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Workshop #2146

Thread of the Single Leg Pull

1 hr 15 min - Workshop
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Description

What defines an exercise as a Pilates exercise? The short answer is that all Pilates moves utilize the six principles and employ flexion and extension with a strong core. In every Pilates exercise, there is a thread that links to the basic Mat or Reformer. In this workshop, Kathryn Ross-Nash looks at the components of the Single Leg Pull to see how we can find connections in other Pilates exercises. She uses different pieces of equipment to help provide the correct alignment for the exercise. You will see how she works with four different bodies, and how she uses the equipment to achieve the best movement.

Objectives

- Break down the different components of the Single Leg Pull

- Learn ways to use the method to correct alignment and to challenge the body

- Find the connections to the Single Leg Pull in multiple exercises.


This workshop is a great supplement to Kathryn's book The Red Thread: The Integrated System and Variations of Pilates - The Mat. It includes a comprehensive look at the Mat work so you can find the thread that connects the entire system.
What You'll Need: Ladder Barrel, Spine Corrector, Cadillac, Ped-O-Pul, High Chair, Mat, Toe Corrector, Baby Arc, Hand Weights, Magic Circle

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Apr 24, 2015
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Transcript

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Chapter 1

Colleen

Hi, Colleen and I are going to play with the red thread of the single leg pull. The red thread is um, a workshop that I teach and it's based on the method of [inaudible]. I call it red because Joe was about the circulation and how circulation heals the body and cleans the body out and moves all the toxins. And I call it thread because every single exercise is linkedin interwoven. So today what we're going to do is we're going to look at the single leg pull and instead of, you'll see many times when people are teaching, they'll like try to correct the exercise during the workout. And first of all, it's impossible because if the person knew what you wanted them to do, they would be doing in the first place.

So you have to train the body how to do it by using different constraints that the apparatus provides to correct the exercise and let them move during their mat, work in their reformers so that they get their blood going and they get the circulation going and they're moving and they're getting the aerobic benefits of pilates. And then use the method to correct what is weak and strengthen. Challenge what is strong. So what we're going to do is we're just going to look at some components of the single leg pull. Okay? So you're gonna lie down, you know, bring your knees into your chest and you're going to come up into your single leg pull position. So first off, we have our elbows bent and lifted. Much like we do shaving, right? The leg is in line with the hip and not so turned out there.

You feel the difference if it's come sit up a second, if you rotate it out a lot, the lower back, uh, to me, if they ever bring your legs together right and turn out and roll down, see how you can roll down right now, go roll back up. Same Way. Now turn your feet parallel and roll down, which is more difficult. Parallel, right? It is because you're more stable with the legs parallel, rotating out changes what happens in the back. And so there's more articulation, which is why on the roll up, which is an articulation exercise, we do it heels together, toes apart. Now we're stabilizing just like we do in going up front where the spine is stable, right? Just like we do in our pedal pole where the spine is stable, right?

I want you to go, that's a little more challenging. I want you to have your leg parallel. Okay? Not Parallel, but not rotated out like a ballerina. Natural alignment of the hip. That's what I want. So lie down into your single laid pole. Good. You see what happens now in your pelvis, her pelvis actually opens a little bit more. Turn it out. You see how you go out of alignment actually there and the muscle gets thicker here. Turn it. Ah, there, doesn't it look more like the leg you want it to be?

Yeah. Okay. So the elbows are up and lifted. The Chin is to the chest. You're pulling the stomach up and in and as you change your legs, you're going to go through a hidden teaser. So the legs actually pass bent at that 45 and they track all that so that you feel the difference. So it connects to the stomach. This knee goes to the ear, right? Cause what's this gonna develop into? Rolling like a ball and your double leg pull and you don't want to give yourself a bloody nose. Right? Okay. So relax a second. We have all these components in this exercise.

So let's say I'm introducing this to you and some people have trouble getting their upper back up into the right position. So they're back here and they're like, oh I feel it in my neck. I feel it in my neck. In my studio I have a contour mat. So there's a raised edge on the end of my mat, so I just slip them back. But here, if you don't have that, we're fortunate enough when we come up here so they can see a little more.

I'm going to put her upper back up on this mat. So now the weight of her head, you come back a tiny bit more. That's it. The way it feel, the difference. The way of her head is now in her stomach and now her low back is on the mat. So there's space for her ribs to go back and her stomach to go back.

Now I'm going to take the barrel away so you can compare. Lie Down, bring yourself up into your single leg, pull position. Good. Now you see how little bit here, you're not that good girl for your correction. Her chest is not open as much as I would like it to be a lot light down a little bit more and bring your head up. So if I a little more there. So if I have somebody who does it like this, you feel nothing in your stomach, right? Right. Good. Sit Up. I'm going to use the barrel to support their upper back so that they can get the thoracic spine involved. They don't have their neck holding.

They're starting to develop their upper stomach so that they can safely develop their lower stomach. You can't get your lower stomach into place if your ribs are hanging out here. This is also great for rivers. You know the ones that walk like this, you throw them up on here, there's Bay empty space behind. They can go back into that empty space. So lie down. So I use this for somebody who needs to get their upper body up.

Look at your stomach and now you see anything in the neck. No, the weight of the head is now held by the powerhouse, not by the neck and change. Good and change and change and change. Very good. Relax. Good rule up please. Now just remember I said about that you can challenge as well with the method.

If I have who is strong and I want to challenge their powerhouse a little more in that position and make it a little deeper. I get myself my spine corrector. And you're going to hop up and actually I want to put this on the mat cause I do not like to put my spine corrector on the Cadillac. It's a little dangerous. It's a long way up to climb. So good. You're going to sit in the middle there and you're going to do your single leg pull in here. [inaudible] nope.

Bod Ha. Good. Nope, that's it. How's that feel? Good and switch. See how nice that puts you in your lower stomach. This is actually a really great place for elbows up, a really great place for you to do this because sometimes you like to arch your back a little bit, right? And so this, you can pull that in much like we use the uh, wounded chair seat in the well or like we've used the baby chair before. You can use this for you to challenge your stomach and in sweat. How's that feel? Good. You feel your low back opening, right?

Good. And Bend and beautiful. Let's stand up. So perhaps your student likes to drop their arms when they're doing their single leg pull and they don't have the arm strength and that arm back connection. Wait right here. [inaudible] okay. Then you get a lovely set of weights and you have your heels together and your toes apart. Good. And you're going to take your arms and you're going to press your weights together and you're going to do the zip up.

Press up. Good. And press down. So there's that connection, right? Press up and press down. [inaudible] press up, lift your heels so you engage your stomach. Oh, good girl. Okay. And Zip down. Lower the heels and zip up and zip down. Now zip up and stay up and press down. Keep it there and zip up and press down and zip up. Lower your heels down and relax. So that builds up the arm, back, uh, arm and back connection.

Now let's say somebody has trouble coordinating, right? So we're going to do our boxing cause look, here's that same position, heels together and one and one don't move your box at all, right? So this is great for the student who likes to, you know, do this rocking and rolling. When they're doing their arm change, you feel that right under here. Good girl. One, and press and press empress, empress, Rez, and good to arms out and lengthen down. Good. That's it. Excellent. Good. So Joe was great because he gave us all this equipment and all these options, right? So I'm going to put these back here and let's say I have a student who is like, why have a student too? Who does this?

Let's say you have a student who does not use their, their stomach or they arch their back when they pull that leg in. And I do a little hoochie Coochie, so they need a little more connection. What I like to do is the seated monkey, and first we're going to do it with the spring and then without a spring. Jupe. Now the seated monkey. Yes, this is one of my favorite exercises. One reason why the single leg pull is so important is because it connects to everything. And to me, the single leg pole and the AA pull are throughout the entire system.

And if you don't have this, then you don't have your back open. You don't have your rolling like a doll, a ball, and you're like, oh, so what? Well, this is functional. This is your walking right. And if you correct your alignment and your single leg pole, it then translate to something that you do every day, which is walking. So for me, this is a really important exercise.

So you can take your hands on the bar, you're going to bring the bar down, and once you bend your elbows like that same shaving like you do, enroll in a single leg pool, place your foot up on the bar now. Well, your bar will, your foot is up here. Is it parallel or is it turned out? It's parallel, right? Just like when you're on the reformer in the front splits, right? So you're single like pull is the very beginning of all those big splits that you're going to do. Now the name of this game is the heel up. You wear high heels sometimes. Well, you should wear them a lot. They're very sexy. Lift the heel up. Good.

So drop your heel and look at what happens to your spine. Lift your heel up. Good. Now bring your head down. Do you see your single leg pull position? Now stretch the leg out. Do you see your tree? Good. Get all your toes on there and bend your knee and keep that heel up.

You have the highest sexiest sassiest pair of heels on. That's it. Keep all the toes on there. The little toe likes to be included. The little toe is the gateway to the Toshi. Reach up and good heel up. Head down. You don't need to see it. I do. You feel that? Yeah. Good. There it is.

And come in, roll back a little more. Keep that heel up. Heel up. HEELA press the bar up. Good head stays down. Heel stays up. Pole it in. Heel up. Heel up. Uh Huh. And good change sides. That's a very good exercise for you to practice. Head down. Good.

We found what Colleen needs to work on and stretch in. Now see, ah, see that tracking number, that naughty left knee. Did you injure that foot? [inaudible] yeah, you can see the, the alignment and the development of here. Hmm. Was it your picto? Um, yes. Yeah. And he a lot head town. Good and push through. Good.

And in, so Colleen had down for her to really connect her alignment correctly. Stretch up. She's actually going to have to do some toe corrector. And did you do Keto corrector? Do you do it my way and come back in? Take it? Nope. Keep it in one more time. This side needs it. See how you want to give in that ankle? Yeah. Good, good. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. That's it. Good. Stretch it up and bend it in.

Wash the heel right there. Push through that pinkie toe. Pinky and now two legs. So you go from separate them. You go from your single leg to your double leg. Bend in, and this is where the fun begins. There's the heels up. Have them apart. I want them parallel like you're doing these stretches. Okay?

Because the knee stretches your single leg pole, but facing down on the reformer and roll, bend your knees. Keep those ankles parallel. Head down. Feel all the toes. Separate your knees a little more. There you go. Lift your heels. I want everything. Ask my husband, try shopping with me and bend your knees in as it heals up. Heels up, heals up. Hey, if you don't ask, you don't get and stretch. Good girl. Feel that and your low back and it feels great.

Bend in. I'm jealous. Head down. Once again, I'd like to be doing your workout separate head down. That's it. You feel that? That's what I want from you. That ankle right in alignment with the center of the foot center, the knee center of the SIP. Mo had lovely and bend in and stretch down. Good. I'll take the bar. You're going to lie down. I all the way down and take your feet off. Good. Okay.

Then Junius Colleen. So let's say for instance they, Coleen has a little bit of trouble tracking, very simple, basic beginning exercise. They call it [inaudible]. To me it's all same, but this exercise is the single leg pulled really broken down. Okay, so you're going to extend your knee to the knee, 10, 10, 10, 10 and you're going to squeeze the legs together so that, that's going to find, there you go. Soft here, hold two, three, four, five. Draw the leg down. Straight down to the calf. Two, three. See how she keeps wanting to rotate out and let the misalignment stabilize her and lower a little more, little more to the ankle as a girl.

Hold two, three, four, five. Come up to the calf. Two, three, four, five. Come up to the knee. Two, three, four, five. Place your foot down on the mat. Good. Extend the other leg up. Spread your toes. Good.

Lift this ankle. Good. So this, that's it. So I want that arch active. So you're on the three points of the foot. You're here, here, here in all the arches on the foot are active. Squeeze, go down, calf better. You see how that changes what's happening throughout your whole body? Good draw ankle. Keep that ankle lifted, adds it. Come up, calf and change.

What's very interesting is that even after somebody has surgery and something is corrected, or an interview, what did you do to that? You broke your big toe. The weakness is there and it's not just there. It then affects everywhere. Okay? So to get that in alignment, again, I don't even care what I'm talking about. Getting it strong.

Cause if you make it strong, separate from your body, it's useless. You have to make it strong within function, within movement, which is the brilliance of Joe. Because guess what? This is all for functional movement, right? So I want you to sit up and you're going to slide back a tiny bit and have your legs out in front of you and we're going to go hips with a part cause you like to work together. Now Flex your feedback and I want you to lift your low back, but not your ribs and bring your head back so that your shoulders are right over your hips. Yeah, it's going to be a little more forward and you can press on them like you're doing rowing. There you go.

Now pull your toes back so that your heels are the furthest point from your body. Just like an elephant, right? Pull them back. Now what we're going to work on is we're going to work on her connection from her big toe all the way through to her powerhouse and the alignment engagement of the trinity. You're telling me your tissue in your inner thighs, right? Church of Kathy. Okay. It's my Palladio's prayer. Um, so that when you do your single like pull, the alignment is connected all the way through and you're not just using your thighs and your tushy, but you're using all the muscles that wrap around that support, that alignment. Okay, so you're going to push those heels out like there's Ah, you see how when you push your heels out her right away, your stomach lifted up and the thighs lifted.

I didn't have to tell you to squeeze anything, right? I say just push your heels. That's an action, you know. Excellent. Now without letting anything move, you're going to rotate out. That's it. And push the heels more. Push the heels along the floor. Push the heels along the floor. You already feel that, don't you?

And I haven't added the spring and come back. Good. Push through the heels up. Pull those pushed through the heels. Honestly, if I'm pushing through the heels, these babies got to go back. Go back, go back. That's it. Now rotate out. That's it. Good, good, good, good, good. And come back and stretch this thigh to the mat. Press that tie down. I want that tie down in that heel down.

Good push through. Good girl. Good girl. And yes, I always say it like I trained dogs. I'm sorry. Flex back. Trained my kids that way too. And root data, stretch, stretch, stretch, push through the seal. Honestly pushing the heel. That's it. And come back. See little tremor of truth there. Huh? Okay. Now we add our toe corrector. So for you, I'm gonna put it on top. And the reason why I chose to put it on top, you can put your toe corrector in different places is because her toe curves in on top. Sometimes I'll put it down here. Usually if it's a straight alignment, don't mind me, I'm just going to get comfy. [inaudible] right.

So I'm thinking that you're going to get more of effect from rate here. Okay. So push through the heels. Scoop good and rotate out. But I want that. I don't think about moving that spring length. Reach this heel to me. Yes. Reach that. He'll pull the toes back more, more, more. Look, you are cheating out of the same in that front of May. Oh my goodness.

And they haven't unfilled and rotate out. We have proof. Pull your toes back, pull your toes back. There are holes, hold, hold, hold and return. And again, press hold, hold, hold and return has a feel. Where do you feel it? And press. It's all about the button. The button push through here. Push anchor that wrench, breach, breach and relaxed.

And I didn't have to tell you to squeeze your butt, did I? No. Push Open. And look how the thighs lift up. Press back, press back, press back and re turn good. You know what? Let me go from here and I really want you to push through that heel here and pull the toe back a little more. Good. That's it. Now anchor through here and as you rotate out, keep that connection and rotate and grow tall. Good.

Push through that heel a little more toes back. The heel wants to be the furthest point. Yes. And relax and again, rotate press. And since we're doing the single leg pole, this is going to stay stationary. Nope. Engage your spring. Spring's always alive. You're always suffering.

Pull those toes back more. Anchor this thigh down. Good. Now rotate this leg out and don't move. This one holds two, three. You feel where you're working and return. And again, push through the heel, pull this back, hold two, three, lengthen there and return and press holds to three and return. And what's good for one is good for the other and rotate out. And while you do, still lengthen this thigh down and release and come back. So when you have keep moving, keep doing it. When you have an injury, you can see the effect of it throughout the other side as well.

And if you look at the development between the two legs, they're very different and releasing. What we want to do is make them symmetrical. Make your body balanced, press and release. So one thing that tends to happen, I know it's a lot of work, is when you have that Bunyan right and you're pushing into there, this ankle then rotates down and then it pushes to the outside edge of this ankle, which then puts stress over here, which is why you injured this one a lot, right? And then if you look at the development, see how you do your developed more here than you are here because the weight is being pushed into that joint. And what's really detrimental is you're young and beautiful now, but when you're 51 like me and you've been pushing into exactly, that's fucking scary and you've been pushing into a joint for a long time, then the hip starts to hurt, then the knee starts to have issues, then the back has issues, right? So you really want to correct this immediately and we found that all in the single leg pull, right? Okay.

So let's say you were somebody perhaps who likes to rotate out a little bit and you, I really want to stretch the back of the leg so it can come in, in alignment. Let's go over the barrel. Now you're going to step inside. I'm going to spot because I'm a good teacher and I always spot my barrel. You're going to cross. Let's do this leg, cross it over and now I want your heel and your bottom against there and actually for you calling, I want your arms straight and down. So you can pull your rib, see how you dropped your ribs then so you like to go a little wide, which allows you to go here, right? Okay, that's sexy for later on right now. I want you here. Good. Now normally with your stretch, your front leg stretch, you go forward and back.

And I know that many times they teach it rotated out. The first way I learned it was bend your knee and place your foot up on top. Do you see the single light pole? Now you know that thing that you like to do pushing forward in your hip. You see how this prevents you? Excellent.

So you're going to round forward and there's your single leg pole. You see it and roll up and again, round forward, that's all we have to do is this one. And once again we're strengthening the alignment. And what I'm going to do for you is spread your toes. So that once again that there and press right here on your foot and then there on your foot you feel the difference. Very good.

Keep that pressure equal the toes nice and spread and stretch forward. And good. And because you need a little more, you're going to just stay right there and bring your hips equally forward. So instead of bringing your knee in, you're bringing your pelvis to your foot. Okay, so you're just doing the same action but inverting it. And that's the beauty of Joe and in you learn what to do where it's not your habit to do it and good and beautiful. Just because I'm nice. We'll stretch this leg, cross over and do the other side, which is going to be a whole different ball game. So what I want you to think of, here's that bottom's foot weight on the outer edge. Good. Soften this needle tiny bit. That's it.

Slide it up. There is your single leg pull right there, right? Whole foot on there and hip down, hip down. Ah. So that tells me that you do a little Hootchie Gootchie when you do your a single leg, pull right, square your ribs and bring your head down. And that means you like to twist a little to avoid that.

Really dropped that hip and come up. Draw your inner thighs towards each other. There you go and come up. How's that feel? Good. And stretch all the way down. A little different. Yeah. Yeah. And roll up one more time and down and roll up and come in. Bring the pelvis. Good. Do you see your front splits?

[inaudible] and in [inaudible] and so now I can correct her knee tracking. [inaudible] keep your f all those toes on there. And one more time in. Oh, this is so good for you. And beautiful. Extend the leg and bring it over. Good. Excellent. Now what we're going to do is we're kind of come over to the chair.

So now we're going to do going up front, which is a really important exercise for you because you have a visual and a tactile constraint for your knee. Okay? So that your knee is over your foot. Don't forget to keep that arch lifted. Okay. So face the chair. Let me just make sure we're two on the top. Yup. Good. And press hands up here. Press the pedal down and you're going to step up. Good. And make sure you leave enough room so that when you stand on your knee, your toes come forward. Come a little more forward. Just a touch.

Good. And touch here. And bring your wrists over top. I like risks and soft arms. Now lean forward. Good. Don't lose your neck. Lower your bottom heel at tiny there. How's that? Good. And lift. Press up.

So here's your single light pole and you keep, this helps to keep that alignment from the knee, right? See how your knee wants to wobble and come down. You do this one. Yeah, you need to do with the electric chair. The wonder chair, one to chair will challenge it, right? Lengthen your spine more. Good. But the electric chair will correct your alignment. Whereas I like to move a lot on the mat and the reformer.

You have to be really clear and specific when you're using the apparatus because this is where you're doing the corrective training. Grow Tall, nice days, good. And one more time. Up reach and down. Good, good. And you see that front split right there in the single leg pole. Good step off. So I will use a do the other life. I will use the electric chair when it is somebody who has trouble tracking as they extend out because the work is happening on the extent.

Now you might have trouble checking both places. Okay. Touch the knee, lean forward, drop that heel a little bit. Try to get this toe on here a little more good. And then that's it. You feel that? Yeah. Oh, solid. Good girl. And a little more forward. So you want to be one line, right? Press up, get all your toes on there. That's it. And lengthen down.

Good. And up and lengthen down. Lean a little more forward. A little more forward. Soften those elbows. There you go. And up. Lean a little more forward there. Yes, Colleen. And you feel that? That's it. Oh there it is. Lean a little more forward. That's it. Like you're bringing that knee to your chest. Don't round.

Keep the back straight. One more time and slowly, slowly, slowly lean a little more. That's it. And there you feel that adds one more time cause we just really locked into your alignment. See how she's tremoring I've struggled and come down. Okay, good. Now carefully step off with control and good.

Now if it was somebody who had trouble with the extension as opposed to the flection, I would then have them do the standing, pumping, the ankle alignment. So you're going to do that. Lucky you. You get to do it all. Now what we're going to look at for you is that you like to push into the back of your knee. So I want your shoulder, your shoulders, over your hips, your hips over your heels, and your knees saw. Pull this to me in. Yep. Don't drink and drive. Feel the outer edge of this foot. Ah, you feel that good? Now you need to get a little closer to your chair and soften the name.

Remember, position is everything in life. Good. Now once again, bring this foot in line with your hip a little more. There you go. Lift the healer. Lengthen. Very good and outer edge of the foot. Outer Edge. [inaudible] there you go. You feel that? And press. I'm lifting the arch of her foot. One second. Just do what you do.

Naughty. So she's, she's collapsing into her knee joint and the arch is going down. So there's on the inside of her ankle and then on that joint and you can see how her toes curve. So she's not utilizing the wrap that we did with the toe corrector. So I'm just having her lift her arch by engaging what she did in the toe corrector. So find your toe corrector. There you go. Okay, good. You feel that?

Find your toe corrector and press the pedal down. Finding your toe corrector. Good. And then come up, find your toe corrector and lengthen down. Find your toe corrector that nasty toe corrector and up and press good and up change sides. Very good. So every time before you move, find your toe. Correcter okay. Hips over heels.

Little turns out perfectly. This one can be slightly turned out. Natural alignment of the hip right now. Move Your weight over that leg a little more there. Yeah, get this hip down. Find your toe corrector and press and slowly come up. How come you didn't invite your Pinky to the party? That pinky gets lonely. He goes, I got a pedicure too, and pressed down at to keep an ankle stable and come up up, up and press down. Good.

Find that toe corrector this side. You found it better and up and step off. Good. So for instance, one of your issues is that alignment from the foot to the ankle and the strength there. So for you, I actually would do the Achilles stretch. So we're going to do that. Okay. It's imperative that you keep, I'm going to give you two pads so we don't have to fold them over. So let's come to the Achilles stretch. You can push down, get all your toes on there. You're going to cup your knee. Beautiful. Hold your Patella it. So make a little diamond there. Open, open your fingers and literally hold your kneecap. That's it.

Now what's happening back here? Let's find a single leg pole. Drop your head down. Pull the stomach in sa good. Yup. And get all your toes on there and feel, where's my toe corrector?

Good. It's the say toe corrector. You lift your arch in your arm. This. If you work like this, all this, by the time I come back next year we'll change and push on the ball of the foot. And now slowly come in. That's it. And find your toe corrector and come in and find your toe corrector. Good. And come in, push halfway down. Stop. Push all the way down. Just like on the full corrector.

Halfway up. Stop all the way up. Halfway down. Stop. See how your stomach engaged all the way down. That'll, that's it. Find your toe corrector and good other side. Good girl. Okay, perfect. Take this a little more open up. Open up a little more so you can really hold that name, cause this is going to be a little more naughty right now. Don't over cross.

So bring that left foot out a little bit. Okay. That's it. Or the right foot to me a little bit. Choose your weapon. Okay, so now get your little tail on. No, I know [inaudible] happen. And find your toe corrector. Good. And press and scoop in.

Find that little towel and press. I'm going down. And so I want to try to get [inaudible] all. There you go. All the weight of your toes. You feel that all the way across that the ball of the foot slower, suffer a little bit and press rate here and come up now press halfway, stop all the way halfway. Stop all the way. Press halfway, stop all the way and all the way half and uh, and beautiful. Very good. Very good. Okay, so now what we're going to do is we're going to go back to the Cadillac and I want to do some leg springs and magic circle there for you to work on that tracking of the knee. Okay?

You know how you like to let your left knee drop out. Okay? So what I wanna do is strengthen the connection that you have with that alignment drawing towards your midline. So I want you to press the soles of your feet together. Do you remember when we did the baby chair? How you pressed the souls together and in the seal?

How you press the souls together and you engage your inner thigh. So what you're going to do is when I say engagement, you squeeze your knees in. We'll you can do the same thing here. Keep the whole outer edge of the foot on there. That's it. So look, if you don't, what happens is you're not going to get your arch lifted, right? So you want the whole outer edge. That's beautiful.

And now press your knees together and holds two, three, four, five. So your whole trinity will think of me later tonight. And press squeeze. So this helps teach you how to draw everything towards the midline. Okay?

Which you need for your single lake pole and pull in two, three, four, five and release. Last one, two, three, four, five. Excellent. Could release, have your feet flat. Bring your knees together and we're going to start a little more tracking. So what I want you to do is not move anything in your box cause this single leg pulls the stability exercise, right? And what I want you to do is slide the right leg down, but I want one second.

I want to move you so that you're right in line. Good. Slide the right leg down and don't move anything at all. And now use your stomach and slide the leg back up. Use the other leg to help you track. Slide down. So keeping up the other alternate, so really fee, that's it.

And they'll use the other foot, the leg to slide it back in so you're just not arbitrarily sliding it. You're using your own midline to help correct your alignment and slide all the way in. Good and slide all the way down and slide all the way in. Beautiful. Good. Right from there, we're going to take your hands up onto the bar. I got your spring. You're going to bring one leg up into here. Extend the leg up to the ceiling.

Now you see what you already did with your toe, right? Exactly. So you want to keep that alignment, feel this alignment. That's why you just have to have a teacher keeping eyes on you. Lift your hands up a little higher so that your ribs drop thumbs with your fingers, long risks and push into the pole. There it is very important that your upper body is included in the picture.

Remember we remember the difference when you're on the wounded chair that it made when you were engaged right from the whole back body. This connection is really important. K, so push into the chair. That's why when we have a barrel, we hug that barrel. We don't just lie on the barrel, we use the barrel. Okay, good. Now Ruth, what happened to my arch? Find my toe corrector and slide this leg right down past my teaser position, softening and all the way to the mat.

So you find that midline, there's your single leg bolt and come all the way up. Need to need a little teaser and up to the ceiling. Good and limp and down, all the way down. Push into the strap and come back all the way up. Bend the knee into the chest. Good. And you're going to do a bicycle.

You're going to stretch the leg up. You're going to reach the leg down. You're going to bend the knee in, that's it, into the chest and reach it up and reached down. And at the same time you're going to remember that you have a toe corrector. You're going to live with the tow corrector in reach and all the way down and bend in. Slide the foot the same way. If you're truly using your trinity, the spring will lie where it should. If you are not, press your foot, press your foot on the mat, press your foot on the mat, press it now, slide it in. We'll get it. Don't worry and bring it up.

Now from here you see it's where it should be. Reach out, reach out, reach out, don't move. You see how you lose that in line? Bend the knee, then the knee, bend the knee, bend the knee, bend the knee, bend the knee, bend the knee. Good and change. Okay. And you can reverse that. So your knee likes to drop. You see how it likes to drop in on this side? Let's see what the other side has for us, right? Let's add a tiny man.

So this would be something that I would give you after you had mastered that. Okay? And reached down. Now a lot has to do with this hip anchor, this good, straight down, all the way down. Okay, let me move this foot good. And they'll come up and straight down and come up. Good. And I'm just putting my hands where I want you to feel and try not to get in the way of your spring and come up and good.

Let's do your bicycle and reach out. Bend the knee, slide the foot up. So you're rotating from your knee down and you need to wrap that it, you need to engage that toe corrector. Right? You don't rotate out from here. You lengthen. Engage the muscles. Wraparound muscles, wrap around muscles. Wraparound and in, in, in good. One more time. Cause that was a good one. And reach and it comes from here.

Not from here. That's it. And in you're almost there. That's it in, in, how's it feel? Good. Right and good spot it. Release. Excellent. Colleen. So we could go on all day, um, and have fun. Could bring your arms down. But I think we're going to go to our studio audience and grab a victim and look at their single life pool and what we're going to do with them. Okay. So Amy,

Chapter 2

Amy

hop down and let me take a look at your single leg poll. Okay.

And we'll see what I see. Hong Kong [inaudible] and good. Okay, go ahead and just do it. Just do the exercise. So do you see, keep moving. You know it's, I'm going to talk a little, if you watch her bottom leg rotates inward. Her bottom foot rotate inward. So from the Shin Down, when she brings her knee in, you see how the foot rotates in, right?

That changes what's happening in her bottom. We feel the difference already. Okay? So what I'm going to have to do is work with her on that alignment, which I'm going to choose going up front. Okay? So let's go over to the electric chair. You had a feeling I was going to do that. Is this a favorite of yours?

Not really. Yeah. Right. Good. Step down. Go ahead. Tell them step by step. Don't press the pedal down and I'll bring the foot up. Good. And press the knee. Could get all your toes on there. And once again, lift this arch. That's it. Lift the arch a little more.

Yes, but don't move that knee. You feel that lean a little more forward. Lift this arch. Good. And come up soft. Elbows. Lean forward and slowly come down and lift. Yep. Good. Keeping that arch alive. Can you feel how much work that is? Try to remember what this feels like. Okay.

Yeah. And come up. Nice. Lifted arch. Good. And come down. Go ahead up. [inaudible] [inaudible] and now feel what I'm doing. [inaudible] I'm pushing the ankle into alignment. Right? Good. Now change your sides.

This is going to be a fun one. Good. Now lift that arch cast. Who needs the toe? Sure. Bring your knee in line. Good. No, don't move yet. Slide this picture over. That's it. Nigos right in the center.

Lift that arch little more. Put Your weight right here. More, more, more. You feel that? Now go up and keep your weight there. Well keep your weight on that outer edge. Good drawing. And come to slow weight on the outer edge of the foot. Yes. Beautiful.

Where do you feel it? Everywhere. Right? Good. So you see how that knee wants to go out? Yup. And you know, the cool thing is if you think you're going to behave here, I'm going down below. Okay. If you like a lot of times we think body parts, right? And then we have to go exercise, body part exercise, right?

But if we just look at the exercise and what the exercise needs, we just go exercise to exercise. So we save ourselves time and then we're looking at the body as a whole being and not as parts. Cause you know the, the knee bone is connected to the hip bone. That's it. Uh, yeah. Well more and again, lift up weight on here. Weight on here. Wait, that's it. And slow. Slow. Good. Excellent. Step off. Let's go right over to the um, Matt, you're gonna lie down with your feet facing that way. Sit Up. Oh two, you're not so lucky to lie down. Good.

Separate your legs, hips with, Flex your feedback. Go ahead and rotate out. Hands here. Press down to lift up and rotate from here and return and rotate from here and return. Push through the heel more there. That's it. Yes. That's the connection. And it will push through the heel toes back there and come back. Try to get the thigh down. Yeah, the thigh wants a little love too and press down says the calf always gets support. Nobody holds me. And Oh, the scary little voices in my head. Great. And a lot of work, right, right. It's kind of scary, right?

Oh, at least I'm not alone in my head. Push through here. Push the heel more. Yes, more that led press, press, press and return. And now I want you to really pull these toes back. Push through the heel. Good heel stays on, thigh stays on so you don't hyper extend and come back. And now rotate this one out. Lift up tall, engage your spring and then rotate. Now you feel this.

I want you to remember this and come back and do this one again and come back, lie right down where you are. Find that and do your single leg pole. Let's see what happens. Could find it. Head comes up. Find your toe corrector. There it is. And switch.

Good. And not find your toe corrector and switch. Find it. Ah, you lost it. Find your toe corrector little more, not the knee. There it is. Good and switch. Do you feel that I'm starting and switch? Yes.

Nope. You lost it. And switch and switch, Huh? Yeah. And good. We have to go the Cadillac cause you're still being a little naughty. You get it and you lose it. No, it's okay. You've been doing this your whole life.

I don't expect you to get it in one second. But you see, you had moments where you were lining it up. So just wait one second. This is why it's so important to have a full studio of equipment because you never know who's going to need what. Good. So you're gonna lie down. Have you ever used their plain board? Oh, very little bit. Good buy downs can be your new best friend. Place your feet on here. I haven't done it.

Erase. Okay. So you're going to put your hands up on the bargain. Thumbs with your fingers. So the reason why we want them's with the fingers is so that you're not pushing into this joint. That doesn't mean we don't hold bars. That's different. But after, you know, I've been doing Palase 3,100 years, I'm pushing it to that joint would not be a fabulous thing. It also doesn't strengthen my wrist then cause I break my wrist and that wrist is all part of. See how this gets flabby.

I'm over 25 I gotta do everything to keep that tight. So you want to push into that bar so everything engages. Okay, so bend your knees in. Now what I want you to look at is you can see your alignment from your hip to your heel and your knee and your shoulder, right? I want you to keep your eyes on there and push out and keep that alignment. Yes. And come in and keep that alignment all the way in, all the way in. You feel that and push out and come in. Does that feel different to you?

I'm trying to stay my lateral edge with my right foot as he called me over there. [inaudible] oh, trying to stay on the outside border of my right foot from going up front. Right? So she's trying to take what we did for her alignment on her going up front and utilize it over here, which is correct because it's the same feedback. Even though the resistance is coming from above instead of below and she is supported by the mat, which might be a better thread for you. So now we're going to get a little more difficult.

You're going to push with the ball of your foot and lift your heels and push out and keep that same connection and come in heels up, heels up. You feel that heals up. Keep that alignment good and push out. Yes. That's why that's that shape and come in. Isn't that awful? And push out.

Push out feels good. Good. And Bend in and keep that alignment. Keep it, keep it, keep it. That's it. See, it's a tool for me more than for you because I can guide you here and somebody else's holding your ball of your foot and place and come in and she's been really good in not moving her hips at all. Good. Let's go see what we got. Yes. Take it to the mat. My little toe collector. Go ahead and stretch. Change now. Keep it.

Find that airplane board. Yes. That's beautiful. Can you see that and change. Watch right here. Find your airplane board. That outer edge. There it is. Good. And stretch out. And that's plenty. Very good. Good. That feel different. Yeah, that was really nice.

So it looks sometimes trial and error planning. What will fire and will, what you can relate to. We did three exercises and you already started grasping it. Good job. Your name. Hailey. Do you like long walks and candlelight dinners too?

Chapter 3

Haille

Oh yeah. Oh excellent. Good bye down. Let's see what you got from me. I like those pants. Yeah. Or they Athleta. Yeah. Yeah.

Shopping. Okay, good. And switch and switch. Pull that knee into your chest. Pull that. Knew what happened to my elbows. So how much do you feel in your stomach? Really, really? Okay.

So one of the things is your action is going up and down, like you're doing a, uh, sort of swimming action instead of a pushing action. So the first thing we're going to do is you're going to come over to electric chair, high chair, electric chair. I don't know. Okay. So what I want you to do is we want to, I really want to work on that action that you're going straight out and straight in. I could have you going up front, but I kind of want you to feel this in this in a different way. So sip, bring your back all the way against there. I, the reason why I picked this as opposed to going up front is that this is going to include the arm connection, right? So I want you to wrap your arms around and make to fish and score. Use that bar. Ah, there you go. Good.

Have your heels up and I want your feet totally together. And your knees totally together. Good. Now get those little pinkies on there too. So you might have to lower the heel a tiny bit. Yes. And a squeeze as arms and press the pedal down.

Keep your what happened to your heels. Don't they like each other? So in PyLadies, the heels are always dating, which means they wanna always touch each other. If you're married for a long time, you could be sometimes like the toes and take a little break. But if you're, if you're the heels, you're dating, you love each other. You want to cuddle on the couch and you know, be together the whole time. Right? Good. Keep your head high. You feel the difference.

Press down the pedal now squeeze that those poles and draw the pedal back up. Up, up, up, up. Yes. Come on. Come on through like each other. Press hold my hand. It's lonely. Got The heels together. Get them. If they get together, it doesn't matter. Actually like towards and press. Remember it's a destination and oppressed those heels towards each other.

Yes. Press the heels towards each other. Get the balls of the feet together. Now did I tell her to engage your stomach? No. Did I tell her to engage her in her thighs? No. The action, which is something that you can relate to, makes it happen. Right. Saves us a lot of time and aggravation. Needs together. Right? That's it. Be a good girl. Keep those knees closed. Drag the up, press, drag it in. Use those arms, drag it in. Use those arms.

Drag in. Very good. Good. Now what I want you to do, breathe is you can't wait. You know what? Wait right here. I'm going to bring it to you. I'm going to bring the mountain to Mohammed. Okay. So what's your whatcha gonna do is you're gonna stand right here. You're gonna have your little Tush to the audience.

You're in a hold here and you're going to squeeze the legs together and you're going to lower your heels down. Yeah. And lift up. Actually, I am going to move you back a little bit. No, I'm going to be really mean because I want you to connect those arms more. You're going to turn sideways and we're going to have you here. Yeah.

And I'm gonna move the barrel. Don't worry. And I want you to keep everything that same parallel position, heels together. You're going to lift up, you are going to bend the knees, you're going to lower your heels, you're going to straighten. So this has that same direct action out and not doing the horses outside of little good. Let me just move this. Good, good. Heels together. Knees together.

Let's have the other hand on your hip and you're going to squeeze. Oh, it was those. Where's the heels? Ah, look at how Butte, you know what? We need to turn you around so that they can see what happened. So come over here. Stand over here. Do it like you did and now bring your heels together. It's all about the touch, but the touch, right?

So lift all the way up the heels. Good. Then the new use and grow tall. Keep those knees together. Uh Huh. Lower your heels down and grow tall and up. Let's take this back a little bit more so that you can utilize your back body a little bit. Good.

That's nice. Together. Heels together. Good. That's it. Drop the tailbone. You want to get as long as you can. That's it. Hailing knees together. Now drop your heels down. Keep those heels together. What happened to those heels? And that's it. And lift up and bend. Keep the knees together. That's it.

Lower your heels down and keep your heels together. Heels together. Good. That helps prevent the arch from collapsing and up. Tough, right? Bend in. Keep the knees together. Heels together, heels together. Press down the heels and straight in reverse it heals. Press grow tall. Bend the knees much better.

Lift the heels and then press up with control and heels lengthen down. Who knew that this would be so hard? Bend your knees. Press up, heels together and lengthen down. Length and down. Length and down. Good. And I want you to remember what you're feeling right then journey's heels together. Knees together. Push up. Lower the here you rose and relax.

Good. Wait right here. So we're going to have you do a little pedal pole because not only does the pedicle create length in the spine, the pedophile, I'm going to slide this over here. The pedal was created to connect your feet to your arms, right up a nice straight, long petty pole. You're pulling from your feet, right? So remember when you move this, you always hold the two handles so you don't break your nose good. And you're going to come over to here and you're gonna stand with your back against here and lift your heels up and take these into your hands.

Good. Same action as before. I want you to reach your arms out. Good. And now what I want you to do is press your arms down and I want you to soften your knees enough so that your whole back is on here. Whole back adds that you feel that connection a little more. Soften the knees a little more. Good.

Now bring your arms straight up and bring your arms straight down. Keep the whole back. So I'm back here making sure that she keeps this little naughty rib back on the pedicle. Good. Reach up and feel the out. What happened to your pinkies? They're not included pink. He's not included. There you go. Good. And bring it up. Open to the side. Press straight down. Feel those pinkies.

Wait here, there. Press right here and bring arms up and press good. Soften the knees. More and up. Arms are at the 45 press right here. Find this rib and don't lose the rib as you bring those arms up in the 45 cause that's connected to your single leg. Pull right open, grow tall.

That's the lift I want you to with your upper body. And now we're going to connect it all. You're going to bend your knees, keep the arms here, bring the arms down, stretch the legs, stop to there. Don't go too far and open to the 45 and bend. Press down, come up, press up. Good. Bend your arms. [inaudible] and I'll take the springs and let's go back to the mat. No, I want you to take everything that you felt or your love for me and connect it into your single leg pole. Good.

So I want you to find that what we did on that chair work where you pushed directly out and you're looking at your arms. That's beautiful. You feel that and switch. Good. Now go straight out. Push out like you're on the pedal pole. Find your pedal pole push. There it is. Push. Yes. Push you. Feel more in your tummy. Push, push and push. Good girl. Excellent.

Thank you very much. Your name, Aaron.

Chapter 4

Erin

And you don't like long walks. You like clubbing and partying all night long. I fought, I thought it's a little leather. Little studs. Excellent. Good. Might have a woman come down. Lie All the way down. And let me see your single leg pull. Good.

So let's fix your hands where the hand is going to be. Your left hand is going to be on the knee. Your right hand is going to be on the ankle. Beautiful. Pull it in. N Yeah. Yeah. Elbows up into that same connection. Do you have any knee injuries? Yes.

Okay. Um, so patient is on which one? Dislocation. Limbo. Yeah, it's looks a little, it looks a little, uh, so for you, I want you to take behind your thought. Okay. Cause one of the aspects of this exercise is that you want to pull into here a little deeper. Now for you going past the, the 90 degree angle is not such a hot thing. Correct. Okay. So, um, I actually don't dislike your single leg pull. Okay. Very much. But I think that you might be able to get a little more opening up here in your upper back. So hop up. I'm gonna, uh, grab the spine corrector and I'm going to play with you there.

I just want to look a little bit, you're going to do your single leg pull in here like we did with Coleen before and I just want to look at what's happening for the alignments here. This gets a little right through there and I want to work on that a little bit and then I want to look and see what I want to do for the top of the thigh. Okay, so slide. You'd yet always work at that. You don't pull your knee into your chest all the way, right? No, usually no, no, no, no. Slide your Tushie back a little bit more. Ah Huh. Now bring it in. Cool. Good.

You see as the spine corrector, she is two works zip spy. So it otherwise you're sitting down, right? And you're tucking. We don't talk then we are mother tuckers. No, no, no, no, no. We want to be long spiders, not mother. Tuckers good. You feel that in your tummy now? Much more than on the Mac, correct? Yes.

And switch. Good. Uh Huh. And switch and switch. So I think you get a little more work here than on the Mat. And switch expansion we have is to make you suffer and switch. Good. And switch. That's it. And switch. You might wonder why it's so important for her to do this. Relax.

Okay. The alignment from your, your powerhouse, right? If this is not supported, then you're going to be putting pressure in places that you don't want to be putting pressure. And I would rather this do the work, then the pressure be here. So for you, this is going to be a nice little fun place. The other thing that I'm going to be a little evil with is I'm going to make you do your single leg pull line across this way. Okay? Okay. So one reason why I chose that is because what? How what I see happen a little bit is this disconnect? No.

Of Face the other way? Uh Huh. Nope. That's okay. Right along here. That's it. What I see happened a little bit is a disconnect. So she's a strong lie. We'd never do this if it wasn't a strong student, but she's a very strong student. And so when, ah, you see here how she wants to release her pelvis a little, if she releases her pelvis, she will go, bye bye. So, and now do you remember how she was dropping her arms before? Funny.

How you have, when you actually use your stomach, how the arms are now engaged. Good. And switch and switch. Why do the work when the equipment can do it for me? How's that feel? Yeah, it looks great. Nice and stable. She's not dropping. It's yeah, you're not in your thighs. Yeah. Because now you're using your stomach. That's it.

And stretch. She tracks very nicely. You just weren't using your stomach before. Yeah. And in, and in. Very good and in good step down. And one more exercise that I might like to do for you is over at the Cadillac now. I don't like to ever put, um, stress springs on knees cause the pressure, but I put them on your thighs. And the reason why I want to do this is so that she gets the connection that she needs for the back body in her, um, single in AA that she might not be getting right now.

So you're going to slide it through like a sexy garter. We need to get like lace ones are studded ones, right? And good. Sorry. Oh, that's what I need to get like a whole studio done like that. That would be awesome, right? I gotta Call David. Exactly. I be who you are. Good.

Now take your hands a little higher so you can drop your ribs and stretch your leg straight up. Good. And bring one leg down. Straight down, straight down and up. Good. You feel that connection and down. Reach through the back of the leg and up. Yeah. He'll now let those heels come together. Reach parallel and down.

Good. And come up so much more basketball leg, right and press. And that's the connection that you want, right? To support the knee and press my pleasure. I love this work and Oh yeah. And you see how much? Now you're drawing your mid line much more and up. That's it. Keep those heels together and come up. Feet come together.

They like each other and down and come up. Good. Keep your legs both together in, lower them down a little bit and bring them up. Tailbone stays down and lower and you can bring them up a little more. Up, up, up, tail, down, tail down. Tilt down. Tilt down, and reach out in a way and up, uh, up. Good. Let's go look at your good. Let me move the spine corrector. We'll go look at it and see. Okay. Now see how much more of that upper body is open. How's that feel?

Yeah. Looks like there's more breadth. Not Too much. Go ahead. Move. Move. It's palladium. That's it. Yeah. Good. Good. See how the arms are? That's what I want. Good girl. Excellent. Aaron. Thank you very much. Good work. And that's the red thread of the single, like pulled. It only took six years, two days and 52 hours.

Comments

3 people like this.
Kathy I love the connection of one simple exercise to what the body needs. Deciding what pieces of equipment to use is so important. Loved your humour with clients so they could relax, and find what they needed without being judged.

Lynn Thank you so very much! This is a huge compliment. I was very blessed to have Romana as my teachers and over my years watching her i never saw her make a student feel bad about themselves. Pilates is NOT a performance but a gift we share to improve the quality of life for those who have entrusted their wellbeing with us.
2 people like this.
Really interesting to see the 'Thread' of one exercise and watch such a skilled teacher work on alignment with four different bodies. All Kathi RN classes and tutorials leave me with serious envy issues (for the people who are getting to participate in the session...). AND it is totally inspiring to see a woman of 51 looking so fabulously strong and healthy - you really embody the work!
Thank you so much Julia!!!! Come visit New Jersey!!
Judy J
1 person likes this.
Hi Kathy, I just watched this video and thoroughly enjoyed it! You are such a great teacher and you know the work inside and out! I hope to work with you one day.
Thank you!
Kim W
1 person likes this.
Favorite quote: the little toe is the gateway to the tushy. I am SO using that!
1 person likes this.
Wonderful as usual. ???? You Rock!!! LOVE the bling.....
you always rock the bling miss karla!!!!
Bling aside, I love to see your passion when you teach. Your like a medium finding the secrets of the body in front of you. You are truly one amazing teacher.
I am Blown away! I cried when you got Erin on that Spine Corrector! Pure Magic!!🙏🏻
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