Pilates Encyclopedia was created by me, Mara Sievers, NCPT, out of the desire to gather everything I’ve learned about Pilates in one place for easy reference. I had gathered copious amounts of information, exercises, and cues over the years, but it was spread all over the depths of my computer as well as several notebooks, loose pieces of paper and sticky notes. Some gems of knowledge might be forever lost in the grey matter labyrinth of my mind. If I only had all that knowledge available in one place... and just like that Pilates Encyclopedia was born.
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Thank you for this great explanation! I was having a difficult time with my lower back over-arching (had horrible "crunch" in low back & eventually sciatica) until I learned to imprint. That was a game changer for me! Now I will try to go just a little bit back towards neutral. Please correct me if I'm wrong-- my understanding is that many people will have over-tight quads & under-active glutes due to our sedentary desk jobs & imprinting helps reverse this. Is this a correct understanding?
So glad you have learned how important the imprint position is to protect your back! Yay! Yes, you are correct in your understanding about weak glutes and shortened quads. Yay again! :)
Could you explain how you added the handles to your Wunda (especially how to know where to place it)? I have a classical Wunda from Legacy & I bought their high chair arms to add handles.
Hey! Balanced Body provides brackets that to into predrilled holes on the chair. Or maybe it even came with the brackets. But there is really no question about where they go. I would recommend you reach out to Legacy to confirm where the handles are supposed to go.
I hade a lot of pain in the groin area for a lomg while. Therapist did a lot in the groin area, massages, dry needling nothing helped. On top of that i got an infection in my back that blocked and pushes against a lot of nerves. I tried a lot but since i discoverd about the psoas muscle and start releasing and relaxing it. A lot of symptons went away 😮
Great observation. I would recommend try to practice breathing into your back. Allow your back ribs to expand with the inhalation. When you back ribs widen, your front ribs connect don't need to expand and lift so much. This might require some practice before you can implement it. But once you have a feeling for it, you can simply remind yourself to take a few breaths into your back as you walk, stand, sit etc.
This nade me laugh. I rarely teach stomach massage either. I dont get it! Thank you for this video. I say the same to teachers in my studio. Teach what you know and understand!💟
Something interesting to chew on re: stomach massage and standing push down is how one exercise can help the other :) next time you are doing stomach massage 1 and you drop your heels, think about the problem that you mentioned in standing push down with the people who cannot stabilize their shoulders and lift out of the round back. its the same shape and same root cause. in SM1 you can use your hands on the reformer carriage to pull back towards your body, like you would use your hands on the pedai, and you can use the springs like gravity, when you are standing up you lift stomach against gravity and when you are sitting on reformer for stomach massage you use the springs to get that lift. So my first tip for SM would be to start in the second half of the exercise (straight leg position) and find your standing push down on the chair feeling, then let the springs help you pull your stomach against "gravity" as your knees flex. Second tip is to think of the first half of SM as roll like a ball and if you are tight don´t be shy about gearing out to give yourself room to balance your legs. Also when you are doing short spine - everybody loves short spine, but if you think about it... it is Stomach Massage in the air, right? You started with long legs and brought yourself in to the lil ball shape. Anyway those are ideas to play with to maybe help you think of stomach massage as less of a bitter pill to swallow. Have fun :)
@@PilatesEncyclopedia I like to use a few different things. I have used a rolled up hand towel before and in a pinch I have used my microwaveable heating pad as long as it’s not too dense, but I currently love using a large sponge like what you would use to wash your car. It’s light and compresses well so you have a bit of feedback from it while allowing some movement. I find it very helpful when trying to find activation of the multifidi (even activation in some exercises and opposite activation for others like single leg stretch). There is a product called neu spine or something like that which is supposed to help with that, but I don’t like it as much as a towel or sponge.
Hi Thank for your videos. I have a question though. My wife has kyphosis (curved upper back). We bought the spine corrector barrel and looking for the adequate exercices please. Could you please refer us to soke videos addressing this? Thanks again
I usually start with one spring to make sure the glutes are actually firing, then you could increase. But if you’re doing the hands-free version you probably can’t go too heavy before you push the Reformer around your studio. 😅 If you push your hands against the foot bar, you can go up to two springs. The heavier the springs, though, the less your lateral hip stabilizers work on the supporting leg. Hope this helps. Cheers!
The rectus abdominis works : you are keeping the lower abdominal engaged: as you pull the lower abdominal inward and upward along the back all that way to the crown of the head
I'm glad to see that you created the Pilates Encyclopedia. We met very briefly when I was doing teacher training in Hadley a few years ago. I'll consider a subscription as I'm always looking for ideas for my clients, including the 90/90 that I'd like to revisit. Thanks!
Might be a rookie question but what about adductor stretch on the reformer? The adduction of the legs in that exercise would be in the frontal/coronal plane but with the legs hinged forward at the waist that would be in the sagital plane… So would you say the exercise happens in both planes? Or would you break down each movement within the exercise to point out where each movement is within its respective plane? Orrrrr would it be in the frontal/coronal plane because it’s adduction and I’m just confused?
Thank you. Your ability to explain this topic - is far beyond that of any other videos I have been watching. Your ability - also took you on to explain - that - - everyone is different - and small incremental Changes can eventually make a big difference.
