Teaching Cross Patterning

Hi there. Sarah Briticelli here, and we are going to talk about cross patterning and how to better execute cross patterning with good form. I have Jackie here helping me out. So let's get started. Cross patterning is crucial for a lot of different things. For everything life related, you know, there's always an opposition.

So a lot of times we think of cross patterning specifically to hand and leg movement. And I wanna you to be a little dig a little deeper and recognize that really cross patterning begins with the core. And in order to execute good cross patterning, we need to know whether we're stabilizing or mobilizing the spine. And we also need to make sure that the body weights are stacked as they should be. When I say body weights, I mean, the ribs are connected to the pelvis. The internal the internal and the external obliques are working as a team while we do the movements.

I know that's a lot of words, but let me show you what I'm talking about here. So when lying on on her back, Jackie's gonna sit here for a few moments and just begin to breathe. Feel the head heavy, feel the rib cage heavy, and feel the pelvis nice and relaxed. All my sessions every time I'm starting something, I want people to take a moment to breathe to sink in. The most important thing with your breath is to exhale completely.

Yeah. And when you exhale completely, we wanna try feel that the rib can ribcage can ground into the mat a little bit more solidly. And then when we inhale, we wanna be able to feel that we can spread those ribcage, that those ribs laterally, sideward and backwards, lateral posterior breathing, This is beautiful. I'm starting to see this angle open up a little bit. And if you need a little bit more practice with breath, definitely review the breathing tutorial because it's really helpful. You'll understand what I'm talking about a little more.

But here, once we've got that breath and we've got the grounding of the three body ways, it's time to start powering it up and learn how to move or not move. Will you float your arms up for me, Jackie? And with your arms up, I'm gonna do something that's like a little bit out of the norm with Pilates. I'm gonna ask you to reach even more. So keep reaching rounding your shoulders a little bit.

And when she reaches four up, up, up, up, It rounds her shoulders. Her ribs just go down a little bit more. Did you feel that? Yeah. So they're just way more grounded right here without compression or closing this angle right here. So she's got a nice neutral pelvis, and I did not say use your abs.

Did I say use your abs? Okay. Check it out. They are working. Okay. So the hand position brought Jackie into her abs in a really beautiful way for stability here. So we're gonna play just with this arm movement for a moment. Can you reach up more with this left arm and a cross body a little bit and keep reaching, keep reaching, keep reaching, and then do the other side. So keep reaching, keep reaching, keep reaching. And anytime something is lifting, something else is going down.

So reach with the other arm, So as we reach here, I don't want you to think of having to put the other shoulder down. I just want you to reach reach reach with this one. So this one that's reaching across, her ribcage got more grounded. Now as we change, so my right hand is reaching across, this left rib is grounded more. Do you feel that? Good.

There's a nod. And then change again. So now continue to do this and reach a little bit more. Let this arm just open a little to the side, kinda relax, a little bit so that you can create even more of a grounding sensation here. Now change.

And even more of a grounding sensation on the other side, beautiful. Now when you do this, my ideal situation would be that your head stays still. Right? Your eyes stay forward. So keep going with it a couple more times, reach. Now you can do this real slow, but you can also do it quickly. K. We don't need to do it quickly yet.

And now come across again, and we're gonna stay here. Now we're gonna add the idea of infusing the internal oblique into play in case it's not working. So right now, Jackie has her right arm reaching toward me, so a cross body. And I'm gonna put my hand on her left hip. And I'm gonna ask you to lift your hip bone, your ASIS into my hand.

Keep lifting it. Keep lifting it. Keep lifting it. Sometimes I call this the shakira move. We're doing a little shakira dance, but she's not really moving much.

Do you feel some abdominal engagement? Yeah. You feel it low. Right? Cool. Now we're gonna go to the other side. So take the arm across, reach, and I'm gonna put my hand here, and you're gonna lift your hip bone into my hand. You feel that? Yeah.

So do that again, and I'm gonna just change my hand here, push my hand here, and you're gonna lift into my hand. Yeah. I can feel it. It's so beautiful. So she's got a different feeling in her core. Can you do that without me there? So feel it. So I'm actually asking her to do a little bit of, lift of the hip bone, which means a little bit of rotation at the low spine related to the pelvis.

But my friends, the majority of the rotation here is coming from the ribcage, from where the shoulders are moving across the top of the body. And then a little bit of rotation from the lower body. Good. And try that one more time. Wonderful. And then put your arms down for a moment and take a pause. So that was a little bit of a challenge. Right? So a mental challenge, but also an opportunity to feel something that we can then apply later on.

So I do this a lot when I'm, warming up with people. Let's see how this feels in a bridge position, okay, the idea. Okay? So take an inhale for me, use an exhale ground through your ribs, root to rise, curl up to a bridge. So in bridge position, we're gonna stay for a second. That is a beautiful pelvic curl. Her ribs are super tucked in.

Her pelvis is in a nice position. So we wanna make sure we don't feel the low back holding on too much. I sometimes stick my finger up here right at the the one, bone in the spine that's not down, and I ask them to push on my finger, and that gives gives her a little more abdominal connection. Now I'm gonna have you put, one hand on each of your hip bones. Okay? And I want you to use the heel of your hand and I want you to actually press. Okay? So we're gonna do a similar now. Keep the rib cage grounded right here. That's great right there. Now we're gonna do a similar thing where you're pressing into that right hip bone with your right hand, lift your right leg up.

Good. Put it down. Left hip bone, left hand. So you're gonna keep the pelvis super square. Most of the time, keep practicing this, please, Jackie, while I talk. Most of the time, when, I ask people to lift one leg up, the pelvis goes rotation, into rotation. So we're missing the connection of the internal external oblique on the side of the body that we're lifting.

And then that sets off a chain reaction of compensations that weren't meant to be had. So this is one way for people to self correct. Right? Now can you do one more for me on each side? And then I'll have you roll down. So she can feel the engagement in her abs as she's doing this. Good.

And she can feel it. And she's beautifully stable right now. So two feet down, two hands down. Roll down. Start from up here, please. Thank you. Take a pause.

So we'll add a little bit of rotation without using the hands there, which is kind of interesting. Okay? I'll explain. That was about stabilizing while cross patterning with the lower body. Okay? Curl up again. So pelvic curl root to rise. Remember to get the ribs down. She took the breathing class with me.

Stay here. We're gonna keep sorry about that. We're gonna keep this down just a little. Keep the pelvis high. Okay. So now keep that idea of the little shakira move. So the hip bone is high as you lift this leg up.

Now I'm gonna ask you to take your opposite arm and reach across and touch knee to hand. So You're gonna feel a little rotation here, and I want you to actually give a little bit of a feeling of rotation up. Now change. Good. Keep the ribcage down a little. Good. And change. So reach across. Beautiful.

So because her arm is moving, there is rotation. There is rotation at her upper body, but I'm not letting the lower body compensate. The majority of your rotation, thank you for practicing. The majority of your rotation of your spine should happen at your thoracic spine related to the collar bones, the shoulders above the t l junction. T l junction is where the thoracic spine and the low spine meet. The low spine rotation is very limited.

You may roll down. Thank you. That was pretty amazing. Let's go to quadruped position now. Okay? So first, we're gonna work on stability here. Okay?

So I like where you are. Can you just straighten one leg and make sure it's still on the table? I think that's good. Maybe, yeah, that's probably a little bit forward. Okay. So start in just quadruped first. So two knees down, two hands down. Stay for a little bit.

So the first thing we wanna establish when we're in a quadruped position is that we've got a lift through the upper back. So can you lift up into my hand even more? That feels weird to people. They think they're rounding too much. Right here where my fingers are, right behind your collar bones, I want you to lift a little bit more beautiful. We also wanna make sure that the head stays back up against an imaginary headrest.

So she's gonna keep this lift here. Now do me a favor and in your mind, pull forward just a little bit. Good. Now, you're more in your hands than you were before. It should be 50 hands, 50 legs. Right? A lot of times the second I ask somebody to lift their hands up, they shift back into their legs. I'm not gonna let you do that.

Puff up here. Good. Now drive through your right hand. Keep your shoulders level. Lift one arm. Good. That's hard to do.

Put it down. Stay forward. Puff up. Good. Drive through the other hand. Lift. Nice. So getting the right cues is gonna make it better for people to lift. Now if you don't think of all those cues, just lift one arm at a time the way you wanna do it.

Nice and lift one arm. So what I'm seeing is her going back a little bit. I'm seeing a little bit of rotation. I'm seeing a little bit of response. So we're gonna try that again.

We're gonna lift up. We're gonna go a little forward. Good. And you're gonna keep the lat engaged. You're gonna drive through this right arm. You're gonna hover your other arm, keeping your self level, a little forward, a little forward.

It's a lot harder. It's a lot harder because she's not shifting as much or she is showing me her challenges. Other side, here we go. Drive, this side's so much easier for this one right here. She doesn't shift. Standing on her right hand is harder.

We have to practice. Practice makes better. One more time. Right hand. Good. Whoo. A lot harder. Now I'm gonna tell you something. Take a break in a child's pose.

Sometimes it feels like it's the arms. It could be. But I'm gonna bet it has more to do with connecting to the abdominals, the internal external oblique connection on the side that she's lifting the arm. Okay? So that's a lot, but I'm gonna help you understand what I'm talking about in a moment. Come back to quadruped. Okay.

So if you spread your fingers and you give me a little bit of external rotation and you puff up, good. It should be a little bit easier on your wrists and your hands. I don't need you to go any more forward than this, but I want you to stay where you are, and I'd like you to stand on your right arm, hover your left arm for a second. That was already better. Good. Now it's changed sides. Good.

Now keep two hands down. Good. Drive through your right arm. K. When you drive through your right arm, what leg gets light? When you drive through your right arm, what leg gets light? Your right leg. Yep. When you drive through your left arm, which leg gets light? Same one. Right? So that's the opposition there. Right? So here we go.

Puff up here. Good. Feel that you're standing on this one. Slide this leg back. We're gonna slide that leg back, tuck the foot underneath quite a lot. It's a little bit out to the side.

Can you move it out to the side a little bit? Move your foot. There you go. Just like that. So I want this pelvis super level. Right? We're gonna feel strong. Both arms are working, but this is the powerful arm. Where you lift and lower your leg a couple times.

So beautiful. This side, good. When it comes to the leg, pretty good. Now put the foot down for a second. Keep the power here if you can. Puff up a little bit more. Take this hand to this hip bone.

I want you to put the hand on the hip bone and create a connection here with your hand powerfully. Now lift and lower your leg. Does it feel a little different? Hopefully, the answer is yes. Good. Put your foot down, put your hand down.

Do you need to take a break? Let's do the second side. So knee is down first. Hold for a moment. Good. That arm's gonna get a break. It's harder in your arms than you think it's gonna be.

So we're gonna puff up a little bit. You're gonna stand on that arm, and we're gonna keep everything nice and stable as you slide your left leg back. Good. Beautiful. We're gonna keep this connection here, puff up here a little bit. There you go. The connection of ribbed to hip. Beautiful.

Now let's just go right into hovering the leg for a second. Oh, I I was gonna have you do that, but I think we should do the same thing. Lift up here. So hover the leg a couple times. Good. It's hard for her to move, and she's moving at her spine. She we're gonna fix that. So put the foot down.

My sweet friend, here we go. Take your right hand over to your pelvis. Now push your hand to your pelvis, your pelvis to your hand, lift up, puff up through this arm more. That's what I needed right there. Could you see that? I hope you could.

I could see that. So it's longer here. Now lift and lower your leg a few times. So this is the cross patterning chain that's real hard for Jackie. All the more reason why she should be practicing it. Right? Do you feel different? Hard but stronger in some way. Right? Put the foot down.

Put the hand down. Take a pause. That's a lot of work. You can sit in child's pose or rest pose. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

So I'd like you to maybe think about how you can ask your clients to use their own hands in various different positions to create a little bit of tension, if you will, tension in a good way. The body is a tension system. And in order to restore the tension in the body, we start from understanding how to connect ribs to hips by way of the entire core 360 degrees. So it's not just one set of abdominals. It's the whole abdominal wall. And guess what? The most important piece is being able to breathe in the shape.

If you wanna have a seat for a second, Jackie, I want you to think about using these tools in other on other pieces of equipment in other ways. You can use it on the reformer when you're doing exercises asking people to be responsible of where their body is and then also using that pressure of the hand or a different execution of where the shoulder is is gonna help bring the abdominals into play more holistically. That's what I'm hoping you got out of this. Thank you very much for playing.