is,

Chapter 4

Extension in the Thoracic Spine

again, I'm going to keep, this is what I call the Arrow. It's a thoracic extension a.

What we do is here is arm arms by your sides. Palms up. Let's put, yeah, so I'm just going to ask Kathy to go into the normal thoracic extension. Can you just as if you're going to the preparation of the Swan. Okay. And then Don, she does that very well, but the majority of people have no recruitment here. And we'll just break from the, the, the, the junction of the, the lumber and thoracic spine so that it's as if they're going into a v so they'd just pull up. Because if the thoracic spine is too tight, they immediately just break into here. And if you think it's, if you, it's like a hinge there and if you, oh, like a door. If you overuse that hinge, it gets weaker.

So we need to get away from there as much as possible. So what we're going to do is from here, first of all, this is the, there's about four movements on a long slow exhalation. So, so we won't worry about the breath at this point, Kathy. What she does is she is going to be gently a floater, palms up, not just your palms, which will bring your arms up. There you go. Then holding them in that position. She's going to draw her scapula. No down, just not together.

Down. There you go. Now lift your sternum a little. There we go. So immediately we've got the movement here. Do you that working into their, oh, so let's go do that again. So the arms float up, the scapular slides down the back but not together. And then she lifts a sternum and just thinks of the top of the head going away.

And I will, I probably place two fingers on each side of the spine as she does that and then done. Okay. Shall we try that with a partner so you can see what happens to the back because what happens is that this, this goes, remember yesterday with um, Babette she had [inaudible] was pulling the shoulder blades together, which pushes the ribs out and tighten through here. So it's that feeling of drawing down. Thanks. Great. So let's do it for the partner. So someone will just see what's going. I'll talk you through it. Obviously [inaudible] come and work with Kathy. Hell that's great. Okay.

Now just check your partners lying in the right position. Are they straight and just make notes of where you would put any cushions if you needed it. Just that you didn't have an idea of what you would do to help them have your forehead resting onto a [inaudible]. I'm just waiting for the train. Yeah. Have something under the forehead. [inaudible] no, that's straight. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Okay. Right. Are you ready?

Take a breath in. Now as you breathe out, float the palms of the hands up. Don't involve the shoulders too much. So that's what you want to get. Not to involve the shoulders, Bay much arms. Actually the arms, the hands are bringing the arms up. So if you think of standing, it's just gently floating your arms behind you if you're standing. So it's a very soft movement. When you've got that, draw the scapula down. Just get your finger and thumb at the, just the base of the scapular and just gently get direction.

And now lift the sternum. A little awesome place you think is there. She comes up. So yeah. And then relax. Back Down. Breathing in. I think she's coming up a little too high on that. Yeah. So what you can do is flex your arms up. Do all the Scapula and a on this. Just lift your head up. Not your sternum. Just your head. There we go. That's it. That's about it. And that's it. Do you feel that the, that good? Yeah. Can you hold on for a second?

Uh, W had an f institute point here at the, so I'd finish that. Can you tell me, say your question again? I asked why you weren't mentioning scapular retraction. The scapula naturally wants to retract and if it does, what? Getting this. So we, I mean we try and keep it apart as much. It will retract a little, but the emphasis is a downward pull. And what I tend to do, which can, can you lie down again, as we say, when we do that, it naturally wants to move in, but we don't want the Rhomboids to take over too much. So what I do is from that Mary's going to just float up, palms up. Then my thumbs and fingers, the thumbs are just below the scar pillar and my fingers are done on the rib cage. So as I ask you to draw the scapular done, I'm just pulling with my thumbs, but keeping my thumbs away from each other.

Now in that position, I'm not going to ask you to lift a sternum. I'm going to ask her to lift her head a little. Just let the head there we go, and then I get to move in Taiwan. I think sometimes if you F if you ask someone to lift the sternum every time, depending on the size of the rib cage and the size of the breasts, they're already up there so then they come up higher. Okay. Okay. No Mary shall we deal with that later? But you have to take that in the cart.

Okay. The other thing I want you to think about as you've, what I'm going to, I'm going to add one more element onto this, so palms scapular head. No, I've got my a little higher now you can do a little more with the scope and not, not just with your sternum. That's it. Now holding that position, stretch your arms and rotate your palms outwards. And that will work much more into the legitimate store side. And then back and then down very much use your hands. But when you're using your hands, make sure a, you ask permission before you, you use your hands and also make you, you make use them is if you meant to make, use them client or people knows what you're doing. None of this sort of [inaudible] number go right into where you want to work.

The other thing you can do on that is, uh, go up, may pull down. Now I've got her scapula in the right place, so she's going to stretch and reach that. I'm going to change my position and just take and lift just and just elongate. So I've, I'm giving traction and there, so she's getting much more work in the thoracic spine. Do you want to try that? But remember, if you're going to touch touch, it's not a massage room. Thank you.

That was good. That looked good. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the, I can you wait one second everyone just to clear it up. When you're in this position, the arms rotate in, but the palms rotate out. So to get the palms there, the arm has to dat slightly rotate him, but it's not that number. So it's a from there you take it back, the arm rotates in which will work in the top of the lift of Smith store side.

Okay. When we were doing the Arrow on 900 off front, Mandy was a good case to show because the way she was lying, the shoulders, because of the shortness and her pecs, his shoulders were too far down. So when she lifted her hands, they went further down. So when she came up with a sternum, they were still too far down. So rather than play around with her back and trying to get to work for the back, I would take her off the exercise and do something to help to open out the front. Okay. So what we do can, normally, I'd have them sitting on a stool or a chair with their feet firmly on the ground as a base. Okay. So in this position, she is going to bend her elbows and the palms are going to face each other and the elbows are in front of the shoulder. So it's not in line like that that it's slightly forward as where their arm drops naturally so that the not here, temptations for people to put them here and they should be in front. Okay. The other thing is you don't squeeze your elbows into your ribs.

You think of activating just into the armpit, but if you squeeze your elbows and your ribs, you're restricting the movement. So they should, your Elvis should just hang because if you imagine someone, say someone had wide shoulders and a narrow waist, it would be doing this and it wouldn't work. So what we're going to do, I'll just show the action first. From there, we're going to open your arms out to there as far as possible. Then you rotate from the elbow, drawing the scap a down and just gently pushing the front of your elbow forward. You rotate back and then close. Just watch. See what happens here. She does it.

So let's do the breaths you breathe in as a preparation. You breathe out and open. Now, this is the most important movement you breathe in. As you rotate, drawing the scapula down and pushing your Elvis forward and do you see how this opens out that way and breathe out and then breathe it. Come back. So there's four movements. We do that one more time and open and rotate. Drawing the scapula down as you do it. Lift the stem just a little, that's it. And rotate back and close.

So that would be the exercise I'd give Mandy before getting her to do this now, or the other one I would do is palms down. So just imagine your par. Your lower arm is resting on a, on a tabletop. So on the inward breath, she's just going to slide her arms out to the side and just think of the scapular work so that the scapular are coming into the center so that you squeeze into the Rhomboids. There we go. Now draw the scapula down a little. You see how that opens out and the imagery, what I wanted to image it from the sternum to the shoulder. It's a triangle. So she's opening all three surfaces of that triangle. If just stand them up just a little more, drop the blades down at the block that would go.

So that will help her to whiten out through here and relax. Okay? Okay. Any questions about that? Make it not. It's not as sort of a that you, you as you wrote, as you rotate, you try and keep your elders where they are. So don't, don't let them go too wide cause you dissipate the movement. So if you're there, as you rotate, you think of the front of the elbow going forward. So it's a slight scooping effect as opposed to going out to there. Okay, let's go back onto our front and with the sensation of what you've been doing.

Chapter 5

Modified Swimming and Cobra

We're gonna do a modified swimming. You know the swimming, this is one arm and one leg floating up and then changing.

So it's not the active one. So go onto your front, use your towel as a support for your forehead. Stretch your arms out in front palms done. Imagine you're on the rack so your torso is completely stretched. Draw the Scapula, Dan, so the Scapula is down. It's not y'all. When I say stretched, it's think of the spine being stretched rather than the shoulder blades up.

So arms out. Now you've already stretched so there's no more stretching from there. You're just going to float your right arm and left leg on the outward breath, only about four or five centimeters off the ground and then breathe in and take it down and breathe out and float up and do four times on each side. So again, you're not stretching your arm, you're just lifting it. Remember what you were doing on the earlier exercises with the scapula drawn down. You have to maintain that and if the leg lifts too high, you're going to go into your lumbar spine.

Just imagine those thumbs below your Scapula as you do it and sit up and stretch your back up when you've done that question. Oh, are you doing before you'd go into the hip extension? Are you doing the skewer thi no, it's there. The, the question was, the question was do you do the secure thing before you go into the, the lift? It's there all the time. You don't change it. So when you stretch out it's working but it's not gripped. Does that, does that answer the question? So that when you lift your right arm, left leg, your stand, your right leg is your standing leg.

So you have to be aware of what's going on with the other leg so you can't allow it to go. So when you get to doing the, um, the traditional one, you're completely centered. So you're just, if I can clarify for myself, you are saying that you're not actively making it happen, but it is happened. It's, you're not actively happening as you do the exercise that it's used. It's happening because of the movement. Yeah. Yeah. Also because your leg was going up too high, you were losing the support of the other leg.

So you need to think on that position. There is that. As I lift that side, I'm stretching through my right leg, stretching to my left as I, the other side. So there's always the support. And also you would use it if someone was weaker. Say I was weaker on my left side of the lower back, I would do more on the left arm and the right leg, which would help to work into this side a little more. I do this a lot for people who have gait problems to help them to organize what's happening in the pelvis.

Can you hop up on here? Have you ever headed this side? Yup. So from this position you can have a slight turnout on this and the SEC. Going back to the, the use of the Scott Pillar, we're going to do a cobra position. Okay. So what we're going to do is, again, we're going to think of the, the middle of the thoracic spine, the center of the thoracic spine, and the scapula initiates the movement. So you take a breath in and you breathe out cause you're not going to breathe out. Now as you breathe in, draw the scapula down and start sliding your Elvis towards you, bending your elbows as you come to that. That's it just to there.

So that's where I wanted to work. And then go down reading in. So she's going to breathe in on the extension and breathe out to go down. Or she can breathe in on the extension, hold extension, breathing out, and then breathe into, go down again. Whatever you like. In general. I like an inward breath on the extension. So while she's get what you're going to do, you're going to do a couple like this to do it again, Cathy.

That's nice. And then dawn, and then you're going to turn your hands onto the side, say onto your little finger, and you're going to do exactly the same. Well, what difference do you feel on that, Cathy? Yeah. Scooping more and more into the sides here. Okay. Shall we try that? Thank you. Stay that and do it so we can. So lying on your front palms, Don.

So remember we're thinking of thoracic extension, but support in the lumbar spine so you can turn the legs out just a little on this. Okay. Uh, breathe out now. As you breathe in, draw the scapula down and bend your elbows. As you slide your hands towards you. Keep drawing the scapular down. As you come up. Keep your elbows on the floor and hold it breathing out and breathe in and go down. Now let's try this with straight arms. So you palms down. So you're going to go to a slightly higher lift and you will go much lower into the spine, but it must be initiated into the lumbers, into the thoracic spine first.

So breathe in and draw the scapula down. I feel the sternum is pushing away from you along the floor and then lifting, keeping your arms straight, keep your arms straight, hold and slowly go back down. And Theo sternum, traveling along the floor towards your nose as you start coming up. Good. Sit Up and stretch your back out. Okay,

Chapter 6

Chest Lift

we're going to do what I call the chest lift. So it's not a crunch, it's just what you do.

You place your hands behind your head so you take your, interlace your fingers and place the fingers at the base of the skull so your thumbs are going down towards yours, your scapular. Okay. You bring your elbows up to about the so you can see your elbows in the peripheral vision. Certain types, your head is as if it's been in a sling. Okay? You take a breath in and as you breathe out, you stabilize by pulling sit, Burns, hip burns and flirting rep together and then feel that there's a hook on your sternum and just lifted forward towards your knees.

Let the sternum up the sternum. If the sternum drop, dropping the stomach muscles down, eyes down. Go. Todd. Say it's quite a small movement that your eyes must follow the line of the head. Don't look up at the ceiling. Keep the eye line going in the angle of your coming up.

Can you do that again? Take a deep breath in and breathe out. Stabilize here first. Now lift your stone and just imagine you've got a hook on the center of the stone and it's being pulled, pulled, pulled, pulled, pulled, pulled, and then I expect time, small but meaningful. [inaudible] but don't pull with your hands.

You've got to just keep your head. Think of on your way up. Just rock your head from side to side. But it's that feeling of the stabilization here and the left from the sternum. And you'll find as your sternum comes up the back, we'll go down and get a little more work through here. 15 times. [inaudible] no, no, don't fall by four.

So let's see. Hands at the base of the skull Elbers up so you can see them. Okay. And just imagine the elbow as you call for your elbows are slightly dropping towards your hip bones. So take a deep breath in and breathe out.

Stabilize and lift from the sternum. So this you've getting a, someone's pulling a hook towards and slowly go back down. Do you feel your abs working on that? So what we're going to do, you're going to breathe out and get as far as you can. Just watch Kathy for a second. I'm enjoying this as you come up. So we've got into this bit, not as she breathes in.

She's going to slide hands off her head and reach towards her thighs. And then as she breathes out, she's going to lift a little higher. She's going to hold that as she breathes in and places the hands back and then breathe out to go down. Okay. Remember as you take your arms on from here, you draw the scapula down and slide your hands low. You're not going that way.

You're going that way. Yeah, so it's the shortest route. So take a deep breath in, stabilize and breathe out and lift the sternum. Remember your eyes, follow the line of the upper back. Now as you breathe in, slide your hands off your head, palms down and lift higher. Come on up, up, up, up, up. Hold it. Hands behind your head.

Breathing in and slowly go back down. Breathe in as a preparation, stabilize and lift. Draw the scapula down as call and it'll help your curve up, up, up, up, up, hands, back behind your head. Smile in this position and then go back down. Excellent. Except for one thing, your arms.

I'm getting arms going this way, that way from the here you're in this position, just slide them off and keep them low to the body. Cause as soon as you take them up, you're telling the body to go back. So you have to continue with the curve. Try One more and think about your arms stabilized first. That feeling those hands coming around your waist. Now lift from your sternum feel of stone and as being lifted forward. Slide your hands low. Better now rich, up, up, up, up, and then relaxed back. Oh, hands behind your head.

Sorry. And then relax. Dad. Actually this is a very good position for one of my least favorite exercises in the whole politesse repertoire, which I don't do if I can help it. Hmm. Okay, let's do it. I'll show you. Why don't you going to do okay. Ready? Hands behind your head, elbows up. Take a deep breath in. Stabilize and lift the sternum up.

Stretch your arms and reach a little more. Drawing the scapula down. Breathing out. Now lift your right knee up to the chest and hold it there. Lift your left knee up. Hold it. Stretch your legs out to 45 degrees and turn out flex and turnout and into three and stall [inaudible].

So it's just getting them to [inaudible] it's and what you've got that you've got your upper toss in the right position and you'll let it sit in the right position is just a point. Do you do the hundred with your legs turned out are parallel. I would recommend turned out because if you've got someone with strong, heavy legs, it really pulls on the lower back. Whereas if you've got, I'm not suggesting you've got stock everywhere that said as soon you see there, just tell us what you feel with your leg. Curl forward. Just into the position they're not turn out flex feet and feel the energy going through heels and use your adductors. What difference do you feel in your legs? Just like they've just completely likened so that you can now call forward more.

And if you don't, you're overusing a hip flexes and you've got the support of the hamstrings, the glutes and the doctors that that's why I do it. Turned out if I do it when I do it. Okay. Right. So did you feel your abdominals working on that? Yeah, it stopped. You know, if people come too far up, they're just crunching the stomach muscles. Then what I want is a space here to go forward. Okay. Now the obliques, Kathy, we'll start with just the same position with the hands behind the head.

Why would you know that gyms that do the hands like this or like this? Why don't do it? Because if you just put your hands behind your head and take your elbows out, what is that signaling to your thoracic spine extension. And we're one flection. So this is fighting against what you're trying to do.

So Cathy is going to do the same thing. She's going to start in the same way, but instead of coming, stretch is going to aim her left shoulder to her right hip. Take a breath in, stabilize and turn. And then back. It's always, she's going to do, he's going to do twice a. Y'all going to do twice to each side. Then you're going to put your knees together and hold your inner thighs together. Come to this side, Cathy. She comes up and then she moves her knees in the opposite direction as she comes up a little further and then centers the nose to the knees and goes, okay, should we try that?

So the first one is with the legs apart or the knees in line with the hip joints. Okay, so let's all go to the right to the right side. So t take a breath in, stabilize and lift diagonally straightaway, diagonally and go back diagonally. That's come to the left and stabilize and lift diagonally and back and to the right and one more and the left a duck. Okay. Undressed.

The obliques draw you across this way. What I'm tending to get is that sort of a rotation of the shoulder joint of the shoulder girdle. And what you need to, to get the clients do is to really pull from this side. So what I'm going to do with Kathy also, ideally I would like this shoulder to come off a little more, but you know, what can you do all day? Oh, give me your hands. Oh you, oh so lie flat. So what I've got, I've, I'm taking her hands like this. I should do it that way. Should I say? You can see, okay, now you see where, how her hands one is away from the other one. Okay, so what I'm going to, can you all see that I bring your head forward, Kathy, now I'm just going to bring you into the position. No, I'm going to lift this one up. [inaudible] and then I'm going to pull that one.

Oh, that's it. No, I'm gonna let go. Stay. That's it. But so I it because what, when she was doing it earlier, the, when she was coming over to the left, her left shoulder was staying down and I would really like it to be off sick. Come up again, not just let me take you into the position. That's it. There are no from the, if tape, put your knees together, Cathy and take your knees over to the other side.

Then as she comes up, she brings her knees and upper torso in line and then goes down. You see, it's the depth of the movement is 100% almost. It. Wouldn't you say that? Yeah. You can feel this line, this diagonal line here. Yeah, and I thought as well, do you want to try it with a partner? It's just what I want you to feel is how you can manipulate and I may not in the nicest possible way, manipulate your client or your whoever you owe and into the right position.

Try It with your partner. What you need to think about is when you're doing this sort of thing is think about yourself because what I'm seeing is some positions you're like this really, if you're working with someone, be in a position that you can use your body safely. For example, as I lift, I'm just gently pulling back my own body on this so that if anything happened, if she dropped back, I would be safe as well as I wouldn't fall on top. But also if you're standing in [inaudible] like this, not yet. It's going against everything we're working for. Okay, so shall we try that without a partner with the knees going over?

Yes. Okay. Just do one, two each side. Now lift your sternum, the sternum going up. You can start with your arms straight if you like. You don't have to have them behind the head.

That is so good. It is so good. I'm going to give you the next version. [inaudible] which I'm sure it's, it's nice, but you'll hate it. Oh sorry. So what you're going to do,

Chapter 7

Oblique Exercises and Adductor Exercises

Kathy, is going to have one hand behind her head. The left one, and this hand is on the floor here. So stand up. He has here, you can see it as she lifts on the diagonal. She's going to slide this hand down the floor, but she's gonna. She's not gonna twist towards that.

She's going to keep in line and it's the rotation, but as she lets forge, it's going to slide this hand down on the floor and rotate, rotate, rotate to the, and then she's going to lift this hand and rotate it and reach away. That's all on the outward breath. Then as she breathes in, she's going to bring her left hand away from her head and reach so it covers the right hand. Oh [inaudible]. That's it. Now her thumbs are going to stick up and she's going to come through the center.

She's going to go to the other side. She's going to take this hand behind her head and she's going to stretch this one away and then go back down. Oh, okay. One, she'll do it one more time for you. So she's going this time, just are going to lift with the right and slide the left hand down the floor, keeping in the center line. Then this hand comes up and reaches away rich, and now she's going to turn and reach more reach. Come on, retreat. And this has gives you what you've been doing and now she's going to reach her fingers over her knees as much as possible.

And this is when you admire the nail varnish and left hand behind your head. Turn this one over, and rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, rich, and then don. Okay ladies, one to each side. So let's all do it together. Okay. Breathe out and turn and reach your hand down the side as you go.

Come forward, stretch the arm up, rotate it and reach it away. Now bring your left arm around and palm on top of the other palm. Thumbs up. Come through center. This is an outward breath over to the other side. Place your right hand behind your head. Reach the left one away, turning the palm down and then to the floor and curl forward. Stretch your left arm.

Are we doing the other side? Yeah. Okay. And lift this arm up and rotate it. Take your right hand or the other, whichever one you're using. A cross and reach. Turn a little more to reach. Come through the center. Lift a little higher. As you come to center, go to the other side.

Had back behind your head, reached the other arm away from you and go back down. [inaudible] great. One more to each side cause I'm going to change it. When you get to the center, hold that position and with little breaths, just pulse. So you leave your hands where they are. So if you're up in this position, you're here, you leave your hands there and just bend your elbows and lift and relax and lift. So the hands don't move. Just small pulses four times and then continue over to the other side, one to each side. So it's not a not built like this.

Okay, so stabilize thirst and spiral across. Lift your arm. Now really when you turn it, reach it away from you. So it's as if you're giving it to someone. Now reach the other hand over. So you got a turn more to get the palms together. Now come lift and come through the center. Thumbs up to the ceiling.

Now leave your hands there. Just bender, others in pals, one and two and three and four and over to the other side. Hand behind your head and stretch the other one away. Reach it away. Turn the palm over and then dad, one more time and turn and reach. I want to see this hand lift and rich away as if you're reaching for someone. And now turn more to when you bring your other hand across and lift center.

Thumbs up and pulse. One, two, three, four. Go over to the other side. Hand behind your head. The other one, let's hope. Pause there for a minute. Pause for a second. Sorry. Don't move to add, go to and that is so nice. Good. And rest. It's really point being, it's a basic oblique movement, but to add on another element, people thinks that think they're doing another exercise and that makes more for more concentration and just working in more depth. Okay. Sitting up, is this the order that you're teaching us these exercises?

This is the order in which that you would teach your plans or do any specific I, I mean I have an order that is there to be broken, you know, depending who I am. I mean the question was, is this the order I teach my clients, it's the order that I teach my trainees so that we have a, so they have an idea of some sort of format, but with clients it depends what they're up. You know, what state they're in at that time. But this is our format for the trainees and they have, um, they have the license if you like to change it, whoever they're working with that they have to remember that this is what they'd be tested on, that they know the routine. So extension before flection of the general. Yeah, cause most of us are inflection anyway. So I tend to work on extension. Yeah. Sitting up, talking about flection. Some people like doing the roll up is impossible because of their backs to stiff. So why, why fight it?

So what we're gonna do a roll down. So you're going to sit up straight, careful with your knees bent at the front of your mat, and then you're going to stretch your arms out in front of you can come further down and just feel that your arms are quite heavy. So your scapular is done. Take a deep breath in and now start a slight curve from the lumbar spine and slowly rode on into the floor, controlling it from the abdominals. And imagine your tailbone sliding towards your heels. Scapular Dan scapular, Dan.

And then just pick yourself up any which way. Use your hands on the floor or whatever. So stretch out and you can go as slow as you like. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly. That's better. Yeah, right. This time when you get onto your lumbar spine, stop.

Soften the chest. Soften the sternum. Easy, easy upper torso. Now I want you to be on the flat part of your lumbar spine. I'd stop there. Take your right knee up and take hold of your right ankle with your right hand. Take your left knee up and take hold of your left ankle. Elbows up, scapula down. Perfect position for the single leg stretches.

Single leg stretch please. [inaudible] do about four on each side. Good dressed. That was good. [inaudible] because what I tend to get with a single leg stretch is, can you do it Kathy, with your knee, right to the sh ma, I get this and the, and the change and that way you can go on forever because it doesn't involve it. But if you have your knee in, in line with the La Rib cage, with your elbows up, shoulders down, and now change and take hurled, you get much more abdominal work. So it's, it's, you've got this feeling of curving this way and that way rather than bringing it right to the shoulders. Okay.

Addressed the question is that the different style of having the knee pulled into the, um, into chest to loosen the hip socket, does it really loosen the hip socket pulling it? You know, you have to think sometimes the people that is sort of tightening it a bit. I mean I like to think of that sort of movement to, to mobilize the hip socket. What we do do though too, anyway, I feel so many people, our base weak in the abdominals. This is why I want to do it. So they can s should concentrate on working the abdominals but to, to to go to the other way. Another thing we do is in this position lying flat too. As you exhale, you just gently pull the right knee to the chest and back.

So you're getting the work through here and back then the left knee keeping the um, the, the tailbone down and then when you do both, you allow the tailbone to come off. So your stretching into the lumbar spine, which is a way of dealing with that situation. And also in this position where we can do it is um, from the, you pull in with this one and out with that one, then rotate and then come back and then do it. So you're doing it reversing as well. So shall we try that? Just do the stretching first and then the um, the rotation. So make sure on the, the single leg, the pelvis stays flat on the doubles. It's a slight tilt. Just do a couple of sessions a couple of times a hold onto both knees too at the same time. So do it. Go Eat. I think this might not be a good thing for you. So just as you breathe out, just put her head down. Just pull your right knee to the chest, hold onto just one hand and change and pull your left knee to the chest and take the leg away.

And I breathe that and pulled both knees and allow the tail end to curl off and back again to the single breathe out. Pull one knee doesn't have to be the right and relax and the other one and relax and birth together. Now let's have that rotation. So one knee goes to the chest, the other one goes in the opposite direction and semicircle around. And then back and the other one, one oh two you want away semicircle. And then back, I find this very useful for preparation for the leg circles. It helps to feel where the movement is coming from.

Put your knees back together and bring your knees towards just towards the lower rib cage. And that is 12 o'clock on your, on yours, you're lying on a clock face that's on 12 to press the knees together. [inaudible] take a breath in. Now as you breathe out, gently row your knees around two three. So they come from here, they come down to three down to six up to nine and back to 12 and imagine you've got a clock face on the front as well, so you're not rocking from side to side. So go anticlockwise and it's a very nice way of just easing out the low back.

So clockwise. And then anticlockwise not very much come off a little bit, but not a lot. It's almost a non-movement this. Okay, great. Photo maths in the heart of all, get to a point where your legs are off your mats. So I want to to be away, have, so you've got your legs on the floor, so you're sitting right at the edge of the math. So all you could fill them in for if you like [inaudible] you need to get, there's not enough room for you there.

So what you need to think about is kind of be in this position and you're going to lean slightly back. So the way to slightly back and you can hold on, you can put your hands behind you to support. So you've got a slight curve here. What I do initially is bring this leg up and let the client hold on onto it. Now this leg is parallel with a soft flex. It's not a hard Lexit, soft flex, keeping the leg down. As you breathe out, you're going to slowly slide it in an arc over to the other side, keeping this hip still, and then just let it go back. So you do it parallel and then with a very slight outward rotation.

Okay. So sit back just a little. So if you sit back, it just gives you a little more at, it releases the hip flexors. So if you sit back slightly, okay that use the other hand on the floor softer, soften the chair, hey and soft flex and slide it across. Try and get it to the other foot. You can take it as wide as you like.

So abduct as much as you can. Now if you're working with someone with a hip replacement, be very careful about going through the center line. In fact, I get as much abductions they can manage but only stop at the center line on the hip. That's been replaced. I flex. Flex your foot face slightly. Yeah, you go [inaudible] when you're sitting up straight. That tends to get the hip flexors, overworking it just to release the hip flexors cause in fact, well we're thinking of a doctors w that's the one to do. You can do like all the way you go as far as you can and then you gradually get a little more because it not only is it what it's, I mean the, the major part of the exercise is to work the abductors. But in fact when you go across, you're stretching the TFL [inaudible] getting a stretch in the tension. Pascha Lotta and the it band, which obviously doesn't stretch, but it's stretches where joins for me, this replaces the one lying on the side lifting the Legere because in fact that is quite a restricted movement cause you're lying from flat.

Just up to there was this, you can get a much bigger range. Do you feel that working? Are you all right? I mean you can even a little further back and have both legs stretched out and do that. Try that with both legs. No, I mean one at a time, but so with both legs stretched out and as you stretch, as you take your leg across, just think of lifting through the abdominals a little. Just lifting up silence reigns. Okay.

Just shake your legs out. Just to recap. Um,

Chapter 8

Quadruped Exercises

Mickey asked me about the single leg stretch about the way I was showing it. Where was the stretch? This, the way I was, I was taught to that way by Bob Fitzgerald and Corolla, and it was the stretch of the leg out of the hip. So as you changed, you reached out, so it was the leg going away from you. Okay. And then when you did the criss cross, it was that feeling of reaching the leg out as you stretched away. Right? We're going to do the, I, we're going to go into quad repaired and we're going to do the cat first.

I just want to show you something on this. With the, um, in this position, obviously it very much depends on, a lot of people want the back to be completely flat, depends on how long your arms are and the length of your quads. So if you've got long arms and short quads, it's gotta be at an angle. And this is the way it should be. Okay? So you're not, you shouldn't take the arms way out there to get a balanced. Okay? Now what I want you to feel, first of all, be very careful with people with risk problems. What I do is have them on the end of the bed or there's some fabulous gloves.

Now with, with a, uh, a wedge in this part here that it will help the wrists so that you don't don't, the angle is not too bad. What I want you to do on this is to feel that your low arm is slightly rotated outward, so it puts a little more weight into the thumb and helps to open the backout has to open the up it back out. So there's that base slight rotation with your lower arm, which puts a little more work into here. Now from there, for me, the whole movement starts with, if you're in this, if you're in the correct positions to start, I'm going to ask Kathy to do a posterior pelvic tilt, a slow one. So from there, she will get the pelvis in the right place, which will lift up the stylet muscles and then gradually it'll work up the back of the head drops and the sternum lifts into the thoracic spine. Now to get out of that, no, I her legs to be a little more there to get out of that. It's um, Tara pelvic tilt. So this stays where it is for the time being, and then it gradually wonders up.

And from there the stern lifts lightly. Great. That's nice. So you're getting much more articulation into the spine. Okay. Keep it for that. Not just posterior pelvic tilt. That's it. Now go back again. I'll tell with people who can't, a lot of times can't get this.

So what I will do is I'll put my finger that no posterior pelvic tilt and I just go into my fingers, not into my finger. So I'll just take my fingers up spot. I do notice I've got this hand in the sternum. So you get that feeling the work. That's nice. Can we try that? Oh, then I should wait. Before you go there.

Uh, we call this the dog because it comes after the cat. Okay. So, so in technical, you see, so in this, in the correct position, yeah. Now from the, you slide your right leg and left, um, out from underneath you keeping it quite low and then straighten it up. So your arm and leg come up at your position is right in the center. Then you love the leg and the arm, and then they slide back into position.

So the pelvis stays absolutely still what you get with people will bring the knee in and have to lift the pelvis to get it underneath. So the action is that just do your leg. See from there, as you dropped the knee, you can then drop the foot, I should say. You can then bend the knee and it comes in without any pelvic change. So there's no twisting of the pelvis. Okay. Shall we try that? Thank you.

Hmm. So let's go into a neutral spine. Now. Feel that slight rotation on the lower arm. So the pressure goes into the thumb and you'll feel an openness of the upper back and a firm that posterior pelvic tilt really work pelvis first and then the abdominals will work. And I just feel the curve almost rippling up your spine and the head is the last thing to drop down the whole the upper Tulsa where it is.

And now let's go for an anterior pelvic tilt and then it gradually just ripples up the spine and you lift the sternum away from your hands to keep the upper back open. So you're trying to wing the, the scapular and a posterior pelvic tilt. Keep your thighs absolutely straight in line there at 90 degrees. That's let it rip up the spine. And then the head is the final thing to go and a posterior pelvic tilt.

Nice to hear just a little more and relax through here. That's it. And then bring their head up and just keep the back of the neck very long as you lift the sternum up. Now hold that position, not right. Um, left leg. Just slide it out from underneath and slowly bring it back. Now as you slide it away, your back's in the right position, but just activate the abs a little more. Just get that feeling of wrapping around as you stretch away and it'll help to support the pelvis as you go away and, and sit back towards your heels.

When you've done that, then go back into quad, repaired into the neutral spine. No hold that same fat your ribs are held. And just imagine you've got a long tail and you're just going to swing your tail from side to side, but the ribs have to stay in place. That's it. So getting side to side in the waistline.

Keep the, keep the ribs all in one place. Okay. I just let it go. Let's swing it from side to side. Eh, that's it. Yeah. [inaudible] very nice. Okay. Right. Stretch your right arm and left leg art that the leg up a little higher now from their contract, the low abdominals and lower back and bring your right elbow and your left knee together into the center and then stretch it out again and reach out and contract and curl in and do that four times. And then we'll go to the other side.

Try and keep the hips as square as you can. [inaudible] uh, the CRA W I was asking when you do this, do you cross the mid line? Where do you, do you think you go to the midline? So you're getting the curl in and that rather than from side to side. Okay. Lie on your right side facing.

Chapter 9

Side Lying Exercises

Yeah, you can come down [inaudible] right side.

Now make sure there's not a face behind your feet because it could be uncomfortable. Okay, so stretch your legs out. You were going to aim for in a completely straight line. Shoulders, hips and feet. The, the postural straight line. If there's a problem, you can bring your legs slightly in front, but never behind. Okay, so balance with your left hand in front of the sternum with your fingertips sort of stretch, right? Can you stretch your arm out there? The underneath one that, yeah. Okay. Now Stack your shoulders on top of each other and hips on top of each other. Get that feeling of stabilizing, wrapping around.

Now you're going to lift both legs off the ground, but hang on for a second. You're not going to lift the top leg. You're only going to lift the bottom leg, which will bring the top leg up. Okay, so it's not a case of lifting both legs. So take a breath in. As you breathe out, elongate the legs and lift the bottom leg up, which will take the top leg in place. Dorsiflex plantar flex, and then lower and reach bottom leg flex point and twice. Small and lift flex. Hold it there. Lengthen your left leg away from your little more and slowly lifted up.

Keeping it parallel. Keep it parallel, lift it as high as you can, but don't have the turnout. Laura, Dan lengthening it. Still it comes to the bottom leg point antler and stretch away. Lift the bottom leg up. Now as you flex, push the heels away from the center line. Lengthen the top leg and lifted. So almost as if, imagine it's pulling out of the hip joint. Laura, dawn point. And then, uh, one more time. I'm going to change it. Lift, flex point.

Hold it. Now do the scissors and back and forward keeping the hips on top of each other. Breathe as you do it. I'm not going to say just keep breathing. Do about eight altogether. Keep drawing up the stylet muscles, relaxing the shoulders and try not to leave finger marks on the floor with your left hand. Soft Haute, the balance. And when you've done your eight, bring the legs together and low and then done. Nice other side.

What I liked about your flex and point is you're working from the ankle, which is great. It wasn't the curling of the toes. Yeah, I don't like to see the toes curling up, spreading [inaudible] parallel. Um, the, the question was do we do this in parallel? Yes. Yes. Yeah, the splits. Yeah. Well the whole exercises in parallel, even the leg lifting. Okay. Okay.

So we'll do two with just point flex two with [inaudible] and one splits. Okay. So check your position. Sometimes you need to just look over your top, top shoulders and see if you're in a straight line and there's no problem if you need to bring your legs slightly forward to help your balance. Just fingertips on the floor, uh, stretch away. Point your toes and lift the bottom leg up and Lud on. No, I forgotten the door's deflection. But mind lift, flex. Now work your inner thighs a little more point and [inaudible] now elongate the legs before they come up. Reach them out of the and list. Flex top leg longer, push it or beyond your foot and lift it. Keep it parallel, take it done point and uh, and stretch away.

Flex if the top leg up, Laura Donn point and Dan a and Lyft and says keep lifting up through the center and then relax. Good. Back to your first side. Uh, the next thing I'm going to do is not in the our basic, um, collection of exercises. It's one step ahead when we're trying to get what people are working with, a little more balance. And you gave me the idea to do it.

So it's just to help loosen out the hips. So you're going to step in a straight line like so we'll do it together cause we're running out of time here. So from here, again, your balance, you bend your top leg up until the foot goes to the knee. Push down into your knee with the foot and rotate the legs a little more. Both legs. Try and turn them out a little more. Point your foot. Now lift your knee up towards you, but leave the heel down.

Let the lower leg hang. Get the knee as high as you can. Then extend the left leg from the knee joint flex. Lift the leg higher and then stretch it down. Drawing up the stomach muscles as you do it. Then point bend, keep breathing. Push down. Turn out point. Now leave your lower leg hanging and just lift the knee up.

Then extend from the knee joint to get the leg higher. Flex lift higher and then take it down two more times and then push down. Rotate the hip joint in the legs and the hip joints point. Lift your knee up. Then extend flex, lift high. Make sure the hips on top of each other and reach the leg away as you go to 'em.

Try not to let your hip drop back cause you do it one more time and that's it. Pushed on turn out and extend. You can sit and good other side, what you have to remember is remember where your um, Kathy could you come up here quite just very quickly? Yup. Okay. So you, when you get Benjani and then when you get to this position and push the foot down, push the foot down flat. Yeah. And that's when you rotate and that establishes where your rotation is. So you have to follow that line. So that's where Kathy is that goodness. So she follows that line to there and then she extends and still follows the line.

Now I can get the, I can feel the like going higher and higher if I wanted it to because she's in her the right position for her hip joint, whereas bend you anytime come down again. Whereas if she started here and then went there, it's bone against bone, certain fat. What she's doing to get her leg up, she has to drop her hip back. So it's more important to get the position and work within the range that your hip would allow it to do. So when her knee is bent, are you allowed to no. The, the, the question is when from here, from this Bentley, do I allow the hip to come up? No, I don't. I will want it to work it absolutely in one place and then extend from that place.

So because it's, if she elevated her hip, she loses it. Okay. Did we do the other side? No, we didn't for on the other side. [inaudible] no. On top of each other. Oh, just stacked. Yeah. Okay. So in your own time, just go through the first one with you. So you bend, place the foot flat onto the inside of the knee. No, you ex rotate and the hip joints point.

Lift your knee up, but keep the hip where it is and then extend flex, lift higher if you can. And then slowly push the leg away as you go down. Try and keep the waistline open all the time and bend, turn out, lift your knee up. Extend and rich flex. And the thing is, if you'll legs in the wrong position for your body, your, you can't control the stomach muscles, the hip, the leg goes back, you lose control of your center. Okay? No more harm.

[inaudible] what you need is someone else. So this is what we do quite regularly. So you get, you get you place one foot. So I'm facing this diagonal. I've got my front leg just above the hip joints and my other leg just above the pelvis. And I do this slightly a and then I stand. Now Bend your knee, push down, lift your knee up, extend flex, lift higher and then slowly go down. There we go. I'll stay there. Actually lift your leg up, do it. Do it again. Bend your knee, push down, lift your knee up. Extend Flex, lift higher. Now stay right.

Fantastic. That's it. So it's a, if you're, it's sometimes in a math class, do partner work. It also helps them to help your partner to feel where you should be. That was good. So this is for your benefit. Yeah. Straight line. Ben, the same way.

Push down point. Take the leg behind you so you're opening out the hip. Then extend your arm and your leg at the same time. Flex, push the leg back and reach and then come back. So you're getting the openness of the hip.

[inaudible] Oh, it's habits die hard. [inaudible] okay, you can have a slight curve on this because of the, the weight going back. So you can be a slight banana shape. Okay, not turn up before you start, I bend your knee up, push the foot down, turn out point I take your knee back behind you. Then extend behind. Flex the foot up.

Push your leg back as you counterbalance with your arm further back, further back. Feel someone's putting your leg out of the hip. Keep your knee bay straight and now bring everything back together. Leg comes back as the arm goes down and the shoulders restack because they've moved forward a little. Okay, so bend, push down. [inaudible] out a little more point. Now take your leg back in. At the same time, lift up your stomach muscles, lift up your stylet muscles and rotate in the hip joint to take your leg back.

Stretch away, elongate plot of the hip, lengthen your waistline and stretch your arm. Flex the foot and reach counterbalance and slowly come back to the start. Really put length on the hip. So when you go back, don't sort of crunch in open way. So you're getting that rich. It's the same arm. Okay. Two more. Push down. Turn Up.

Now feel your rotating in the hip to take it back. It's not just that it has to be rotated in the hip as it. Yeah, that's good. Yup. And take it behind you. The hips are stacked on this. The hips stay stacked all the way through. The shoulders can come from the top show to can come forward as you reach. But the hips remain stacked and the bottom waist on the mat or something.

Hey, no, it's on the mat. We need the balance. Okay. The math of the low waist stays on the mat. Does it come back straight? It comes back straight. Yup. Well w the low the waist stays on, but if you're really stretching out the bill, a loose light, you know, there'll be a gap there, but not lifted. Yeah. Yup. Yeah.

Great. Is this your third one coming up? Was that, that was for other sides. I was just going to show you something to change over, which is quite fun. [inaudible] how was that on your hip? Yeah, knee. It helps to pull it out. Yeah. On the fourth one, what you're going to do is this, you've got into this position. You Flex, you push back, you're going to reach into your arms.

I'm term ready to start again with no shuffling and readjusting, so you roll onto your front and then roll onto the other side as if you're going to start straight away just as the finale. Okay. Right. Elongate. No, you're fading. Push down 10 out point and behind you keep the leg turned out as much as you can. Extend your leg, watch where you're at to keep the leg turned out as you go back. So it's like way. Yeah, and reach your arm out, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, and slowly bring your leg back and bend. Push down, turn out point and take the leg back behind you and extend stretcher. Arm Out.

Pull the scapular down as you do it. Yeah. You go and then slowly come back into the starting position. That's it. Yeah. And again, and bend down through here. Push down. Point. Extend. Keep the top waistline long. Have you on slack.

So it's in line with your, that's it. It's a straight line back. Is this number three coming up after this one? Number four, I should say. Come back straight, Kathy. That's it. Oh, I see. So this is the last one. So I want to see this change over. So elegant and so together and stretch back and reach. Nah, leave your leg behind you. Stretch your arm and slowly roll over onto your front. Sure.

Both arms are stretched out and the top leg is stretched out. Lower the leg and turn. Oops. There we go. Okay. And dressed. Very nice.

Chapter 10

Teasers

Okay. Get with a partner. This is the final thing. So let's have a little fun with the, uh, the teaser.

Okay. In pairs. Does everyone have a partner? Come on. So one of you, Cathy, come up on here. One of you is kneeling in front of your partner. Like [inaudible]. Place the heels onto your waist above the hips.

Okay. Arms by your sides. Now first of all, you take a slight turned out. Yeah, good. Take a breath in, Kathy. Now as you breathe out, stabilize your center and squeeze your inner thighs together. So already it's an adductor job, so we'll do that twice. And this time you squeeze and come into his chest lift. So squeeze and curl just to there. Squeeze harder. And the fact that, oops, twice like that.

Then can you take a deep breath in, breathe out a forward and come slowly up in keeping your low back, slightly curved light leg straight. Turn out a little higher up. That's it. So it's not a straight back, it's a curve back. Stay there. And now slowly roll down from the [inaudible] from Europe. Dominoes, roll down, rode down, mumble. That's it. Then the final one, same. Do that one again into a curve back. Pulled back the stomach muscles that stay. Come a little higher. Oh, stay beautiful up there.

[inaudible] Duh. Have a rounded lower back rather than the rigid straight one. Do you want to try that? I think, I think you had to come up higher. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, absolutely. All right. I bet. Bend your knee. Ed, you need to kneel unless she's got bad long legs. Can you kneel down? Yeah, really good, Neil.

Yeah, so hang on for me minute quiet, right. Listen for a second. Legs resting above the hips, arms by your sides. Take your breath in. And now as you breathe out, squeeze just the doctors. Check your quads that you aren't working your quads and then relax. Breathing in and breathe out and squeeze in parallel.

$10 turned out and relaxed. Breathing in and now breathe out and know. Curl forward. Cal forward as you squeeze, squeeze harder. Pull back the stall up muscles and then relax back down. Don't talk. Okay.

And read out and squeeze and curl. Really drawback the abdominals as you do it. Really pull back with the abdominals as you reach your arms. And then, uh, now we're going to go right up on this. Breathe in, quietly. Breathe out and curve forward and up, up, up, up, up, up Richard fingers to your partner's shoulders. Hold their breathing in and slowly sink down into the floor using your abdominals. Yeah. Uh, no, it's the teaser and breathe out. Come forward, curl up. Remember, we're going to do it with a slightly curved lower back.

Reach up. Re go into a position where you know you can hold now balance. And now your partner gently removes themselves. Put your legs together and hold untold, untold address to go down. Nice. Okay. Very nice.

Okay. Stand up. Stand up. Oh, you, we have the other one to do. I'm sorry. Changeover. Baghdad. I'm sorry. I just thought, okay. Listen for a second. Um, seriously, if you can't hear what I'm saying, talk. And when I do this exercise with the kids, I'd make sure they are very quiet. So what am I saying? Act like grownups. Okay.

Mealing heels on top of the hips. Turn out the legs, take a breath in and as you be that stabilize and then squeeze. So it's a feeling of wrapping around and then squeezing and then relax. Breathing in and breathe out. Remember, there's no pelvic tilt on this and squeeze and just check your quads as you're squeezing that they're not tensed. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and then relax. Breathing in. Now we'll do the chest lift. Take a breath in, breathe out, stabilize, reach your arms and curl forward. It's not very high. It's the height we did earlier, but to keep squeezing and then relax back down. And again, breathe out and squeeze that [inaudible] and curve forward and relaxed on [inaudible].

And now we're going to come all the way up. Breathe out and uh, and reach up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. If your partner needs help, grab the fingers and pool. Hold their breath and slowly go down. Breathing out slowly, slowly, slowly. You're thinking of your abdominals taking you down. Good. Last one.

And breathe out coal up and our car right up in here to a soft blur back when, don't go to a straight back. It's still a curl. Get into a position where you're comfortable. The partner removes themselves from between your legs and hold up legs together. Keep the turnout, hold, hold, hold, hold, hold and relaxed are very nice. Very good. [inaudible] do you see, how do you see how ti re rotation helps that position? Okay. Stand up everyone on your mat.

Okay. Just start styling with the feet and parallel upstate. I just, let's go through what we've been working on. Slight squeeze. Let's turn around and face the camera because you're, cause you're all of a sudden, okay. Standing up. [inaudible] you can have a very slight outward rotation, but it's something that's comfortable. Now just think of your hamstrings. Feel your hamstrings are being zipped up. Imagine you're zipping up high boots. So gently squeeze your sit bands together.

Now draw that feeling of wrapping around with your abdominals. Think that large hand around your waist. Think of the abductors pulling together that gently. Feel a weight on the tips of your Scapula and think it's drawing down you at the top of your heads floating up towards the ceiling. And imagine a slight, a slight ball of air under your armpits.

So they're just hanging loosely and I want slightly longer neck just just up holding that position. Just come up onto, onto your toes. I know. Hold your head where it is and leave. Let the heels go down slowly. We're going to do that again and you're going to go straight up. You're not going to go. So lift straight up. Don't go forward.

You go straight up through the center of the body, hold it there, and that's slowly rolled on with the feet and relax. Thank you very much. That was [inaudible]. Yeah.