Pilates Workouts
Cleaning The Floor Workout:
This movement will improve your balance and strengthen your lower body and all the small muscles in your feet and ankles, it is great for weak ankles. Initially, you may find the balance quite challenging. If so, it may help to look at a fixed point on the wall. It is common to find that your balance is better on one side than the other as most people favour one side. One of the objectives of this exercise is to balance any subtle differences in strength. Concentrate on maintaining the alignment between your foot and knees. If it helps, imagine that your supporting leg is held in a narrow gap between two walls.
Purpose: To strengthen the lower body, feet and ankles.
Target Muscles: Quadriceps, supporting muscles around feet and ankles, abdominals.
Repetitions: Repeat up to 10 times with each leg.
First Position:
1. Stand up tall and imagine the crown of your head floating up to the ceiling. Feel your spine lengthening. It should stay in neutral throughout. Keep your abdominals as flat as possible. Place your hands on your hips and keep your head in line with your spine. Keeping your knees in line with one another, let one foot hover above the floor as you balance evenly on the other.
2. Bend the supporting leg and lower your body as far as you can control. Do not collapse into the movement. The supporting foot may feel a little wobbly at first. Check that the knee of the supporting leg stays in alignment with the foot. Inhale as you come back up to standing. Keep your upper body strong and watch that your ribs do not travel away from your hips.
Checkpoints:
– Watch for your knees rolling inwards or outwards
– Keep your supporting foot flat on the floor
– Lengthen up through the spine
– Make the movement smooth and continuous.
Second Position:
Bend your knee and lower as far as you can into the position as before. This time, you are going to hold this position and then very carefully lower your chest towards the floor. Bend only a little initially. To get back to the starting position, straighten your torso first then come back up to standing. Keep your head in line.
Checkpoints:
– Do not try to lower too far
– Do not collapse into the movement
– Keep lifting the abdominals.
