Ready for some standing Pilates? Pilates instructor and teacher trainer for the PhysicalMind Institute, Canada, Marta Hernandez, shares these instructions for a standing Pilates adaptation of the classic Pilates mat exercise, rolling like a ball.
Marta is demonstrating the exercise in the image to the right. Don't be intimidated. Marta is a dancer, but you don't have to be one to get the benefits of the exercise. It will help develop leg strength, balance, coordination, pelvic floor integrity, and flexibility. Try it.
Marta is demonstrating the exercise in the image to the right. Don't be intimidated. Marta is a dancer, but you don't have to be one to get the benefits of the exercise. It will help develop leg strength, balance, coordination, pelvic floor integrity, and flexibility. Try it.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 3 min.
Here's How:
- Inhale: Stand tall
Imagine lifting the internal domes of the body: feet, pelvic floor, diaphragm, roof of the mouth. - Exhale: Do a lunge by bending one knee and sliding the other leg straight to the back. The arms float out to the side, shoulders down.
- Inhale: Lengthen through your limbs in all directions.
- Exhale: Pick up your back leg, bend the knee, point the toe, and place it next to the knee of your supporting leg.
Your upper body bends over the standing leg as the arms come together to form a circle in front.
Use your abs to make this an "up and over" move. Maintain a neutral pelvis and don't hunch your shoulders. - Inhale: Return to you lunge position. As you do so, open your arms to the side and straighten the upper body.
- Repeat the bend, and curve from the lunge position 4 more times on the same leg.
- Repeat the exercise 5 times on the other leg.
Tips:
- You can break this move into parts and repeat just one section until you develop the strength and balance to do the full exercise.
- Stand on the floor or a thin mat. A rug is harder to balance on.
- Compare this exercise to the mat version of rolling like a ball. They might seem very different, but you can sense the connection in the upper body shape and in the way your abs work to take the torso up and over.
What You Need:
- a firm surface to stand on
- a wall or chair to aid balance, if you need it
