Hi Marta, does it help to make a fist when executing any of those exercises if you don't bend at the wrist? As for the hip flexor pain, I will be filming a class this Tuesday (look for it to be available in late December/early January) which will focus on turning off your hip flexor by engaging the correct power house muscles. I hope it helps you and that you enjoy it! Monica:)

ooooh. that "turning off the hip flexor" class sounds like something I will memorize. Thanks so much.
it will be awhile for my wrist because there is nerve damage. my arms are getting somewhat neglected from weight bearing because of it, but it's best in the long run to keep off it.
Thanks for all your great work. I have learned so much from you:)

I really enjoyed this class; this is goig to be one of my favoruites...cues are perfect...thank you Monicca...

All of your classes are like a tutorial...thank you Monica...Always enjoying your classes

Hi Monica I love your classes, congratulations for your job. I have a big question...lot of times in your videos you say "use your power house instead your hip flexors or use more your glutes and inner thighs instead your hip flexors but...how? How can I  lift my legs with my power house and no with my hip flexors ? This is the only thing I don't understand in your teaching and cueing maybe because my low experience...thanks for your help. 

Hi Vicente, Thank you for your inquiry and desire to understand more! This is where we want to connect our mind to our body and move our body mindfully. For example, we can bend and straighten our arm all day long but in order to gain the most strength and control, you want to mindfully engage the muscles above the elbow joint (triceps and biceps) to execute the action. In fact it has been scientifically proven if you mindfully will specific muscle groups to engage and work during an exercise, you will achieve over 90% better results compared to just going through the motions. All that said, Romana trained me to teach using more common language then leaning on my anatomy background. Starting by mindfully engaging your powerhouse (pulling your tummy muscles  in and up) is step 1 in Pilates. Then see if you can engage your bottom (glutes). Then see if you can engage both at the same time. As you gain more control, you will strive to "turn on" those muscle groups and "turn off" any muscles that are over-used and trying to dominate, such as the hip flexors. Hope this helps! Monica

Feel super invigorated after this class! Love the pace and how the rhythm changes with instructing the exercise and correct form and then upping the tempo.

Hi Rebecca, So glad you like rhythm and tempo of this class! I actually will be filming a series starting tomorrow on “Rhythm and dynamics!” Be sure to look out for it in the coming months:)