Pilates Scene

With the growth of online Pilates classes and teaching tips, we welcome Always Pilates to the stage.

About Always Pilates
We provide online Pilates exercises, classes, workouts, and workshops so you can exercise any time, wherever you are — at home, at work, on the move. Our service is great if you can’t attend studio classes, are travelling, have little time.

Sign up and get unlimited access to a large selection of quality HD Pilates videos, streamed to you for only NZD$20/month. New videos added regularly. Continue reading…

This really is one of my personal favourite areas to work with in the studio.

Here are a selection of resources that are worth your time, some research, a questionable exercise and a nice simple shoulder massage –

The Sports Physio on the Upper Traps
“But what about those studies suggesting that we need less UT activation compared to MT or LT such as the work done by Ann Cools et al 2007. ”
The delicate balance in working with the shoulder girdle.
“Truly well-meaning instructors taught you to teach compression rather than dynamic stability. Compression is absolutely one form of stabilization and strength, but it limits mobility and can de remarkable destructive to joints and all that run through and around them.”

And then there’s this, which I am not so sure about….
Shoulder Blade Squeeze
Begin this exercise standing or sitting with your back straight. Your chin should be tucked in slightly and your shoulders should be back slightly. Slowly squeeze your shoulder blades together as hard and far as possible provided it is pain free (figure 1). Hold for 5 seconds and repeat 10 times.

“As much as is necessary, as little as possible.” Brent Anderson

Some new ways to consider core, and play around with your diaphragm strength.

IDEA Fit Tips, Volume 10, Number 9
September 2012
Author Jill Miller.

Core: Focus on the diaphragm for improved abdominal strength and power.
The definition of core work varies from format to format and means different things to different people. My own perspective has evolved over 28 years of yoga, running, dancing, Pilates, shiatsu massage, cadaver dissection and opera singing. Of all the core muscles, the respiratory diaphragm seems to be the most underutilized. While the value of spinal muscles, abdominal layers and back muscles are acknowledged and incorporated into formats like Pilates, GYROTONIC® and even kettlebell training, deep diaphragmatic exercises are relegated to rare yoga techniques and progressive vocal training. This is a major oversight. Continue reading…

Part One – Core stability and pain
“Stability is probably the most inappropriate word we can use to describe our patient’s spines that are in pain. No one has documented that patients in pain have unstable spines nor is there any reliable clinical test for it.”

Part Two – Stability exercises might help
“I have seen “faulty” motor patterns and I have also seen them “corrected” by doing exercises that have nothing to do with retraining the supposedly faulty muscles. If a motor pattern is corrupted this pattern is most likely corrupted at the level of the brain.”

An online treasure! If you haven’t yet seen this material, it’s time.

A close up view of the fascial pathways and connections inside the body. now freely available from Gil Hedley of Integral Anatomy. Continue reading…

Physiofacebook gives you loads of clips of great relevance to the Pilates Instructor into rehab.