What is the Guillotine?

Hello, I'm curious, saving Waugaman and I'm thrilled to reintroduce the Gig at team tower through Pilati Sydney time. Um, this is one of my favorite pieces of equipment and it's rarely installed or seen in Pilati studios since, simply because up to this point it's been so difficult to install. Um, I have one in my studio in Tucson and it had to be bolted down into the floor and not only bolted into the ceiling but taken up to the roof. So I was out of town teaching in Asia, uh, when it was installed and when I returned I found that the, the man who had installed it had installed it upside down, um, and it costs as much to install as it did for the original piece of equipment. And the amusing part of it is that it was so difficult to install that he was trying to convince me that we could do the exercises upside down. So I let him go on for about five minutes. And then I said no. So anyway, balanced body has reintroduced this piece of equipment.

Thank you Ken Endelman for, um, listening to me and listening to, to our group. Um, this is a wonderful piece. It's a piece that run, uh, worked with Clara on, um, yeah, in, in private sessions towards the end of his life or towards the end of her life. And, um, and now that that balanced body has redesigned this piece of equipment, um, it's not portable, but it's much more installer bubble. So it has this, uh, this heavy wood base, um, that can be placed in different places in a studio. It can also be taken to conferences. It no longer needs to be installed into a structure from above. Um, it is a extremely solid, the engineer from balanced body who devise this, um, this new design, Chris Seberino, um, uh, spent countless hours with us on Skype. Um, we flew out to Sacramento to work with him on the design.

It's extremely solid and, um, and, and also, uh, quite wonderful. So I hope to see these pieces of equipment and, and studios throughout the country and throughout the world. Um, as time goes on, um, the, the gig routine is a very simple, uh, piece of equipment. They're basically two upright bars, um, that are bolted into the platform. Um, there's a cross bar that's a moveable bar that that is, uh, there's stoppers on it, so it's not actually a Gig team. And then there's a cross bar from above that's a more stable barn. Um, these I hooks on the side can be used for all of the same exercises that we use, the eye hooks at the end of the Cadillac. Um, and in fact this is much more stable because the, the Cadillac could potentially move, um, uh, with, with, with our clients, whereas this, this will not, um, the mats can either be used or not. So all of the standing exercises, we remove the mat so that we have again, a more stable base for our feet. And these structures are just simply here for, for stability. So, um, uh, I'm going to ask Martha, who works with me in Tucson to perform a couple of the exercises that we, um, teach most on the GIG team. And, uh, what I feel and what run Fletcher also fell to sit. This is one of the most, the best pieces of equipment to stabilize the pelvis and articulate the lower back, um, which is what we're trying to do with most of our clients.

So I'm going to ask Martha to place her feet on the barn and she's going to extend her legs. Her feet are in a prehensile position and this is an angle that that is difficult to find on any other apparatus and a Palladia studios. So, um, for instance, on the push through bar, which is where a lot of the gay teen tower exercises were adapted, um, there's an angle to the bar that is, it's a very different angle for the hips and the knees. So to get this plum line through the legs and the feedback through the back of the pelvis, um, is something that feels quite good. It's something that we talk a lot about in pilates, but it's not something that our, our clients get to experience very much. Um, so what we're looking for is the line from the center of the heels down through the center of, of the hips and, and that feedback that it gives through the back of the pelvis. From here, I'm just going to ask Martha to flex it, her hips and then extend through the backline of the legs and again, flex that. So this is all so wonderful for our clients who tend to hyperextend. They can really feel the end of the movement, feel the muscular engagement all the way through and feel the reach through the pelvis and the length through the lumbar spine and then draw the bar all the way down.

Okay. Set and release the legs all the way on. So we could do this same movement from the heels, from a prehensile position, turned out flex thrill ave. Um, and the other wonderful thing is that Martha can see the alignment through the legs and the feet and she can self correct, um, as opposed to us correcting her as, as her teacher. I'd like for her to slide back just slightly for the press dataset. So this would be more of an upper body piece of movement. She'll inhale, lift the arms up, exhale, curl the body forward, and then press straight up. And again, we get that, that alignment through the spine and that length through the back.

That's really difficult to find in any other, uh, part of the [inaudible] program. And then rolling down through the lumbar spine and reaching all the way out. So that would be called press to say. Let's do that one more time. So notice the articulation working from the front of the body and then working from the back of the body to lift up completely different angle than you would get with a push through bar. And then rolling down and extending all the way out, Mike, putting the arms down by your sides. Let's draw the legs in and extend the legs up to the ceiling and then place the feet down on the mat and slide down on the mat. So the arms for more in that goalpost position.

So this next piece is the tower. And this is, um, one of the seminal pieces of, of uh, exercises that's done on, on the, on the Giga chain. I'd like for Martha to place your feet right in the center of the barn and extend the leg out. So this is a much deeper stretch through the back of the body. And then from here she'll take two breaths to curl the pelvis up away from the Mat. This is not an exercise we would give a new client, but it's that wonderful stretch through the back of the body, deepen the contraction to play and then rolling down through the upper back and reaching long through the pelvis, feeling that traction through the spine. And then just reverse that movement. Curling up from here, peeling the pelvis, curling to the shoulders, and again, extending through the back line of the body, reaching long through the feels, taking two breaths to roll down and reaching long through the hips.

Yes, and bend the legs, releasing the bar except placing the feet down. So those are just three examples of, of pieces that can be done in a supine position. We can also do all sorts of standing upper body work. Um, again, all of the work that can be done at the end of the Cadillac can be done here. Um, we have a whole program of 24 exercises that, um, and I'm sure that there, there are many more out there. Um, I'm just thrilled at this piece of equipment is back in production. Um, thank you Pilati setting your time for, um, for putting this together and for balanced body for the research and development that went into this new piece of equipment. Um, I'm thrilled to be here and, uh, I hope that many of you will experience the Guillotine and in months and years to come.