Class #2427

Midline and Plumb Line

40 min - Class
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Watch Ken Gilbert take a student who is new to him through her first Cadillac workout. He focuses on going through the five joint actions of the spine as well as playing with the distinction of the midline and the plumb line. This is a very unique class which is very personal to him and his student as he challenges and pushes her in a mindful way.
What You'll Need: Cadillac

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I'm Ken Gilbert here at any time. And two years ago I did a Cadillac workout with George, a longterm student of mine. And several comments came through saying, I would like to see you teach with somebody you haven't worked with before. So today Maggie is joining me for Cadillac session and we'll be going through the five joint, that primary joint actions of the spine, as well as playing with a, a distinction of the midline from the front and the plumb line from the side. So those are the focuses for anthem, the five Halos. You'll see that in the tutorial, our awareness of the eyes, awareness of the shoulder girdle or awareness of the dye for Madec rim awareness of the pelvis and the rim and awareness of either the above the knee or at the ankle. Something about the base connecting to the floor into the feet.

So Maggie, is there something that you would like to explore today in today's session? Um, the little, um, to help me pelvis balance your pelvis right to left, up and down. Um, it's a little tilted, uh, on the right side. Okay. Alright. So what we're looking at, uh, awareness of the pelvis and how to balance a little bit more, any right to left any a work through the sacrum and the pubis awareness. We'll play with that. Does that sound all right? Sounds great. Okay, let's start simple. Go ahead and, uh, sit facing me here. Put your feet on the bar here. The poles here. And I love to do this cause I get a read and a sense of who you are through your spine. Put your heels on the bar. Yeah, the legs bending is fine. Yeah. So we want to play with the foot centers of the heel and the ball of the foot.

So we're playing with that. Take hold of the outside of the outside. Yeah. So now I'm going to counter you while you pull away from me. Spin your elbows out to the side. So we're just, this is like a read of your spine. Besides that, it makes me look really good this way. So that's what this is about. Drop the pubis forward, sitting upright in the lower back, the heel center, the ball in the foot. So there's that awareness of ankle bone to ankle bone. Now there's an awareness. Bring that inner thigh, inner thigh.

Drop your pubis down. So now you're sitting on your sits bones. Feel very fairly even. All right, now lifting up, lift the sternum. I like to use this Q. Then the new barium in relationship to the crown of the head. So you're lifting the sternum up and forward. Spend your elbows out again.

That allows the clavicle to level. If you let the elbows drop down, now you can shrug up. Now take the shoulders down, spin the elbows out. Now struck up, not so much. So it's a nice marker to say, okay, now I'm keeping my, the halo of my shoulders level, the clavicle level. So here's the first joint action. We're going into a small contraction at the lower belly to go into some forward flection only in the lower back pubis to naval on the exhale. So I like to use the Fletcher percussive in through the nose, out through the mouth, and then come up, right? So take away the lean.

So you don't want lean, you want to pull away from me as I'm pulling away from you. So you're taking this. Yes, yes. That's better. Now come on up. So inhale there. Exhale, pull away from me. Now take your sternum without sinking the head without doing this. Keep the head level here. Pull away from me. Now even pull it away from me.

More from the sternum going. Yes, I like that. Spend the elbows out. And now roll up pubis, pelvis, chest, head. Spin the elbows out levels the clavicle. Yeah, your head's already already self-correcting and pubis enabled. Two more times people naval. Okay.

And then come on up. See if you can do a sinking that eyes and the head and roll on back. Keep Navel. That's better. And then come on up now rolling back to the back of a sacred pubis naval. And then on back to the sacrum. Flex your feet.

So you're using the back of your body more so than the elbows out the back of the sacrum there. So now, awareness of the ankle bones above the knee. Pelvis here, pubis, just sacredness. Nice. Keep the chin here. So you're looking straight out here. Past the bar. Bring the Chin down just a bit. So that opens up the back of the neck. There's an exit that I was talking about in the tutorial. There's an x there, shoulder to shoulder and crown of the head into the sternum. Now roll on up.

Keep your eyes level of the floor right here. That was nice. All right, now go roll on back. Pelvis, pubis, navel on the back of the sacrum. Good. Now go to the lowest rib. Keep the head here. So there's got a relationship with the chin coming into the chest here. Just a bit. Yes. Spend the elbows out and then rolling up and [inaudible]. Yeah, we're going down to the bottom. Took. So the shoulder blades, we're taking this in increments. And so lifting up for nice elbows out.

Roll onto the back of the sacrum. Pubis navel back of the pelvis. Yes. So you're in your hip joint. The hip halo hit, hit, hit, and now to the lowest rip. Yep. And now to the tips of your shoulder blades, head, head, head. Now, here's where we start to activate the upper body. Straighten the legs, bringing the head up a bit. So, but yeah, I like that. Look right here. No arm pull straight down. So you're pulling from here. So as you're pull the arms down, you're actually pulling yourself into it. Pull yourself into it.

Pull yourself into it one more and stay. Now, roll on up. Head, head, head, eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes really are your leveler. When you work with the eyes looking out this way, you're going to have a different relationship with your head floating on top of your spine. This is the top of your spine right here. And that reflects through the third eye or looking out through the eyes. Now we're going to do that same thing again. We're going to change the arm movement. Practice that here.

Bend the elbows and row than the elbows. Yup. And open yet. Then the elbows and row. Yes. Good. Two more. Yes. Nice. Lifting your sternum each time. Elbows are spun out now. Roll on down. Back to the pelvis. Yes. Head, head, head. Now roll down. Pupils. Naval pubis. You want to run round? We're in a flection. We're in forward flection.

Rounding down, rounding down tips of the shoulder blades last year. All right there. Now you're going to row straighten your legs in a row. [inaudible] yeah, there you go. [inaudible] yeah, keep looking here and more elbows out to the side. One more. I was out to the side and now rolling up. Rolling on up. You're doing great. Rolling up. Bend your knees right there. Sitting up like, oh, that was not as good rollout. So we're looking how the forward flection, so we're gonna play with them.

What do we do with that when we want to give it some more diversity. So do this with me arms and now side bend. We're just warming up the lateral. Now roll down on the right side of your spine, right side of your spine, tip of the shoulder blade and then roll up on the right side of the spine. Keeping the eyes level of the floor. Nice.

And then arms and then center goes arms. Nope, hold here. So we want to separate that awareness or just moving the arms independent of the halo. Now you move the halo. Yes. Now roll down on the left side. Yes. That's part of the action. Yeah. The reason you're bending your knees and so you get out of your lower back and sit more up onto the sits bones. Now rolling up and then Nope, stay there. Stay in the side bend than the arms and then the torso.

So we're using this as a frame. How do, how am I in relationship to the halo of my, my shoulders? Yeah. So again, side. I know, I know. Isolation. Yeah. Isolation to integrate. That's a great adage to have. Side bending. Now rolled down on the right side. We'll do this one more time on each side. Good. Now here's where the fun and beat. This is what we want to work on today is the pelvis. Good. And then come on up.

Stay on that side. Stay on that side. Just staying on the right side of your spine. And then arms. Yeah. Brain to body. That's what we wanna do. And then arms. Yup. Arms and torso. Yes. Roll down on the left side. Here we go. So this is what you want to play with here. So now we're stabilizing the pelvis.

Get, and that's what you want it today. And then rolling on up there. Remember it's a sequence up to extension there. Then the knees, arms, and then torso. So you're playing with frame, change the spine roll down and then you roll up and then its frame and chain. Yeah. So this time we're going across the back. So we're doing a circumduction forward fluxion circumduction so you don't need to know that other than that's what we're going to do. So arms and then side bend.

Now Roll on down on the right side. Up here. Yep. Good. Now come across shoulder blade to shoulder blade. Now you're on the left side and roll up hip down. Wait for here. Wait, now arms up right up, right up, right. And then torso. Yeah, I like to [inaudible]. What I love using w w when in the dynamics of movement is organize your mind and allow them the plasticity be playing back and forth between the right and left brain. So upright. Sit. Bend your knees just a bit. Yeah, and frame. And then torso roll on down on the left side.

The last one of these, flex your feet. Fight for that back of the body. When you flush your feet, you're gonna use the back of your body. You push into the ball of your foot, you're gonna use the front of your body and when, just want to be clear about working more from the back of the body. Then roll up on the side, bend [inaudible] good. And then arms and then torso and bend your knees. Good.

So play with this engagement more as we move through other things, because that right there is giving you feedback to stabilize the halo of the shoulders versus fall into it. Let's leave this for now. Yeah, I want to play with this in another way. Now we're going to be used to push through bar. We're going to play with sense of traction. So we're over here now. I'd like to do this two ways and we'll see how you're most comfortable. Put your feet here.

Now we're getting into the relationship of forward flection and back extension. Take hold of the bar wide. Yeah. So the springs are only here for feedback. They're really not helping you at all. So just feedback so it stays in relationship to the Cadillac. Go ahead and lean back into a hinge. Flat back. Spin your elbows out.

So now we're looking at pubis to navel, navel to the top of the, the sternum, the maneuver, IOM and then the crown of the head. And you're, Yup. Can you open up the shoulder lays even wider? Yeah. Hang back. Oh we went, my wife and I went aerial for five years and I learned that in order to find the center, I would call this the center core. You need to hang into your shoulders more. We take out any compression of the shoulder ball into the joint at all. Let yourself hang and then let the ligaments and tendons start to do what they're best at doing was to stabilization with the sternum widen back.

Now you're going to pull the bar down and come to upright sit. But you want to do it not as an arm movement using the arms as lever. So let the sternum pull the arms down and lever. Yup. Just upright. So you might want to bend your knees just a little bit at the top here. Yeah. And then hinge back.

So you're letting yourself hang out of your shoulder joint compression. So there's nothing being pulled back or out like that with the sternum wide in the back. Pull down and upright. Sit. See if you can keep the arms spun out to the side. They're not straight locked out, but they are straight and held. They have stable and hinge back.

So I'm looking for the movement to come centered from the sternum more or less from the diaphragmatic rim here. Pull down, pull down, pull down with the sternum wide in the back. [inaudible] wide back. Yep. And then hinge back one more this way. So this is hindering for a wide, wide, wide, wide, wide. Yeah. It allows the head balance here. More like this. Now hinge back, arms come up and hinge forward. Hips forward. Now there's a law, there is a limitation. So we are going to go to straddle.

So let the sternum widen your back with the sternum on your back. Yeah. So you'd have a little bit of yoga and your background a little bit. Yeah. Straddle the table. You lifted your sternum more, you went more into a lifted extension. So now hinge forward here. I'm only giving you the feedback here. Keep your head behind your arms. Yeah. So now you want to lift the sternum from the middle of your back.

Diaphragmatic rim, right here. So this is a very active place to be hinge back. So you're going to hang back, hang back into your arms and back into your arms. Good. Lower Belize. If this up pubis, navel opposing forces pulling this up allows this to open out. Allows you to hinge back better. Pull down. Yeah. And now you're going to push through flat. Back through, flat. Back through, flat. Back through chin. Chin in relationship to the manubrium.

Here the chin down. Chin down, Chin down. Chin down. Jenna. Thank you. Look, just turn it. Look just stern. Let's just turn it wide back. Wide Back. Wide Back. Now we're going to play with this as three different places. We're going flat back. I call this flat back, back flat. Back, back. Arms. Reach up, flat. Back forward. Keep your focus going out of the top of your spine. Why?

Oh so loose wide back wide. Back wide had behind the arms. Yeah, right there. Lower bellies at this up. You're wrapping into the ribcage here. Now. Flat back, back [inaudible]. So here's the cycle. Flat back forward. So we're working extension here. Lift, lift, lift. Aha. Thank you.

Chin down a bit. Yep. And so when I, when I give you those little cues, I'm looking at the relationship now, straight arms. I'm looking at the relationship of the five Halos that you're working with. Shoulderblades wide here. Had behind the arms, head behind the arms. Yeah. You don't want to fall through your shoulder, girl, you want to live from your shoulder girdle, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift and then flat back, back. We're going to give it a new detail. So that's just the flat bat series. Now come up to upright now from here, round over. Go into a forward flection. Yes.

And you're going to push through this depends on your range of motion and your flexibility. Push through lift. Just turn them there. Shoulders down wide. Yes. Good head would go here. Yeah. Lift. Just turn the more. Yes. Good. You've got some range of motion here. Now round back, back, round, back, back. You're gonna round back all the way back to the hinge. Now you're going to grow the hinge here. Flat back. Keep the arms, it just arms has lever. I like that. Arms as levers stabilizes better that way.

Pull down, push through. Flat back forward. They're doing the flat back series. Now we're putting the two together with the sternum with the stern to know the difference between flat back extension and to know the difference between forward flection and then flat back, back and then arms overhead. Flat back forward. [inaudible] good. Thank you. Nice lift. Lift, lift. Flat backpack. We're doing the flection series now, so flatbed. No, come up to upright first. A upright, wide, wide. Straighten the arms. Go back. Go back to the flat back. Yeah. Bye. Bye. Yeah. Lift and round. Over. Lift.

Trend over there. Thank you. No Brown around your inflection forward. Fluxion now extension there with the sternum wide back. Find your extension. Find your extension. Extension comes from here. Lift, lift, lift, lift, Chin down. Ooh, Nice. Now round back, back. You're going to keep the round back just the last time through. Round back. Lower belly pulls in and up. Yeah.

Arms come up here and go into the flat back extension here. Hit behind the arms and behind their arms, around, back around, back around back and come to upright. Just come to up, right spine, upright spine. And we're going to leave that. Okay, we'll go this very good. Now here's, here's something that I like to play with. This is going to help you open up this whole part. Sit at the end of the table on your sits bones at the edge.

Yes. Now roll back. Roll back. So roll like a ball. So pull your legs into your chest. Roll back. Then you're going to hook your knees over the bar here. Yes. Now put your hands. I hope we, yeah, put your hands at you. Good. Thank you. Hang on here. Cause that's going to give you some leverage. Right?

So playing here, wrap here. So even though I'm not bringing the detail of each one of the Halos, I'm tracking it. That's what tells me what to cue to you and what to do with your head, neck and shoulders into your rib cage, into your pelvis and then into your base or your legs. So you're getting a little bit lower back arch. Tip The pubis up. Tore the navel. Yeah, do that one more time.

Reached to the wall and tip up. Now you're going to keep tipping your pubis. I'm one for understanding that. That's nice. Now you're to the lowest rib. Keep peeling up to the tips of your shoulder blades. Keep peeling up. Great control here. I like that. Eyes are here all the way up, all the way up. Keep this lower belly engage. That's pretty lace together.

Do you want to get the front of the hips open? Channel the chest, just a bit. All right. Right there. Now you're going to peel down so it takes your time. I'm going to help you track this here. Peel down to this. Keep your hips up, fight for the pubis to tilt to your naval. What that does is it allows the lower back to lengthen, not into a pelvic tilt as a way of standing. But I use the pelvic tilt as an action joint action of the spine.

That's very nice. Maggie. This is good. Now you stepped on me. Yeah, I can't move my hand. All right. Yeah, come on down a little slower here. A little slower here cause this is an area we want to work more to help you understand your pelvis orientation and alignment all the way down. Good. Now we're gonna add a detail to that. So do the same thing. Reach and then tip to peel and then peel all the way up to the bottom of the roof cage. Nice to the bottom. Tip of the shoulder blades, all the way up to the back of the shoulder. So you're holding this awareness here of the halo. Oh, that's really good legs together here.

Reach your arms up over your shoulders. Now this is one of my favorite things, all the way to overhead. Now widen your shoulder blades. I like to do this because of the feedback. It allows you to really understand the traction of the diaphragmatic rim. Now, legs together. And now roll on down. Bottom tip of the shoulder blades. I'm giving you this for feedback. Yeah. Spin the elbows out. Good. And then to the lowest rib, lowest rib, you're coming down here, coming down here. Keep the hips up, hips up.

Now you're at bottom rim of the rib cage. So you're the dye from attic room and shoot up top of the, so as and then are going down here as a bodyworker. You know the relationship that those two muscles have been the knees a little bit more. Yeah. And there would get more traction to reach the sitz bones towards the wall. Let's do that one more time cause I think that's an important articulation.

S Yep. So bring the hands alongside the hips. Let's start it that way. Yup. Yup. So reach and then tip took the pubis to the navel then to the lowest ribs. So down a little bit. So you get the articulation going through teaching the brain and body work together. Yeah. And then to the tips of the shoulder blades. Good. The back of the, of the shoulders itself. Good. All the way.

Now we can play with a little bit and get into the base of the body if you want to. Let's just stay here for a moment before we go. Before we do the dissent, keep the hips up. This is open. So we're working in an extension and affliction. Same. Almost simultaneously. Reach the right leg up to the ceiling. Yeah. And then bend the knee and lift up higher here. Yeah. And then lift the, extend the left leg and lift up higher as you bend as you bend. Yes, yes. Likes together. One more time. Each side reach. Bend the knee and lift higher cause we're looking to open up the lower back here. And one more. Reach and bend. Lift up higher. You're good.

So now peel down, reach the arms up over the shoulders. [inaudible] yeah, just let's, let's just play. So I'm just watching how you respond to the cues, the tips of the shoulder blades. Nice. And then to the lowest rib. Very good. Look at that spine work. And then to the back part of the waistline all the way down.

Sacrum down. Excellent. Alright, come on out of that. And the elegant dismount is for you to go off the end there. All right, so we've done forward fluxion we've done extension. We did some circumduction on the, when we are holding the pole, sit facing that way. We're going to do some side bending. I like this cause it's just fundamental. Sit well onto the table. So and your arm. So your arm would be straight with a bar here.

Scoot over to your left just a bit more. Yeah. So here, what you're doing here now is this arm out here just for brace or for the balance. So what you want to do since we haven't done this before, is you're here in this position, pull in on your shins. This allows you to sit more up on your sitz bones. If you let the legs hang, there's a tendency to fall the ribcage onto the pelvis. So pull in on the shins that stabilizes your base. Hold on here will even help. So you're here, you've got your hand here. Bring the arm up level to the shoulder. This arm level to the shoulder.

Now you're going into a side bend and articulated. This way you're going to lift on the right side and lengthen on the left side. So you're going into side bend, lift and lengthen. Two more breasts there. Lift and lengthen. Lift and lengthen. Then you return by lifting the pelvis here. Lift up to center line.

So you're coming back to the midline. Lift up, let the arms stay out here. This will balance the shoulder girdle better. Yes. So we're not going here. We're doing something else with it. So you're, you're in this position here. You're going to lift on the right side. Lengthen on the left side. Lift on the right length and on the left. Yes, yes.

And then coming up you lift, lift, lift. To return you're lifting to return. Lifting to return. Bring the arm in front of the spine. That works better. All right. And two more of those. Lift on the right length and on the left. Lift on the right. Lengthen on the left.

Lift on the right length and on the left, one more lift on the right length. And on the left, I'm going to advance this a little bit for you. Take the rotation here. You're going to bring this arm over to the bar here. This is something I've just been working on over the last few months, so you can keep the legs together here. Now let the head go toward the bar, pull back from here and he'll pull back. Exhale, reach through. Inhale, pull back, exhale, reach through, pull your your calves against the table. It will help you brace the spine. That's nice too.

More and reach through and one more and reach through. Keep the head here, bring this hand over and then you're going to unwind it by opening the arm here out to the side. Your announced side. Bending side, bending. Yeah. And then come up pelvis, chest and head. Let's do that on the other side. So you come out of here, come around to this side and they'll see the back of you working. That was good. So what I, what I'm interested in, and this is as I said I, I like, uh, I like to come back to center and this allows me to explore character for the stage more deeply or understand other people back this way. Over here.

Straight arm coming on your, your calves right there. The arm starts here just for position to sit upright. And then you lift that arm up here and now your lift on your left side and Lincoln on your right side. Lift and lengthen. So you're playing with the Halos. Now you're bending them with the spine. Lift and lengthen and then coming up.

You lift to come up to center, shoulder down, back wide, and you lift and lengthen. You lift on the left side, lengthen on the right. Two more breaths that lift and link it and lift and lengthen. You're doing nicely with the head and eyes stay there. You're going to rotate around here. Hand goes there and then across.

So that one went across. The contraction comes from here. Inhale, exhale and reach through. Inhale, pull back. Exhale, reach through. Now it's interesting to see that you have a different relationship with your base on this side. Keep the head engaged here. That's why I'm pushing a little bit with my thumb to keep the back of the neck open and long. Lower belly shoulder down wide. One more time and reach through. Bring the left hand to the right. Come out of the side bend so we could do more reps of that if we want to explore that a little bit more. However that gives a nice ring.

So we're doing some circumduction with that as well as side bending. Let's go here. Yeah. All right, I want to play then. Okay with where's the lakes springs. So you're going hit here. So we're going to be reaching out of the legs.

Go ahead and I like to have the head have your head here. Scoot down just a little bit more there. [inaudible] then bring your hands to a position there for stability wide back over. Belly pulls in an up. Let's just play with this a little bit for connection to the base cause we're at now for free. Free more freedom here. Rab Onto my hand with your inner thighs. Yeah.

Grab on here with your ankle bones. Then way up into here. This is nice, right here, wrap. Now you're going to devil a pay or develop the movement. You're going to bend the knees, keep your feet in contact with the table. Bring the knees up over this and then reach up and let's just play with this for a bit. Bend the knees and reach out. Stay engaged here. Trans versus engagement. You want a small lift right here? I'm one for, I don't like to call it neutral spine, but I do want to call it a a. That would be an upright spine for you. So you've got this, a little bit of space here. You're holding on here.

Double pay ankle bones above the knee and straight up and then bend. Take more time to shh and bend and straight up and bend and reach out. So this is teaching the state. I want this more stable. Yeah, it's more stable. And two more times bend and say, oops. You tipped a little bit there. Did you feel it happen? Yeah.

So you want to keep this length here while you're doing this. So bend and extend up. Uh Huh band. So the control is coming from the center core right here into the spine. One more time and straight up [inaudible] and bend and return. Go ahead and bend over the hips again and extend your leg straight up.

Going into the straps here, right all right there and reach out now. Straight leg down. Straight leg down. Sir, keep this down. Keep this down. I am such a stickler for the pelvis. I W I used to work with Christy Cooper at Santa Barbara Athletic Club and we would have these discussions every once in a while about the tip of the pubis and that and the lengthening of the lower back. And this is something that I just love to see in everybody.

See how long you are. It's a field long [inaudible] yeah, so and you're very level here, so that's an interesting place to be that you're using this, the transversus and other muscles to stabilize out of the legs and co bones above the knee here. Yup. All right. Turnout and parallel. Yeah. Keep the lace together, turnout and parallel. So we're on the midline. Turn out and parallel and turn and four and three and exaggerate the parallel kneecaps even more. It's gonna be a little to knock knee perhaps, but you're going to get more rotation up in the pelvis here. Turnout and parallel last time. This time turnout and open to diamond. Yeah. So we're playing now here.

Place your feet together here. It's not a frog. It's a diamond. Yeah. So ooh there. There we go. Uh Huh. The a unevenness in your pelvis. Right. Okay. So the good, we're in a good place to play. Reach out of your legs here. Stop right there. What you'll learn is in this position, this is a very resting position when you understand the dynamics of how to connect it here. Cause when I let go, they're going to spring away. So reach out, think reaching out, go to parallel and then open to diamond.

Open to diamond. Yeah. So we're looking for control of the pelvis. While you're moving your legs, reach to parallel and open to diamond. We'd love for this to stay down more reach. So I'm pushing against your, with the side of my hand, I'm pushing away with your pubis. I want them to know what I, what I'm doing. Cause you can feel it. They can't see it. So widen here. Yeah. So this is good news.

You're working your lower back and that's what you want to do. You want to work to strengthen your lower back and to keep it. That was nice right there. Parallel. Exaggerates your parallel parallel and then open. And one more time. Reach out and open to diamond.

So here we're working with an extended spine. So here, lower belly pulls in and up. Lower the legs, the diamond, lower them down and then lift them up. Keep this down and lower the legs down and lift up to more over the legs. Down. So it's easy. You're doing both together. Yeah. And now you're going to do one and then the other. So come up and right leg down and come up and left leg down and come up.

Good. And just do one more each side. Cause you've got this, you're moving the head of the Femur, not the knee or the Shin. Now both again, just see recenter that this is, this is one I like to play with. So come up, open up. You're in diamond. Open the legs out. Yup. Out. Go ahead and go out and then close to diamond. Yeah, open the legs out and close to diamond. That's all right. And I get so engaged sometimes I forget. They've got bars all over the place and open and diamond. One more time. Open and diamond. This is fun to play with.

Open the right leg and then close and open the left leg. So asymmetrical. Sometimes it's a real test to see how centered you are. You're doing very nicely here. The sustained, very engaged. One more time each side. Then we added a little more challenge to it and left [inaudible].

I like this one. Extend the right, lower the leg down to the table. [inaudible] lift the leg up and then return to diamond. [inaudible] extend the left leg. Lower the leg down. Stabilizing all here. You've got your prescription today. This is what you want. Is something new about this and extend out and leg down and comes up and bend last one. Extend out and down. Now let's just see for fun.

Let's just do an experiment. Come up and bend. Now both extend out and down. [inaudible] good for you. Nice work here and up and bend. One more time. Extend out and down to see. That's all about pelvis stabilization there. Good. All right, let's just play with this a little bit here.

Bring your legs together. [inaudible] reach out here. He joined. All right? Yeah. Okay. So have you, let's, let's play with this notion here. It's going to help us get into some, um, yeah. Here, peel up pubis. Enable. Keep reaching out to your legs. So I'm giving you this traction here. Not only the springs are pulling you back on.

I'm asking you to reach out and then peel up to the lowest rib tips of the shoulder blades. Call Magician. Reach out, reach out, reach out, hips up, hips up. Think hips up, hips up. It's up. Hips up. Now reach out. So hips up. That's your opposing force. Hips. Oh, there you go. Alright. So magician levitating, peel down, peel down, peel down. Good. That was the lever right there. So I'd like you to peel down. So five, I'll help you find the place here. That was very nice. So reach the legs first. Yeah, I'll coach it this time. I'll teach, teach it.

And now peel up. Reach out here. Nice fast learner. And then peel down. Keep the legs here. Keep the legs here. Peel down, peel down. There you go. Yes. Peel down. You're getting longer and longer in the spine. Even the sacrum. Now peel down, peel down, peel down. Good for you. All right, that's good. Let's one more time. Reach out to go into magician. We're gonna play with this a little bit. That was a little bit of a lift. Yeah, hip lift rather than articulation. Nothing wrong with it.

It's just that it demands something less of the spine. Good. Now can you bring the legs up? Bring the legs up. Yeah, go ahead and hinge at the hips here. Hinge at the hip. Nope. Into the hips. Keep the hips up. Keep the hips up. Bend at the hips. Then to the lace at the hips. Hips up yet hips up. Good. Now peel down. Now you're going to peel down. Now peel down. Keep the leg straight up here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And reach out. Yeah. So we can get into a little bit of a circumduction here if you want to play with it. So let's do this one more time and just cause I'm experimenting with you now. All right. And Peel out two. The the magician.

This is the kind of relationship I like to have with my students is what's going to happen for you today? I don't know until we get there and peel up. So I have some ideas, but then I don't never really stay with an agenda until I start working. Reach out here. Yup. Now bring the legs up. Separate from the hips, hips, hips, hips, hips, hips, hips. Yep. Good, good. See, it's a lot of control. Know you lose the springs here cause you have to be here in the spine. Can you bring the legs up? Nope. Not The hips. The lakes, the lakes.

That place up. Yes. That, yeah. Is You have to be here more. Now peel down, peel down, peel down, peel down and keep the legs up here is theoretically, it's wonderful. That's what I call my work aesthetic anatomy. And then reach out here. Okay, I'm not going to, let's not do the circumduction thing that I thought about. I want to do something else with you. It'd be fun. I wanted to share with share with you how I use the Cadillac as a petty pole pedophile as a freestanding piece of equipment can be mounted on the wall or free standing in the room. However, I've grown to love using the Cadillac. So come on off the table.

Many times at center point plots during our day there'll be someone near the petty polar using the petty pole. And I thought okay, I can do this another way. So the pedophile is a device that has a floor pedestal so that we don't have to worry about cause it's now part of a square or a rectangle. So you're gonna put your heels together, you're in a turnout now narrow the turnout of your toes a little bit more with your toes. Cause what I'm looking for. This is an important to get the turnout comes from the hip joint, not the Shin and the knee. So you want to play with that. The rotation comes from the femur.

So you want to roll your inner thigh like a rolling pin, like a rolling pin. Go a little bit more with your, your feet. Now rolling here so it actually gets you way up into here. That's what we're going to be exploring. Way Up into there. Now place your spine on the pole. And this is what's fun.

Reach your arm straight out here. See you got a lumbar curve there for the Pravana. Pepole we're gonna lose that for a moment. So you're going to plea a good, you know what to do. Plead a now stay there. Tip Your pubis up. You want to think of lengthening, not compressing. So you're not compressing the front of your spine.

You're lengthening your lower back. You're zipping up your pubis to your naval. Does that make sense? Keep your arms out here. Now keep that connected. So pull up on your pubis and straighten your legs. Yes. So we want to keep this in contact with the pole. That's the discipline of this. All right? Reaching out and pa and then come up.

Pull your pubis up. So you're working more. By doing that, you're going to work more up into the antibiotics. Are you feeling it there? Okay, plea a two more times PA and come up with the head. Go back to the Poles. You want to be upright? Yes. And so what I'm doing right now is looking at the relationship of your Halos. You have the heels touching, you have the pelvis or the hips, you've got the diaphragmatic, you got the shoulder girdle and the eyes, all of them in relationship to each other. So it's fun to play with this.

If there's no right or wrong of this is the best position. I'm just saying, be aware of those in position to each other and it makes it a difference in your upright spine. Now we're going to play with fun piece too to close with. But your elbow spin out here. So now plea a spine coke. Now Relevate lift your heels. Aha. Let them break. Let them break apart. Now extend your legs up, [inaudible] and then heels down and play a and irrelevant. Extend up, zip up the front of you. So now we're paying attention to the spine, and then the heels go down and play a Relevate. This is a directional move.

What's nice to see is what has shifted a little bit here. And heels down. Last one of these, and plea a and Relevate at. Let the heels break apart. Come up. And then down in that, that's a directional move. We go the opposite. So here Relevate and plea a and then heels down. So roll more under the ball of the foot. You're falling off on your left foot, you're falling off to the outer toe.

So and and come up and Relevate and plea a, keep the heels high. That's the work of the arch. Yes. Heels down and then extend the legs. Now here's a little tip. So as you're, as you're in the Relevate and you play a, it's easy to do this, bringing the knees together. So keep the knees moving out. You have to work the inner thighs and the upper buttocks a little bit or the inner [inaudible] acts a little bit better. One more time and Relevate and plea a, keep those zipped up and heels down. Oops.

Yes. Was that you? Little noises. That's, it's a very sweet little noises and come on, Huh? All right. Just to finish with some breadth. So keep the spine on the pole. Let the arms drift up overhead. Yup. Keep it back wide. Yeah. Wide. What I like about this is different than the pole that is mounted on the wall as I can come behind you and say this will help you here. So lift the arms up over shoulders and then reach the arms down.

Coming all the way down to the pelvis. Let's do that three more times. Lifting here, let the head rest on top of the spine. Check in with your Halos. Bring your inner thighs together above the knee. Yep. Standing on your base, pelvis, diaphragm, shoulders and eyes. Two more times. Lift and coming down so you can do it without pulling the shoulder blades back so the head stays floating in the middle of the shoulder girdle last time and coming on down and well done. Thank you.

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Comments

1 person likes this.
Fascinating! Wealth of detail and information. Is there a modification for the variations of back back series if straddle seating is difficult, or impossible?
1 person likes this.
Hydie . . . thank you for your comment and question.

The straddle is a great position to develop as it assists in opening the hip joints and lifting the lower back. Initiate the "back back" series with straight legs (knees slightly bent); this will be a limited range of motion, but it is a start. You may want to experiment with a "diamond" leg position to develop sitting up "turned out" femors. Take time with this as you will see that there is a large range of motion in the hip joints (both men and women) when the straddle is accomplished.

Feel free to ask more questions as you work with this pattern.

Thank you!
1 person likes this.
I enjoyed doing this class , Thank you Ken
1 person likes this.
Was it yellow springs for leg works , it was difficult for me to lift the body up .. to straight line
1 person likes this.
Corinne . . . thank you for your comment(s). The movement you are referring to requires the Leg Springs (heavy) demanding that you work with the "center core" of the spine as you peel up into the extended spine. Lighter Springs will not give the feed back that is necessary. If you have questions about this movement piece, feel free to email me or call: kengilbertembodyment@gmail.com or 805.452.7164.
Ember Hopkins
Loved watching this class. Extremely helpful to watch as a Pilates Instructor Trainee.
Ember . . . thank you. Wishing you well in your teacher training!

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