How to Find Your Seat with Lesley Logan

Lesley Logan identifies several exercises we can use to find our seat in our Pilates practice.

Sometimes finding your seat in a Pilates exercise requires a little prep. Warming up our bodies with the Hundred or Footwork is excellent, but to ensure that we are doing the work with the greatest connection throughout our entire core, including the glutes, many of us need to do a seat prep. These exercises are an easy way to check in with your body to ensure you are not locking in your knees or gripping in the front of your hips.

Try the prep exercises in the video above before your Pilates session to see if your seat connection improves in various exercises. You may notice that the exercises seem more difficult - maybe you shake a bit more and maybe you feel your glutes working in exercises where you never felt them before. After you prep, check out your Roll Up. Were you able to keep your legs long on the Mat? If so, hop onto your Footwork, Short Box, and more. Your seat will be there, ready to work with you.

A great piece of homework you can do before or after every workout (or even when you have five minutes) is to do Breathing without the Breathing Bar, as shown in the video below. Focus on lifting from around your hips. My teacher, Jay Grimes, gave this to me as homework to do every day. Finally, once I was able to successfully lift my hips without hyperextending my knees or using my lower back, I tried doing the lifts without one leg. It’s an advanced challenge of the Single Leg Magic Circle. Take your time, practice, practice, practice, and may you have fun finding your seat connection!

Westwood Pilates

For more on finding your seat with Lesley Logan, read her article in Pilates Style, available on newsstands on January 3, 2018, and available in digital formats at magzter.com on January 1, 2018 and at pilatesstyle.com on January 6, 2018.

Lesley Logan
About the Author

Lesley Logan

Lesley Logan is a Pilates Method Alliance Certified Pilates instructor who has been studying and teaching Joseph Pilates Classical Method since 2005 and 2008 respectively. She leads Pilates retreats around the world and coaches instructors on their Pilates business. Her book Profitable Pilates: Everything but the Exercises is available in English and in Spanish.


Comments

Really really interesting thank you. I'm a hyper-extender and have weak glutes and this was really eye-opening for me! Always love to learn from you and the Pilates Anytime family. Happy New Year Lesley from the UK:) Sarah
I'm a "hyperextender" and my "thuttocks" will definitely benefit from this! Thank you Leslie and Chanda!

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