Posture:

Your posture is key to living efficiently. You can exercise all you want, but if you don't properly positi on yourself in good alignment in your everyday activities, you will increase wear and tear on your body. In many ways, quality of life issues as we get older are related to poor posture.

The first step to improving posture is awareness. Try this simple self-test to check your posture. Stand upright in front of a mirror and see how your feet are aligned. Are they parallel (meaning pointing straight ahead)? How far are they apart? Next scan up to your hips and shoulders. Are they level, or is one side higher or lower than the other? Now, look at the head. Is it tilted to one side, or slightly forward or back? Make note of what you see before you make any adjustments.  This will tell you about your habitual stance.

Now, stand sideways in the mirror. Check to see how aligned your body is. Draw an imaginary line to divide your body down the middle. See if you ear is over the center of the shoulder, which should be over the middle of the hips, over the middle of the knee, over the middle of the ankle. See the photos at left for examples of correct alignment.

For more information on posture and how to check it, please see Ch. 2 in my book, Yogilates - Integrating Yoga and Pilates for Complete Fitness, Strength, and Flexibility.

Breathing:

Breathing well is living well. A simple exercise to help get you started with this all important function is to sit comfortably with a straight back. You can do this on a firm pillow on the floor with your legs crossed, or on a firm chair with your feet on the floor. Sit as tall as you can, back straight. Place your hands on the sides of ribs and close your eyes. 1. Breathe through your nose and first just notice your breath. 2. Start to notice as you exhale that you can relax your chest and shoulders as you release your breath all the way out, and that your lower belly can draw in. 2. Then, breathe in naturally and fully and feel your ribs expand to the sides while keeping the lower belly drawn in. 3. Breathe into your ribs like this for 4 - 5 more breaths. Notice with every inhale how your upper body can float higher, and with every exhale how the sides come in and down, but eventually squeeze gently taller from the inside 4. Let your breathing effort subside to an easier one, but still notice how even in stillness, your breath moves you from your center.

I devote much of Ch. 3 in my book to how to breath correctly while practicing both yoga and Pilates.

Core:

Essentially, the core muscles in the body are those torso muscles that engage to hold your body stable during a position or movement. Generally, the muscles that stabilize the spine will always be involved, those being the transverse abdominus, the multifidis, the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor. Other muscles that are engaged from inside the torso to help stabilize include the other abdominals, the serratus and middle trapezius, and the intercostals, which pull the ribs together.

When taught correctly, Pilates is the best exercise system to strengthen your core because you are taught to be ever conscious of both stabilization using the deeper core muscles, and to release unnecessary tension from larger muscle groups and from habitual tension spots of the body such as the shoulders, neck, feet, hands, and back. To learn this properly, it is also good to practice yoga with a similar awareness. The breath work of yoga actually helps you to master Pilates technique because only when you learn to use the breath to relax, can you begin to discover a deeper source of grounded movement from your center. This is far superior to traditional abdominal exercises. In addition, because it is synchronized with the breath, it is more advanced than basic stabilization exercises done on physioballs and other unstable devices. In Yogilates you develop stronger core muscles with awareness of how to oppose your own body weight for greater control and skill.

Exercise One:

KNEE FOLDS - Lay on your back with your legs bent, feet flat on the floor. During this exercise, keep aware of your pelvis, maintaining it in a neutral position. 1, Start to lift your right heel off the floor, keeping the ball of the foot on the floor. Slowly, continue to lift the right foot up to the toes. Stop here and notice how the weight of the leg lifting up is transferred to the back of your right hip. Also notice, that the lower abdominals on the front of your left hip engage to keep that side of the hip from lifting up. Holding the pelvis in place is the transfer of weight through the pelvis and the opposing muscles of the hip. 3. Continue to draw the right knee in toward your chest softly, then set the right foot back down. Repeat the exercise, starting with just lifting the heel, on the left side. 4. After doing both sides, progress to just lifting one knee at a time into the chest, exhaling as you bring the knee up, inhaling to set it down. Do 6 Knee Folds with each leg. Be careful not to lift the knee so much that it pulls your hips up from the bottom. Remember, the object is to keep the pelvis still and uninvolved with the action. Keep the legs and feet completely relaxed as you do the Knee Folds, trying to feel the lower abs drawing the knee in and lowering it down, not your leg muscles.

Exercise Two:

TOE TOUCHES - Lay on your back with your knees into your chest, arms by your sides. Allow your legs to be fully bent and relaxed. Your lower back should be flat in this position. If this position is difficult to maintain comfortably, place your hands or a folded towel under your lower hips to keep the bottom of the pelvis slightly tilted up. 1. Relax your lower abs down, drawing the navel to the spine. Exhale and slowly lower the right foot (toes first) to the touch the floor with the toes. 2. Inhale and bring the leg back in. 3. Repeat with the left leg. Alternate Toe Touches 8 - 10 times with each leg. You can change the breath, inhaling as you lower the toes and exhaling to bring it back up.