I was running late and couldn’t find my yoga videos. I know they are in the closet somewhere,
however, being pressed for time made me settle on Pilates. If you ever done Pilates you know that it is
somewhat like yoga. You have to breathe,
concentrate on your core, and preform similar type moves. I have now done Pilates twice in my life now
and that is two more times than I have done yoga.
I have the complete collection of Winsor Pilates by Mari
Winsor form beginner to expert advanced.
Still feeling a little pain in my legs and knees I decided to skip the
advance and go straight to beginner. I
put in the DVD, unrolled my yoga mat, and assumed the sitting postion as
demonstratied on the video.
Mari has two additional ladies “helping her out.” One does the moves correctly the way you are
intended to do them and the other preforms a modified move for those who have a
weak neck, back, or core. I laid flat on
my back practicing my breathing by doing in through the nose for a 5 count out
through the nose for a 5 count.
After learning how to breathe she starts slowly with your
arms. It was easy at first but I did
notice my shoulders starting to tire.
Mari said when you are properly warmed up you should feel a warming in
your chest. She probably should warn
people about that first. I’m fat, to me
warming in the chest means call 911.
We then progressed on to a round of sit-ups Pilates style
preformed legs straight out. You roll
your entire body up and stretch towards your feet. You only preform eight to ten of these but by
the last one my stomach muscles were feeling it.
Moving right along, next you massage your own back by
rolling into a ball and rocking from a position were you are balanced on your
butt, you rock back and are supposed to stop and balance again without touching
your feet. This was a little challenging
and my first several attempts were not quite successful. Mari was patient with
me, she knew I was struggling and offered me encouragement like my dear friend
Billy Blanks.
The next two sets of exercise were all based on the lower
abdominals and legs. In the first set
you put one let in the air and do half circles over the other and vise versa. Now is when I started feeling some pain. I am not sure if it was from my previous
injury or just having to hold them in the air so long, but these hurt. In the
second set you do a bicycle type motion pulling one knee into your chest while
out stretching out the other.
You finish by doing a sweeping V motion with your arms
and legs. By now my stomach muscles were
burning and I could feel my “Power Core.”
It could be from all the stretching and flexing but my legs did feel
better after it was over.
I finished with a light biceps / triceps work out with
resistance bands. Tomorrow yoga, if I
can find where I put those videos.
Daily Recap:
Matt: 30 min
Pilates Beginner Workout
Light
Biceps/Triceps work out
Kelly: Walking
around Greece
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