Tutorial #3570

Where Are Your Blades?

25 min - Tutorial
133 likes

Description

What is the relationship to the shoulder blades for a good workout? In this tutorial, Karen Sanzo teaches a "work-in" that uses simple movements that require you to be very mindful how everything connects. She works in all planes of motion to help you understand where movement happens and how we can move more efficiently.
What You'll Need: Mat, Wall, Theraband

About This Video

(Pace N/A)
Oct 14, 2018
(Log In to track)

Transcript

Read Full Transcript

What about those blades and their relationship to a good workout. What we're going to do is call this a work in. I'm going to ask that you be very mindful of some of the movements as we go through them, so the session isn't going to be super challenging, but it may be more challenging for your brain than you're used to. Okay, so join me here. It's going to turn around. We're going to place the blade. Take the arm out to the side, like a t with your arm out to the side, like a t. Charge up these muscles right here on your, I'm very good.

Now can you feel my finger here? This is the lower part of your blade's called the inferior angle that take this arm up over your head and then this blade rotates, so that right there is pretty darn amazing. When that blade upwardly rotates the upper part of the blade, a d ducks towards the spine. The lower part is going way out into the rib cage. And then take your arm slowly down, out to the side, pause there at a t, and then let your arm come all the way down by your side.

Let's do that one more time on an inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Inhale. Take that blade with you. So as you reach up, see how the blade rotates, look at where that glenoid Fossa is. It's facing up as the arm and the humorous bone goes up, and then you take it all the way back down and then you [inaudible] restaurant there. So that's just giving you a thought and giving you a thought of how that blade works. Let's do it on the other shoulder just so that shoulder can get some attention.

But I don't have a right shoulder blade. So she's going to take her arm out to the side and pause. As she raises her arm up, it's going to come all the way up and it's going to come all the way out and down because her upper body back is a little, uh flat. Her thoracic spine is a little lengthen. Uh, sometimes the blade has a challenge to go around there, so she may feel like she has to constantly pull her blades back. But what I want the body to understand, two arms come out now and now as these arms go up over the head, I want you to press down into your feet. I want you to take these back ribs back into my hand and then let your blades push up. Notice she's not using her neck. Her blades were an upward rotation, and then her arms are going to be long by your ear.

So now this is long length in her body. And then the arms come out to the side. And then all the way down, turn your torso to the left. Go ahead and put your right foot right up on that window sill. She has good range of motion in her hip. You can use a chair, you can use the long box. So now for this session here, we're going to take your arm up on an inhale. Okay. Turn your torso towards the window. If there were a wall here, you can feel these two pieces. Reach away from each other.

Feel how this thigh wants to bulge forward. And what you're going to do is take this side back. I'm going to guide you. Soften that knee a little bit. You go and now take these ribs back. Whoa. There you go. You feel how you're longer there now. Okay, so this is an awareness. This is building a relationship, thoracic rotation with an inhale, and then take your arm down by your side. Take this arm up and over. Now turn your torso towards the camera.

Open your chest this way. Can you reach that arm out long? Press that foot down. And what about that thigh? What are you going to do at that thigh? Thigh crease back. That's your knee. Take your thigh, crease back, back, back, back, back, back. That's it. Now you feel your rib awareness there. Open. Good.

And then take yourself all the way around. Circle this arm up and come out around again. Again, we didn't talk about this beforehand. What are we doing? We're giving her a nice working. I need her to pay attention. Bend that knee a little bit. Take your thigh crease back if you have, that almost feels uneven, right? So now I want you to get your balance through your butt, through your spine, getting this rotation, and then turn yourself around.

So in the other direction now is take that leg down, come to the other side, take your left leg up. So as you try this, it's really important to understand where the rotation happens and how we do it. So you're going to take your left arm out and up. Rotate your torso, arms out to the side, like a t. Where's that thigh? Look at, here's her shinbone coming on up. We're making this working, intake this but back. Take your red packaging back. That's it. It feels like I'm pulling her backwards. And now twist your ribs. Breathe in. Reach that blade out to the side of your bone. Nice.

And then take this arm way up. Here comes the blade working on rotation that we'll take into our saw exercise or spine twisting, right? One more time. Left arm up to the sky. And that's all right. Yeah. And right arm comes around and then reach. Press down into that foot length in up this thigh muscle. Take this thigh crease back. I'm going to cue it again. There you go.

Take your red packaging back. That's it. Hold yourself right there. Get a big twist into these ribs. Big Breath in, and then bring yourself all the way around and take your foot down. The next piece of this session here, take this band face front just first so we can see Jen. Put your palms like this on the band and take it down to your thoughts. Okay, so first here we're going to have the band pressing into the thighs and she's going to be pulling back with her arms. Okay? So to see this better, we're going to turn her to the side. And now you know that what we've been working on is thigh placement, right?

So this is the inner peace. You just did it. Did you feel yourself? I hope you saw that because you see yourself bring your rib cage back and bring your thighs back. People think their butt is sticking out a mile, but it's not. So now with that awareness, you're gonna push your arms into your butt, push your bat band into your thighs. As you push the arms back, looking straight ahead. Good. So what's hard here? Is it hard to push your hands or is it hard to keep the thighs back? It's really both. It's really both. Okay, good. And then really, so what are we creating here? Creating this connection of the arms, pushing back blades don't need to move.

They just are staying right where they are. Bone, stay here and then release and do that two more times. So now take an inhale. So don't over Q, your client, broad collarbone. Squeeze your shoulder blade plus your light. Don't over cute. Look for what you're looking for, which is a length axial lengthening. And then cue it from there and then release. And you did that one more time.

Turn it into chest expansion, right? So you turn, turn your head one direction. Good. And then center, keep pushing the arms, turn your head the other direction and then center. And then release the arms. Take your arms out in front of you, gently pull the arms apart. But what I want you to do, release is pull the arms apart from your blades pulling together. Now pull your arms, different feeling. Can you feel that there? Hold the blades. Move the arms, the blades, healthy arm, nowhere to go. The arm does not help the blades.

So what is your body want to do? It wants to extend, doesn't it? So we don't want extension here. We want blades. Hold arms pull. Now give me these ribs in the back body given the bat. That's it. Hold yourself right there. She's smiling, but she's quivering. Little beads of sweat and then release. Can you feel that?

Now? Take your arms all the way up to the ceiling. What are you going to be mindful of? Two things for you. Where are my thighs? Where are my ribs? Yeah, so already you feel like you're falling backwards, right? But you all know that you're looking at her. She's actually more vertical. That le Let's have her do it in her favorite way, which is bulging, the thighs forward and that like that. That's not what we're looking for. And then take your arms all the way down.

We're going to do that one more time. The right way or the wrong way. The right way. Okay, so now we're working in not just working out, right? So inhale, arms come up blades together. Actually the blades aren't together, they're just not coming apart. Right? So now we come up this way. Now the in the inferior angle is coming out. So push the band up. Yes, she's pushing the band up. Her thighs are back. Elongation here.

Good. And then keep pushing the hands up as you lower the arms down. Good. Just one more time like that. I'm going to keep my hand here and my hand here. Here come your blades into your armpits. Fabulous. You've that, that. Now you've got that scoop in here. Nice. Long thighs. Looks really good.

Just like that. Can you hold that good? Can You keep holding it? Can you turn around in a circle while you hold it? I'm serious. Turn around in a circle because when we do different actions in our body, it makes us have to pay attention to the other piece that we connected to. Take your arms all the way down and restaurant there. Right? So now let's take this to some mat work. Okay.

Take your arms to the ceiling and moving along as some mat work here. So with your arms to the ceiling, we learned already before that the action of the blades, when you're supine and your arms are not anywhere over your head, they're just kind of cuddling into your ribs. So I want you to feel like your shoulder blades are attracting, but they're not like sticking your chest out. Okay? So keep those blades active like that and not moving. And then pull your arms apart. Good. And then release.

So it's not a fight with the band, it's a relationship with the band. So treat it like you love it. Right? And then do that again and some of you need to keep your elbows straight. Okay? So pull the elbows out only to the, I mean your arms out only to the distance that you can maintain that a hold. Good. So nice long line from it. That is work.

She's turning Rosie in her cheeks. Good. Now hold that there. Where's the weak part of the exercise? Or where's the challenging part in the exercises that your back, your belly, your butt. Find the challenging part of the exercise and work with that. Okay. So for you, it's really holding those blades, right? And then let your arms come all the way together. Now, funky little exercise here, right arm pulls up, left arm, pulls down.

Hold. Feel that relationship here. Okay. Diagonally and then come back or the other direction. Now you do it on your own. Find the connection, Sarah, so that you don't lose tension. Don't lose tension. Exactly. We can do this with springs hanging down from the Cadillac, but what we're creating is this little tensioning through, up and down to kind of make this arrangement around the ribs and the shoulders. Can you feel that? Okay. And then bring yourself back to center.

Arms come to the thighs. Hey, our band comes to the thighs. Now keeping your blades, I call it. Um, you know when you make your bed and you took your sheets in. So I gonna Tuck the sheets in. Tuck the blades in, tuck the sheets in. Okay, now don't move that. Now you're going to lift up into a bridge. Press your hands into the thought, or you're the band into the thighs and the thighs into the band. Okay, now hold. Yes, exactly. What wants to change? She's doing a great job. Keep it in.

That's really good. Thighs. Press up. That's going to give the glutes arms. Press down. That's going to give the last, which is are both back body awareness. Keep that just like that big inhale. Exhale. Drop your butt down. First I want you to actually arch down. So Archer Butt down. There you go. And then lift it right back up.

And now keep pressing up with the legs as you roll down your ribs. Good. So we go from flection to flat back doing that little journey like that. Take your arms to the ceiling. One more time with the same awareness to the shoulders, keeping the blades lift up into a bridge. What lifts you into a bridge? It's the heels pressing down center of the butt.

Cheeks lifting up long thigh, crease in the front. How do we challenge this? Take the arms over the head. Push the arms over the head, Sarah. There you go. Push him like your, yeah, and then push your knees out. That window there is your length. Good. No neck right next days, right? Hold yourself right there. Can you hold that for a little bit? Good.

Take a big inhale. Her head position. The head position is the bridge of the nose. That's the occiput. No need to smash the chin down. The bridge of the nose is the center of your occiput. Good. Now keep your arms reaching. They're not resting and they still working.

It's working in right and now roll your back of your ribs down. Roll. Drop the ribs. That's it. Keep reaching the arms. Don't change your face. Don't change. You don't. I don't want her to change her face, but you know what I mean. And then roll all the way down. Good and then bring yourself back up again. Buttocks, legs, feet, pressing arms. Head stays. So many people want to just smash that Chin down.

We don't want to change that neck. Sometimes I have to put a little towel underneath the neck to maintain cervical spine. Can you feel this thoracic spine right there. I have my finger right there. Lift that vertebrae off of my hand and your chest will lift. There you go. That's upper back extension while your, are these arms still active? Oh, now they are good and now come down in extension. Drop your buttocks down first.

Yeah, go ahead. Get it down there. You got it and touch and then lift it all the way up. Reach those arms and then drip your chest all the way down. All the way down. Very good. Nice job. Take your arms to the ceiling with the same blade awareness, active blades. Then you pull the arms hold right there.

Keeping that awareness all appear. Now I call this kind of like your upper quarter package. Take this leg to table top belly. Take the other leg up to match there. You can let your shins rest for this week. We don't need yet and then just gently pull your belly and now with active arms, push the band towards your thighs. You can. Yeah, that's it. That's it.

Now push your thighs into the band. Yes. She just did that with her eyes and then brought where those shoulderblades they want to riddle. That's better. They don't, I don't want you to change the position of your blades. Very good. And then lower one leg down and then the other. Take your arms to the ceiling. One more time. Big Inhale. Exhale, scoop Le left leg list first. This time right leg matches. Pause. Another big inhale. Where are the blades? Arms pull apart. You got it.

And then arms pull down, Torres it into the knees, knees into the band, band into the knees, Belize, engage, bridge of the nose, all these little things and she just can't believe it. It's so good just like that and then reach this leg away but still pull the other leg in. Still pull the other leg in. That's the hard part now is pulling that in and then switch your legs one time. Wears those blades. Don't let around you. Got It. And then lower your leg down, blah blah. Rest right there. How's that? Okay, so you feel that little relationship there. So now we've done the front awareness with the blades, like connecting to the core here. We're going to go sideways.

So face the camera there and come up to your forearm first. So we start to build this little side plank awareness. So in this side you're going to have to trust me with her blade. Then when she gets in the other position, we'll, we'll do that again. This arm actually is in a nice place because when she comes up, her body's going to travel that way just a little bit and then her shoulder be under there. So in the side plank, people often say, oh my arms are weak, my ribs are weak, you know?

But what else isn't educated is the bottom leg. So to get this, we're actually going to take this top leg and put it in the back. Bend your knee place. Put it like this. Now we know that this hip crease has to be wow. Forward, right? So we've, we've heard that before here. Now this bottom side of her body is long. We have to shorten it. So how do we shorten this by? We have to lift her ribs up.

This foot is going to be active like nobody's business. You've got to press the side of that foot down. You ready to give it a try? Okay, come on up into side plank. Okay, bring yourself back down. We're going to do it again. The modification for this exercise is not with the hand.

Hand goes up, hand comes down. The modification is the leg. So the work is actually getting up. It's a con centric contraction. So press up pressure, right foot to the basement. So the side of this leg is working. Can you feel that if you bring this hip crease forward more, you're going to feel the side of that leg.

We're going to get a real cramping underneath here. Can you feel that underneath there? There you go. Where's the bridge of your nose? It kinda comes back. That's good. Blade is on her back. Now. Take your left arm to the ceiling. Good. Can you hold that? What's the hard part?

Is this the hard part or is this the hard part? You can make the choice. You stick with it. Can you take this leg now and bring it in front and touch the mat and then touch the mat in the back? Yeah, just go back and forth with that leg. So now this bag will move it forward and back. That's it. So it's a little dynamic challenge to hold the lateral side of the body.

The hip. Good. One more time. Good. 100 very good. Rest yourself to hound. Whooo. Turn and face me this way. Let's do the other side. You all right? Okay. Yeah, it's hard. It is hard. So I'm going to take it. It doesn't anything, right? Okay. Just double checking. We want things to be hard.

He wanted to be a little challenging, but we don't want to create, you know, pain with the leg and back. It's just a little different way to get into it. Okay, so you'll see in this picture, I'm just going to come here and just take a little look here so that you can see that this blade right her back ribs actually need to come back a little bit. There you go. And then we so want to press down with the top handle. Lift Up, don't we? But I'm going to give you a little help right here. I'm going to magically lift up your pelvis. Ready? One, two, three. Lift up the pelvis. There you go.

And now we want these backrooms lift up a little higher. There Ya go. Now she's level, bottom leg, pressing down, left arm, pressing down, head and body. Transitioning that way physically, that way you've got it. This leg hops forward and back. [inaudible] there you go. Feel how much work is needed here.

You have to press this leg so hard that the Shin lifts up you. Yes, there you go. That's it. If you're how, that's a different hip connection. You're doing it. She's smiling. Good. Two more times like that. A very good on. Then lower yourself all the way down restaurant there. Come to your hands and knees real quick in this awareness here in this hands and knee position, what you're going to take your right leg and you're going to bring your foot right here. Okay? You're going to hold that there. Okay. You're going to press into your hands. Kick your left leg behind. You.

[inaudible] there you go. And now you're going to lift your left leg up. It's hard. We have not met beforehand. Give it a try. Lift it up. It's hard. There you go. That's it. Give it a try. Keep going. There you go. One more time and then lower yourself down. Switch legs. Why do this? Well, when I take this leg in, it takes away any overextension of her back.

So now she's got to use her hip on this leg. And guess what? This is kind of going up front or mountain climber on the high chair. There you go. See if you can keep into that heel there. Just something different. But can you feel how this is? That's it. How you really have to feel this bottom here. You with me? They're good.

You got it. And then lower yourself all the way down and restaurant there. Nice job. Come forward one last time. Hold yourself there. Curl your toes. Now Hover your knees up off the ground. Okay, we're going to do cat and cow in a hover. Okay, so she's like, yeah, right. Nod your head right. Lift your spine. Lift here. There you go. Now lift here. You got it. Hold right there. Just hold that. Just keep holding that right there. Just keep holding it.

Now Flip your booty out. And then this and then this and then this. Oh my goodness. Very good. And then head nods. Lift this. Come on. Use those blade. Press those arms. Hold yourself right there. Now right leg reaches behind you. Come on, right leg region. There you go. And bring it back in. Left leg reaches behind you.

Not a dangerous exercise, but challenging. Lower your knees. Bring yourself all the way down. Sit Back restaurant there. All ready. Bring yourself out to your tummy. So in this position here, take your arms long by your side. Take your palms to the ceiling, tighten up your bottom.

Lift your shoulder blades, lift your chest and reach your chest up. Lift your face, lift your chest, look in front of you towards the edge of the mat and hold yourself there. Now lift both legs up. Hold yourself right there for five, four, three, two, one. Lower yourself all the way down. Arms out to the side like a t. Palms down. Tidy the legs. No dividends in your back. Blade. Stay, arms lift, chest lifts, legs lift. Everything comes up here. There you go. Hold, hold, hold, hold, hold. And then everything goes down. Arms come up over your head. Blades going upward. Rotation. Her arms are reaching. Long head comes up.

Ears in line with the arms. There you go. And then lift the chest, lift the head, lift the legs, lift everything. Big, big, big, big, big inhale. Big, big, big, big exhale. Ooh, good job. Nice quiver. Lower yourself all the way down. Very good. Turn yourself over onto your back side. Working in blade relationship, trunk relationship, front, back, body, all exercises that make quick connections. Okay. Take your arms all the way over your head.

Much like we did when you were on your belly. Yeah. What position are the blades in there and that's it. They're in upward rotation. People want to lock them down. There's really no need to lock them down. There's no need to hold the hands. You're just reaching.

The arms are not resting here. Correct. They're reaching long. Two knees come into the tabletop position. Hmm. Good. Her back ribs are right here. Remember her back ribs are heavy. She's not tucking her buttons. You can take the two legs of the ceiling.

This is art exercise. Just going to hold that. Okay, good. And when you smile, it's really good because it, it engages those, get into those deep hyoid muscles in there. So this was a really good, she's going to hold just for a little while. Okay. Are you working your, your whole relationship to your body? Are you loving it? Loving it. Good. Bend the knees in low here. Legs down, restaurant there. One more time. Knees come in twice at a time now. Yes. Two legs come up. There you go. Now slowly lower your legs. They touched my hand. There you go. And then they come back. That's it. Touch my hand. Good. And they come back.

Good. Bend the knees in and then lower down. It's so important during a work in that you understand that relationship of the trunk all the way around it circumference. She had quivering with her trunk in this normal elongated position, moving her legs up and down, then doing, um, lots of crunches and stuff like that. Not that we do that, but just trying to make the point that that engagement we do with the arms over our head is a relationship, uh, for the core and how we kinda work in, you feel worked in, she feel worked in. Okay. Thanks.

Related Content

Comments

1 person likes this.
Thanks for such a great "work-in" Karen! Love all your tutorials. Always great cueing to such seemingly simple but challenging and effective movements. Also, thanks to Sarah for being as great a student as you are an instructor! But my goodness, if Karen can make you tremble at times, then I will surely be a big bowl of jello! LOL
Fabulous! Love your teaching Karen thanks and as a teacher myself always something new to focus on. That's what I love about Pilates anytime - it keep the practice fresh for both client and teacher. I can't believe that some instructors teach the same class over and over again (not that we would do that of course but I have heard that it happens;))!!
Thanks again from the UK, Sarah
1 person likes this.
I love everything that Karen teaches in these workshops tutorials classes ... more please
1 person likes this.
Love these tutorials with Karen - so inspiring to watch her work!
1 person likes this.
Karen, you are brilliant and Sarah - you are such a good sport! Thank you both for the input and inspiration!!
Ewa
1 person likes this.
Thank You so much again... :) :)
Loved this tutorial. Thank you Karen and Sarah
1 person likes this.
Loved this Work In so clear and makes so much sense 👏👏
Great tutorial and I love that you said Blah blah! will make me giggle all day!
I laughed at blah blah blah too. I absolutely loved back extension when “lying on the back”. Felt amazing! I will definitely incorporate this work into some of my classes and with some of my privates. I always learn something from you Karen! Thank you for all of your knowledge!
1-10 of 13

You need to be a subscriber to post a comment.

Please Log In or Create an Account to start your free trial.

Footer Pilates Anytime Logo

Move With Us

Experience Pilates. Experience life.

Let's Begin