Class #160

Explore Range of Motion

60 min - Class
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Description

Ken Gilbert is back to share a class with us that explores the range of motion of the spine. Ken's insightful cues will educate your body to the intricacies of Spinal flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation. Utilizing a dowel as a tool, Ken provides the student with a marker for measurement that even surprises him! Check out this inspired class, appropriate for most levels.
What You'll Need: Mat, Pilates Pole

About This Video

May 06, 2010
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So I'm Ken Gilbert and I've been teaching politesse for 15 years. And what I'm coming to most recently in regards to where I am as a teacher is I'm paying a lot of attention to the mechanics of the spine. And with the mechanics of the spine, we have five primary joint actions that the spine can do. We can go into forward flection, we can go to upright extension, we can go into lateral flection bending side to side, we can go into rotation rotating on the axis of the spine, or we can go into circumlocution where we pivot on a point in the spine. And the combination of all of those is pretty much what we do all day long.

So today's class, the focus of it will be how we work with the mechanics of the spine. And my newest revelation is how to open the chest to raise the arms rather than just lift the arms up, how to open the chest to raise the arms, which allows then the chest in the back to stay wide. So this also allows the head and neck to state over the spine rather than being caught forward with the shoulder blades back. So we're working to lengthen the spine. So all of the cues tonight we'll be referencing to the spine.

We will be moving the arms, we will be involved with the legs, but know that those are appendages that are from my point of view, are coming from the center of the spine. So we'll move the spine tonight. So we're okay with that. All right. And I do use the percussive breathing as the basis of my training began with the Ron Fletcher. So we will breathe into the nose out through the mouth. We changed the rhythm of it. One of the reasons I like staying with the percussive breathing is that I don't have to queue. Inhale, exhale, we set up the breath and then your breath will be now a sound that you hear as well as share in the room. It keeps us on track with each other.

It keeps us engaged. And I don't have to say there. Breathe in, breathe out. The pattern is set with the breath. So we're ready. Let's start with just activating the feet. And so bring the toes up off the floor. On the inhale through the nose. Lift the toes on the exhale. Keep the [inaudible] toes lifting higher off the floor and keep looking at [inaudible] toes. And how fire off the floor.

Go Two more times. And lift the toes. Hi, are off the floor. Nice and [inaudible]. [inaudible] toes higher off the floor. Now on the inhale, lift the toes. Exhale, lower the toes and lift and lower. [inaudible]. Very nice. Now start with gathering the energy and the midline and [inaudible]. Exhale. So you're gathering in and eyes up, looking out.

Yeah, sure. More. Okay, one more. And let's change it. The rhythm of it. So with Elvis opened out, so it begins to expand the chest, four, four, three, two, and then relax your arms down. So at this point, what I'd like to think of is from the pubis all the way to the navel, you're pulling, that's part of the spine in and up. And then above the navel to the bottom of the sternum. You're wrapping it around.

So two things are happening in and up and wrapped. So play with that now on the inhale in and up and wrap and in an up and wrap and below the navel in and up. Okay. Above your navel wrap around. Now reach the arms out. [inaudible].

Reach the arms open. Keep the shoulder blades wide. We want to keep the back wide. We want to reach your wound and imaginary ball or an imaginary circle like a Hula Hoop. Amber, lifting the spine. Relax the neck and shoulders. Pull the shoulder blades down and around so the shoulders and neck begin to relax to your more.

Want to make this dynamic so this is not passive. This is dynamic. Last one and they'll let the arms relax down. Take the head to the right. On the inhale we stay center on the exhale to the right, left single breath. So it's war two one and focus when your turn your head. Sure you've seen the sidewall, wall and side side for three, two and one center and relax for a moment. Something came up when I was teaching earlier today, and this is when people lift their arms this way, they're pulling their shoulder blades back so they're pulling their arms back. And what I'm realizing as I watch people walk and I'm paying attention to my body, our arms belong in front of our spine. So for some people that feels rather awkward that we're, we're going forward.

So I'm asking you to open your chest and open your back. Let your arms come in front of the spine. If you thought skeletons and drawings, you see this rather than this. So let's play with that notion there. So on that lift, then you're going to pull your shoulder blades back, which is not what I want you to do, but we're playing with this to find out what it feels like and then open and down. So it's keep the sternum lifted. So you're opening the chest, the chest back. Yes, you're opening the back, chest back and chest. Two more and one more. And do you want to play with that linkedin of the head out of the spine so the head isn't drawn forward as you move your arms. So now let's just make it a simple arm lift here and down there. Keep lifting the sternum, let it be active through the spine so it's more our arm raise than an arm lift.

So the back stays wide, the back stays wide, the back stays wide, the back stays wide and relaxed. So let's add a plea here. So a plea, a is folding of the hips. Imagine you're sitting, your sits bones directly down onto your feet. Four more. Three to add, stay there. And the pulse is allow you to stabilize more than let the arms float down. Keep the sternum lifting so the arms stay in front of the spine, clear a little deeper and come up or roll down.

So we activate and stimulate the length of the spine. This is a forward flection of the spine. Inhale arms alongside the ears and around overhead. Neck, shoulders. Then round over thoracic. Second breath. Third represented the lumbar. Fourth breath as into the sacral and crown of the head to the toes, arms alongside the ears, grounded the head of the toes, arms alongside the ears, pull the shoulder blades down and wide.

Lift up from the lower belly below the navel and hold the spine rounded so your fingertips aren't touching the floor. Rather you're suspended by the lower belly pulling in and up, opening up the back of the spine like around the kidneys. Think of that area of the spine, the lower back, the QL, the quadratus, lumborum ground the head towards the toes and you pulse and down and down, down and down, and eight more for three, two. And so you're rounded over. You come up, set the sacrum and the pelvis first. That's inhale, exhale. And then lumbar inhale. Exhale. Here you lift the sternum, keep your arms in front of the spine. Then the neck and the head. Ooh Man.

Head, neck, shoulders. Widen the spine across the shoulder blades and then routing over into the lower back and then around the, over all the way, crown of the head to the toes. Pull up from the lower belly. And do pulse. Very nice and four, three, two and roll up sacrum in place. Show them the lumbar in place over the sacrum.

Then the thoracic in place over the lumbar. Then the neck and the head. So all of you could slow down a little bit. Yeah, more so we established this awareness of sacred in place first. Then it's lumbar working from the front of the spine, then it's the thoracic, then it's the neck and head. The arms ended up in front. Now I don't know that many of us are going to walk around like this all day long, but what this does is allows the spine to stimulate all of the erectors here, particularly releasing the Trapezius and letting the head float back. So there's a benefit to it just in functionality.

So we're here one more time and rounding over head, neck, shoulders and arms. Widen the back and thoracic rib cage pulls in that the Rassic band around the base of the sternum and then rounding over all the way, pull in from the lower belly and do pulse four, three, two and rolling up sacrum in place. The lumbar in place. Then thoracic rib, Cajun place, then the neck and head in place. Arms are slightly in front of the spine and relax. Okay.

Okay. So that warms up the spine. So that's a combination of for reflection and extension, it's functional. Fluxion we're gonna play a little bit more with that. A more a of a lift and rise through the spine. So let's go ahead and get our sticks.

So just to stick involved with, uh, allows us to keep our chest and back wide. So use this now and you can pull out, there's different ways that we'll use it rather than just hold it. Imagine that you're reaching your hands through and beyond your fingertips. So your dynamic through your arms. I know that I'm doing this when I have a sense of stretch across my trapezius across the back. So open the back shoulder blades are pulled down and let them wrap forward.

So in this position here, even angle pull back, let's see if you can do it without lifting the shoulders at all. So you're moving just the shoulder blades. So I'm shoulder blades and shoulder blades. You're pulling back from the lower belly up into the upper belly, above the navel wraps around last two and one and Lori arms. Sure, I'm warm. Yeah.

Yeah. So focus on turning out if the Femur, the head of the femur turns and nothing moving. Sure. The lower Belize pulls in and up. What I might call the upper belly or the B or intercostal band wraps around holding and stabilizing the spine to more this last time. Stay in a turnout and stay just wider basis.

So we're here now. Reach the arms out, Laura. He pulls in and up. Lengthen up. And then you're going to round over and bring the head between the arms. Then you're going to come up for Rassic, ribcage, neck and head and [inaudible]. [inaudible] he's widening the back, widening the spine.

So you're widening the shoulder blade, creating as much space as you can between the shoulder blades and holding onto that space as you roll up. So you want to hold the spine? Yeah. So let's imagine this. So on the way up I, this is why I love to teach. It always gets inspired. So we might want to look at this. We're going to round over this like a pedo pole. We're going to round over here.

Now our reference point is to come up the pole. This is brilliant. This is brilliant work. All right, so what I want to see is that as you come up the pole, you don't separate your or pull your shoulder blades together. You keep them wide apart. So we go there. Let's play with this. All right, this is new. All right, Jess. Got It tonight. We just got it. It's of news flash here we are never done this before in my life. Here we go. So this is held at the, at the sacrum. So the spine is upright.

I've never done an in class pet a pole. This is good news. All right, here we are. Head is above the spine, so we're holding this in at the sacrum. Lengthen up and you peel off the stick and then you're going to come up the stick. It's a single breath both directions and let me see what you got and keep going and round. Oh. So you're lengthening the spine to go over and you come up.

Of course this demands flexibility in the shoulders. And one more time and round. [inaudible] oh over. Very nice and calm up. Now you must change hands cause it's asymmetrical. Yeah. So change hands. So the other hand is over.

What I like about this and what I'd like you to consider, um, Mfi come here for a second. So watch this cause this is what I want to see from everybody. So I turn, this is the way I teach. So she needs to pull this back a little bit more and get onto the pole. See that's pet a pull now. Yeah, right there. That's the Pedo poll as you see it. Now she's standing up, right?

I want to see more movement come from here. So she ran is here. Widen your shoulder blades. There you go. And round over should, you're going to peel away from the pole, hit the pole right there. Stay honest. [inaudible] and then come up the pole and she's going to come more from here. She went into her head and neck there and I'd like to see her come over from here more. So if we watched this part of her spine, this is what's peeling off and this is what's peeling on. So let's play with that. Yeah, thank you. Do you understand what I'm asking?

So remember this is like a pedal pole. I forget. This is one of my places where I'm really flexible for a guy we see. You see? Yeah. You see that's good. All right. And linkedin up on the Pedo Pole and Peo. Oh Hey. Lower, lower belly pulls in and up and then come up.

You replaced the thoracic and the neck and head if it could. Yes. And two more of those. A lot of focus on keeping the pole upright. I love this one more time. And where has this been all my life? I have never thought of this before. All right. And I'm done with that and calming up.

Yeah, let's leave that alone. Very good. What that also did is it opened up the shoulder a little bit. Yeah. Okay. So now we add this. What I like to see is your arms are lifted overhead. I'm going to open the chest in a moment, but right now we're just getting into the forward flection here. So the sense is what we just did, keeping the lower back.

Then the spine is separate. We're on the wall so we're rounding over to come up. So this is much more intrinsic. So we're not just coming up and letting the head flop back. We're lifting ourselves. Yep. The thoracic lifts through this, the top of the sternum, crown of the head.

Should we be [inaudible] imagine a poll. Now imagine the poll now. That's why that came up. Good question. Thank you. And crown of the head is in relationship to the pole and coming up. Expand the hands cause you'll get less tense to the the a wrist and the forearm. And then coming up.

Do I want to see this come from the high point, the bottom of the sternum up and over. For those of you who like imagery there, ma, imagine that there's a ball placed right here and you're moving over the ball. So at the bottom of the sternum. Very good. Keep the arms alongside the ears. Forward flection. One more time forward. Fluxion over. Stay right there.

Let the shoulder blades reach forward and wrap. Expand the shoulders without shrugging up. Expand the width of the shoulder blades. Nice. Expand the width of the shoulder blades. Pull up from the high point. Expand and open the top of the thoracic. Your head more your head mark. Nope.

That's your chin, Griff. That's your chin. No, it's the crown of your head. Pull back, pull back, pull back and open the spine open. You've got, you're leaning forward. You're going to lift up. Yeah. Contract contract. You're still leaning forward. You're in your neck of your shoulders and neck. You're not in your spine and come up. Okay, so this is a confusion. It can be very easy to go over this way and this has very little to do with the spine. I want to see the spine move.

I want to see the back expand and the front of the spine contract over. Then when you come up, you extend to come out of it. We have some, have some fan your purse too. We need or do they do they interfere with the sound? Okay Jane over there on the uh, the slide, the slides on the wall there right under the window. Thank you. So we're here and stay there. Shoulder blades are wide.

Reach your shoulder blades to the fingertips, the fingertips to the wall and front hip. The shoulders down the shoulder blades are separate from the shoulders. Do you want to expand the shoulder blades wide? You're getting this nicely. Expand the shoulder blades wide and then come up. Do that one more time. Shoulder blades. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Silver blades wide. So if you, if you actually, we could do this right here. Pull the shoulder blades together, let the shoulder blades go. Wide shoulder blades together. Shoulder blades go. Why? Shoulder blades together. Shoulder blades go wide. So that's the pattern. Just that, that movement there. And four more, three and two and one.

Keep the shoulder blades. Why? Why we're here right now. Open the chest and allow the arms to float up. Open the chest, keep the shoulder blades wide. I love it when you find this. Keep your shoulder blades wide. Let's take a break and we'll come down. So you're expanding the chest while you're opening the back, expanding the back while you're opening the chest.

So I'm lifting my arms into the space that's created by both my chest and arms. So I'm not lifting my arms up with my head going forward. I have all that more space. So allow this to happen. Susan, come here. So watch this. This is what I want to see. Face the, Yep. Face them. So she comes up.

What I want to see is her arms are going to have to navigate this way. There's an external rotation in her arms. Here's her opposing force. She pulling back here. Go ahead Lauren. Your arms and lift your arms, raising your arm while you open your chest. And remember fighting the arms to move. The chest widens. So really the movement is chest wide. Then the arms can float. Yeah, nicely done. So let's do that four more times. Please say what happens is all of you go to it.

Your body is waiting for you to do this. It's fascinating to watch. Here we are. And open your chest, keep your back wide shoulder blades wide and [inaudible] and open your yes, Nice Christie, and open your back shoulder blades down. The more you reach your arm through your elbows, through your fingertips, the more you're not going to hold tension, the more you're going to expand and reach out and hit up eyes. Looking forward. One more time. Open your chest and then arms down all the way.

Yeah, so this starts change how it's organized and it's a very helpful thing or don't want to play with now is we're going to go back to this contraction here. So now you've got that to relate to when you come up so you can get a little bit more extension right there. This is your opposing force. If you let that pop, you're out of integrity in the spine. So that's what we want to do. Yeah, let's go with that. So we're here and open your [inaudible] chess for contraction four for reflection.

Exactly. [inaudible] [inaudible] pull back on the rib cage or the intercostal band come up. Yeah. So what's happening is we're now starting to experience the diaphragm as a postural muscle. The diaphragm is holding us up as we lift our arms and open our chest, or open our chest and lift our arms. Let's go one more time. And Rusty arms. Why Chess? Nice to see.

So now the opposing to that is we're going to hinge forward. Now this creates a lot of triggers for many people. You've got to learn to be in your heels and in your feet. And as you go forward, it's not this and it's not this. So keep that same awareness of the open chest and you're pulling your tailbone up the wall behind you into a flat back hen. So that's the extension. And as you come up, we'll just stop it. Upright.

Vertical. Yeah. So we'll just do that. Let's do a bunch of those. I want to see what we got on that and [inaudible] him flat back. Lift your sternum to the crown of your head. Lift your sternum with the crown of your head. Lift your sternum to the crown of your head and come up. Show just to check in. Yeah.

Remember you're pivoting on your hip bone, the hip joints. You're taking your pelvis and your spine. Here's the sacrum. Take your spine with you. You take your focus with you so you're not changing your focus from straight out looking out. Let's go again please. You're working intensely. Your lower back erectors. Yeah, so know that you are not going forward or back.

You're holding place. So here we go. And [inaudible]. Pull your tailbone up the wall behind you. Stay there. Lift your sternum or your shoulder blades down and wide down in wide. Holding the flat back and come up.

Let's do that two more times. Lengthen up. Remember, this is a relationship to keep at hand is the top of the sternum to the crown of the head and forward. Fluxion. [inaudible] the hip. This is not a spine as forward flection up the hips, so your focus stays straight out from your spine, not drop your chin. Drop Your Chin. There you go. Then you expand your chest there, right there. Yep. Now it is, and then come up. Let's do that one more. Your understanding extension. Working intensely through this part of the spine and over hinge over.

Sure. Then we're going to go to one of my favorite combinations right now and then coming up. Nice. So it's not about being tense, it's about being alert and there's a difference. This is an alert spine, not tense, not hanging on to get over, but really allowing the dynamics of my spinal alignment to work for me and that's what I want to see in all of us. So here's the pattern.

We're going to start in the contraction. That's an inhale. Exhale. Then we're going to grow the hinge here and then we're going to grow back into the the contraction and then come up. All of this is opposing forces from the front. Stimulating the back. Yeah, good luck. Let's do this and contraction first and grow the hinge. Relax your toes, grow the hand and come back into the contraction so you're right where you started earlier and then come up. You have to become more sensitive and aware to where you're lower back is three more times. Rounding over, extending out, find the hand and pulling back. Lower belly, shoulder blades, wide and calming. Uh, two more times and contract high point, the base of the sternum and hinge out head stays on top of the spine. Contract back, lower back and then coming up one more time.

Then we'll reverse it. Contract forward, flection of the spine and hinge out really pretty and contract back. Lower back is lifted and roll up and release that for a moment. Now the reverse is that we go into the hinge first contract back in January and come up. Okay. Alright, here we go. For those and hinge, pull your tailbone up the wall behind you. Contract backs here, lower back has lifted upright in the space.

Head is forward between the arms and then extend out to lift up. And three more here. Contracts hinge out and come up before we do the last two, bring your arms down. There's an issue with the, so as that I'm seeing in the room. So as you can tract here the, so as is resting here now the so as is a suspension, it's holding you up in some way, some regard. So instead of getting caught here, go to it. That's the extension. I'm looking for that in your lower back.

Not that got, so you're working your extensors more two more times [inaudible] yeah, and pull back and hinge out. The breath is much better. I hear this more connected and come up. Yes. One last time and hand flat back and round. That's gorgeous. And hinge out and Com Yahoo.

All right. Whew. Now parallel and go out just a little wider. So we're still in turnout. We're here. Do we want a side bend first or rotate side bend. Okay. Wider in the arms wide and the arms and find that width of the shoulder blades.

So widen the shoulder blades. I get the feeling that they're coming around, but it's actually coming around. If had marker like that, they're coming around like my fingertips. So that's coming around to allow my back to expand open. So I feel also like I'm either ahead of our Cobra rather than the head of a snake. So if you see that, see the profile difference, here's the snake, here's the Cobra. So getting that to happen, spreading the last a little bit wider and to the right. Three breasts. Expand the hands, the fingertips. More like a jazzy hands. The fingertips reaching out. [inaudible] one more time.

And sideband side focus on the lengthening of the side. So this is the right side, right side, right side. One more time. Keep your head between the arms and expanding the opposing side. Expanding the opposing side. Sure. And come center and Gout. So what I want to play, why Rena? Alright, so we're here and over.

I want to play with this. So we're going to open our left side of the chest and return. Notice my right arm didn't move. So we're using the [inaudible]. This is an opportunity to open the chest here. From here where the arm is located, we're opening the chest.

We're not pulling the arm back. We're opening the chest. It's an interesting feeling. Yeah. So keep the back as wide as possible. Let's go to the right new four on each side. [inaudible] the shoulder blades is, why did you cancer? You're getting a stretch into the chest.

The bar's pretty much coming to the top of the head, maybe behind it if you can, you can open up that much. And was that three or four and come up and oh over and the right arm pole. And so the reaches is important as the pole that's return to the length and returned or the link. One more time. And let's just go over. Let's do a two times [inaudible] center and over two times.

[inaudible] and center and arms down. Did anyone notice that the more you pull and you reach that you actually go further over? Yeah, it's the opposing side but allows you to go further over so you're not compressing, you're actually lengthening more. That's interesting to me. So we're here, widen the shoulder blades rotation, three exhales. We've come back to closed and you remember this is a rotation of the torso, not the arms and come back to center. Okay. I want to make your correction for a few of you. This is not the movement that would be our movement. So as you rotate, you're taking your chest arms with you.

So this frame is the same as when I started. I haven't changed it so I didn't move into this cause then it would be that that's different. So what what I'm looking for is the spine, like the stick. You're rotating on this. I knew this would happen. I've never taught with a stick before. This is brand new so I knew that I was coming lock advance. So now I have to have one for every class.

So yeah, here we go. And linkedin up and three the two one and gray two one more time, time and three, two, one last time. Three, two, one center. That was different. What it's like if you look at the tops that you're wearing, it's like your re ringing the washcloth. It's that it's putting the wrinkles into the clothes rather than keeping the clothes smooth. That's the difference. So we're here, then we'll go to my other favorite pattern and two more [inaudible] center. Arms down. She keeping the chest wide, single single breath on each side and [inaudible] keep the chest wide. Shoulder blades pulling down and wide. Chest and back, stay wide. Last two, rotating.

On the axis of the spine and center, arms down. So on a play with this, I've done it different ways. I've done side bend to rotate but right now for tonight and then then we'll move on is to rotate side bend coming up and center. So it's, that's in the rotation and center. I like doing things like that to challenge and I'll do it different ways, different times.

So that were challenging the nervous system to say I'm here right now. This is my alertness. Yeah. So here we are and little plays [inaudible] two more. Last one. Very nice. And here we go and rotate. Side Bend, extend up and center and rotate. Side Bend and come up and center and lower your arms. So now let's, let's see, we can side bend, rotate side bend and come up. Yes, we're playing with the mechanics of the spine and sideband. Now there's the rotation side bend and come up and side bend and wrote to Patien side bend and come up. So [inaudible] just for a moment, Lori, your arms. So a sideband, a rotation is because I'm rotating the axis of the spine.

That's what makes it a rotation. It's different than a circle of locution when this access isn't, isn't the center of the movement. It's the point. So this is a different movement. So be careful that when you get here, you're not doing a circumlocution that you're actually going into the contraction. So that's what's allowing them the rotation to happen. So we're into a front, we're actually into a forward flection rotation. That's what's happening. Yeah. So it's just be aware of, that's what's going on here. And Sigh Ben First, here's the rotation, sideband and come up and side bend.

Remember rotation with the access to the crown of the head of the stick and center come up and now we're going to add the circumlocution. The second locution will be the way we return. So we're in the sideband and the rotation we circled look cute to come up. So the breadth would be we're doing only a quarter circumlocution we're only coming about quarter of the way around. So we're here and sideband [inaudible] and rotate. Circle about cute. Pull your belly back, high point, bottom of the sternum and do it again. And shied band and rotation circumlocution and up.

One more time. And I want to fix it. She and Roach. Hey, circumpolar cute and come up. Good. I want to fix it by adding something else. Let's go into the high release or the upper back extension. So the high release is here and you go up and over. So your opposing force is coming from here, pulling in and up, this wrapping around and you're actually bending the spine up and over.

That's what I want to see. So we'll do four of those in a row. Let's do two breasts over and come up two breasts over and come up. Yep. So we're here and one breath, second breath here and come up and to come up and to one more time and two breasts over and come up and arms down. This is what I want the pattern to be. So we're here sideband rotation. Circum look cute and come up and then we'll take a breath to recenter.

So that last part will be the sideband, the rotation, the circumlocution to come up, high back bend and then up. Yeah. So let's do that. Then. We've, we've pretty much been, um, comprehensive in the upper spine at least. Yeah. Rotate, circle my cute and come, ah, two oh in the chest and center and side and rotate the circum loke shoot and come, uh, to o open the chest. And two more side. Ben wrote, Hey, take the stress out of the neck by her checking in right here. Shannon relationship to the sternum and [inaudible] and down.

And you've got a great prop when you have this. See, this is really helpful to him. All right. Um, we haven't done full circumlocution yet, so let's play with that. Let's make it in four counts. So the way we'll do it is we'll start with for reflection, then we will go to the floor forward, flection into the side, bend into the high back, bend into the side bend, and then forward. We'll go four times in a row on one side, then we'll change it. So it's inhale, exhale, inhale, side bend. Let's use the side bend on the inhale. Exhale, open, inhale, and exhale. That's the pattern. Yeah. So let's state it with each other. Honest, so that we can stay with the rhythm that makes sense and go rather slow rather than quick. Yeah. And [inaudible] you go to your right and yeah.

[inaudible] you're pivoting on the base of the rib cage, the bottom of the sternum as your pivot point within the spa line last too. [inaudible] your lower back stays lifted through the spine. So there's no forward collection of the ship at all and there and come up. That was nice. That was smooth. And one more time. The other side and forward. First to the left and right [inaudible] last time coming up and arms, the w we get to feel as the organicity of the spine and how it wants to undulate how it can move. So let's put the sticks down for now.

Let's go to the floor and I like to roll down to the floor. We'll go into a diamond or a seal position with the knees bent and the feet touching. So we're here parallel position with the feet and legs and over. And then so racich reached the shoulder wide and then lumbar into the sacrum and fingertips to the floor. Relevate your to undo your toes, walk yourself out and come into a diamond sip. So we're all are a seal fit, however we want to refer to that. We're here in the knees being out. So you're all facing inward.

So we're here. What I want to play with here is we'll, we'll go back to the stick, but the point is to get upright, to drop the pubis forward. What I noticed more and more when I teach is that people get caught back in there. So as here, the connection of the SOS to the front and the lower back gets tight and they end up this way. And what I want to see is this for both men and women, I want to see that you're dropping your pubis forward, sitting up, up on your sitz bones. So let's go there and play with that. We're opening up the back of the back so you're roll back into the sacrum but not onto it yet. And so I want to see the lower back open. Is the kidneys of the, of the spine open and right, like been up, like been up and lengthen up and yeah, four and three and two and one. And this time you're going to sit up and roll back onto your site from get onto the back part of the pelvis.

Now place the bar on an imaginary table top and open the back and a roll up, pushing the bar along the tabletop. And let me see it. And onto the sacrum. Keep your arms on the table top. Now push the bar along the table top as you roll up. That's very nice. And two more times. Roll down to the back of the sacrum. Yes. And push the arm forward so it's almost effortless. It becomes connected and almost effortless.

Excellent. So the second breath will go to the base of the rib cage, two breasts down and lowest rib and pushing forward. You pull yourself up. So I still want this to be about the spine, not the arms and roll down sacrum, high point, bottom of the sternum, high point, bottom of the sternum, and roll up. Only going down to the lowest rib. Two breasts down. Say crumb, lowest rib. Open the knees wider. Drop the pubis and come up. We're going to play with the [inaudible] pubis in a moment here. And one more sacrum. You're going to stay down this time. Stay there.

So you're in this position of the contraction. Take your pubis and sits bones and drop it down to your heel. So with you're stretching your lower back down. Yes. Drop the pubis to the heels and four, three, two, now rollout. Drop the sacrum down and roll up. Yes, that's exactly it. We want to learn to put this in relationship.

We want to learn to put the sternal cloud or mass steroid in relationship to the sow ass. And by doing that we unwind and intentions cause those the pulses allow the hips to relax. And if you're honest with your back and Kimmy, your back wide, these then go into relationship. When you find it, it's like an on switch. You come up. Yup. So play with that. Let's do that again three more times. Yes, that was big eyes. Okay. And sacred and lowest rib and pulses.

Okay. Pubis going to the heels and roll up. Keep widening the shoulder blades. Keep the spine between the arms and keep the arms wide and hey, crumb and lowest rib and rolling. Oh, sorry. And there were there and yeah.

[inaudible] two more times. [inaudible] last time and [inaudible]. Yeah, lowest rib and four, three, two and rolling up. Good. Relax for a moment. Okay. All right. Where did I want to go? I wanted to go. Somebody said, oh, let's play with this undulation. Then here we go. Back to the lowest rib.

Then we're going to come up into our hinge here just as we were sitting upright here, but we're in a pitch back hinge and then we rolled out similar to what we did standing. Got It. So we'll roll down and we come up into the hinge here and then down. This is very functional stuff. We do this all day long. We don't think about it, but we're doing it all day long. All right. Ready? And chips are the shoulder blades and hinge. Keep the arms directly out in front of the chair. Sheep, the silver blades reaching wide, sheer, moving the spine between the arms.

Last time I come up in the hinge, come up to an upright sit and yeah. [inaudible] yeah. This just a little bit of, so as in a little bit. Yeah. A little bit of, so as going on. Yeah. So let's do this now. Straighten your legs out. Yay. Straighten the legs out is a Yay. Yeah, but you got reach.

This is where I get a little snitty with this. Flex your feet. Reach to the heels. It wasn't until I realized in all the classic work that if you don't reach through your heels, your legs will grab on with the, so as in the quadriceps, reach through your heels and the legs start to lengthen out. Yeah. You're stimulating the quadriceps. They don't have to work so hard. Reach to the heels, hold that position as if you're standing on the floor.

Same thing to, to the shoulder blades and roll up. Reach through the heels and let me see what you got and reach to the heel. Flex the fees and rolling. Ah, two more times and roll down to the tips of the shoulder blade. Then roll up last time and tips of the shoulder blades and roll up. So we're going to do the same thing with the extension now that we did just the with the uh, other sit. So are here and you roll down to the tips of the shoulder blades.

You roll up to the hinge down to the tips of the shoulder blades and up to the hinge. We'll do that four times. Was that an eye roll? Did you just give an eye roll? Okay. Flex your feet. I rolls it all. And remember it does help sometime to use your tongue. It does sometimes help just keep your focus forward that when that one is important. I don't care what you do with your mouth necessarily, but do know that we're doing this on camera and it would be nice to have it recorded as pretty, let's go me and contract to the [inaudible] tips of the shoulder blade flex and then roll up to [inaudible] hen roll down to the tips of the shoulder blade knife work women. This is good.

And roll up hin and roll into the shoulder blade and roll up his hand last time and to the tips of the shoulder blades and roll up all the way. Good. Huh? That's cool. When you see that, you'll see me doing this with Chris. It looks rather cool. It's like the magician stuff that they do and some hip hop dances. Yeah.

All right, so we're here. Let's play with this. Go ahead and point the feet but I want to play with now is we're gonna keep the feet apart just cause that triggers the lower back differently. Roll down to the tips of the shoulder blades and also leg lift. Flex point and flex. And then we'll roll up. Let's keep it asymmetrical. This is how I teach it. So funny. All right.

Must feel comfortable. All right. And roll down and lift the leg and flex and point and flex. Keep the contraction high point and flex one more and point and flex heap the flex and roll up point both and roll her down. Left leg and flex and point and flex and 0.2 more. Flex and point. Flex and flex and roll up. I did an opposite, didn't I? Yeah, I did it the opposite, didn't I? Yeah, it's still worked, but we didn't finish it so nicely.

Let's do two on each side and I'll promise I'll be up this way. And you lift on the point and lift and flex and the lift and flex. Roll up and point and roll down and lift on the point. Lift and flex. Lift and flex. Roll up on the flex. I like that. A cemetery and then point and one.

Lift and flex. Roll Up. Lift and flex. Roll Up. Point the feet. And one more time. Roll down and lift and flex roll up. I like that. Asymmetry on the feet and point and roll down.

And lift and flex. Roll up to release. [inaudible]. So let's go back here. So we're here and let's go ahead with the arms opening here and let's invite the rotation and the rotation. So, uh, let's, we'll go to the front as I go to the right. Yeah.

So we go to the front and [inaudible] the mirror. So this would be the front wall to the flat wall and to the back wall and to the front wall wall. I knew you figured it out and front wall and to the back wall to the front wall, stay there and contract. So there's a circumlocution, eh come up to center and yeah, like a precursor to the spine corrector. Stop for a second. So this is a circumlocution. What you want to be aware of is when you're on this side to stay on that side of the spine. So you're going down on that side of the spine, you come up off that side of the spine, then on the other side to go down on that. Yeah, you understand?

So when I say that side of the spine, the rotation here, I'm going to be on the right side of the spine, the right side of the spine here. That's the circumlocution here, because you'll see in a moment where we go with it and the left side of the spine. So I'm instead of going down here, I'm in the twist here. So the rotation is there. So where we're going with this as this itself, it's almost a traditional piece. Okay. Yeah. A circumlocution ideal is to the shoulder.

Let's go to the shoulder blades cause it'll give you something to rotate on when we go. So let's just do the right side. Left side four more times, right. Left, right, left or I'm sorry, forward, wall, back or side and back. Wall side. Four times we're here and coming up [inaudible] center. Really Challenge yourself to get to the shoulder blade. If you don't get down to it, that's okay. It's just that, that's a nice place to challenge. Yeah. To really have to go to work in the high point. And [inaudible] let's add the circumlocution. So we're going down on one side, coming up on the other, then we go down on that other coming up on that first side. Yeah.

We'll do that twice. And [inaudible] come across to the other side and come up center to rest and then to the other side. Yeah. Come across center to rest and [inaudible] come across and up a lot of, so as work and [inaudible] [inaudible] and our staff. Let's leave that. Yeah. So one more thing we can do in the seated position. All right. And then we will come up to standing and finish up.

So this is a little bit more Fletcher ESC. So we're here in this position here. The side bend goes to the elbow down. So the elbow going down is the marker that you're staying in the side bend, not in front or opening up to the back. Does that make sense? So let's bend the elbow. So we're here and then just bring that down. So let's just play with that for a moment. The chest stays, why the shoulder blade stay wide? So we're moving only the arm.

So I'd like to see the next night get engaged. The chest stays wide. Yep. Very Martha Graham and last to stay there and bring your arms down or whatever side you started on this time we'll start on the other side before more and we'll be done with those. So the point is to stay on the sits bones and to not get caught in a pitch on the, on the hips. So as you're going over, you're letting that hip drop down. So you want to keep it equal away. Equal weighted. Yeah, you understand that. So let's start it here and [inaudible] the other side. [inaudible] [inaudible] last time. Nice chest tonight.

She's saying open chess, extend the legs forward. That's interesting. And so we're forward in parallel. Open to diamond or seal [inaudible] and go on to parallel. So you're bringing your legs together. See if the ankle bones can touch. That brings a lace together. So we're playing with the rotation hips. This is exhausting. Who fought this up last two and one and arms down. Roll under hip. Swing your legs underneath your thighs and then roll to the balls of your feet. And then roll back to this.

The heels down. Keep your head down. Shoulders wide. Spend some time here. Drop the tailbone down, drop the crown of the head down so you're actually better at the knees and your hips and shoulders are equal in height. Then in your knees to open up the back of the lower back. Imagine you have a weight dropping from your tailbone and a weight from the crown of your head. Pull up on your lower belly and wrap your intercostal or high point at the bottom of the sternum and pulses.

Let the crown of the head fall for three, two and roll up sacrum and place and lumbar in place. Thoracic in place. Open the arms forward and neck and head. Yeah. So stand on your feet. Let's lift the toes and lower the toes.

Lift the toes and lower the terror. And here's the extension. And then the contraction stay high and the extension upper back and the contraction and [inaudible]. Four more. [inaudible] [inaudible] last to keep the shoulder blades wide.

So the separating a widening that Cobra head and stay. Thank you. [inaudible]. Well done.

Comments

1 person likes this.
Pure genius! Love it love it love it. Thank you again, Pilates Anytime for giving me an opportunity to experience another amazing Pilates master!
1 person likes this.
Please ask to Mr. Ken to come back again. I find him so focused in details. Thanks Monica
Studied AGAIN...i repeat myself - loved it. Thank you once again for giving me access to such an incredible session...cheers!
1 person likes this.
Thank you Ken and PA! This is a very informative, corrective and inspirational class for anyone who wants to improve their understanding of the mechanics of the spine :)
1 person likes this.
Jennifer, Monica and Anita . . . speaking with Kristi today I found my way to the Comments page on the PA site. I love reading your comments and I am encouraged to return to teach more. Particularly in the mechanics of the spine - to include my newest insights.
1 person likes this.
I take this class anytime my back pain begins to flare up and I am always relieved. Thank you!
Julie . . . thank you for the comment. Opposing forces in traction assists in reliving most discomforts. Great to hear from you. I will be returning to PA this autumn.
Incredible class, thanks🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
Thank you for taking it!!!
Cynthia G
Thanks so much.  It was lovely to reference Martha Graham
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