The regular host was away at a funeral and Jennifer the weather gal was kind enough to step in and do Pilates while wearing a pencil skirt. Thank-you, Jennifer for being such a good sport! It was really fun!!
Posts Tagged ‘Pilates Exercise’
January 2012 Appearance on NBC Miami
Friday, April 20th, 2012 by KarenaHealthy Your Way to Sexy: Beach Butt Workout with Pilates
Friday, April 20th, 2012 by KarenaYour Beach Butt Workout! Get your summertime legs ready for those short shorts. A quick workout to burn calories and tone the legs. And best of all? Stronger legs give you more endurance to do what you love to do. That’s how you can Healthy Your Way to Sexy! Enjoy!
Healthy Your Way to Sexy: Pilates Sculpted Arms
Friday, April 20th, 2012 by KarenaYour arms have been hiding under long sleeves and sweaters for too many months. Dare to be bare and shape up the shoulders, biceps and triceps. And because it’s Pilates? You’ll be working your abs at the same time. Enjoy!
Healthy Your Way to Sexy: Pilates Desk Workout for Back Pain
Friday, April 20th, 2012 by KarenaYou’ve been sitting too long and your back is aching. Go for a walk later but for now, with deadlines pending, take a few minutes (5 to be exact) and give your spine some TLC. And a happy spine is also a strong spine, so in case you need to get into something strapless soon it’s good to start with Healthy Your Way to Sexy!
Finding a Hamstring Imbalance: Osgood Schlatter Disease continued
Monday, November 1st, 2010 by Karena
You’ll see the last post was on Osgood Schlatter as well. Because of the imbalance in the vastus medialis (see last post) I wanted to check the hamstrings a little more closely today when this client came in. This is how I did it:
- I put Zac (our 15 year old client with Osgood Schlatter) prone on the long box facing the foot of the reformer.
- I sprung the reformer with one each of the red, blue and yellow springs.
- I put the foot loops over the arches of his feet.
- I had Zac bend the knees to pull out most of the slack out of the cords. (about 120-115 degrees)
- Zac performed hamstring curls in parallel, external rotation and internal rotation. He did 5 of each with both legs (grooving the motion) and then 5 of each with one leg only (dropped the blue and yellow springs)
- This exercise showed a weakness in the hamstring that creates knee flexion with hip extension in internal rotation. Or in simpler terms: His right leg was much weaker than the left when the knees were together and feet dropped open while trying to perform a hamstring curl.
Homework: I added to Zac’s homework with the exercise in the pic. He is in internal rotation and he is pulling against the weight of the theraband. I am having him do all positions on both legs, double-leg and single leg with the theraband and the help of his very amazing mom. I am also having him do extra work on the position that is most weak (see #6 above).
Is Core Strength a Medical Necessity?
Sunday, October 10th, 2010 by KarenaCore strength has been a buzzword in the fitness world for quite a while but now we
We accept your insurance through our partnership with SCV Therapy Services!
are hearing that same buzz from the medical field. Clients are being referred to a Pilates program by their medical doctors who know that increased core strength can only mean decreased physical pain. So how do you know if core strengthening is for you?
Will Core Strengthening Help YOU?
- Have you experienced muscle spasms?
- Have you suffered an injury that has affected your ability to do everyday activities?
- Do you find it difficult to maintain excellent posture?
- Is it difficult to sit for long periods of time or does doing the same prolonged activity exacerbate your symptoms?
These are just some questions that are strong indicators that core strengthening could help you. Here’s why:
- Muscle spasms happen in the large muscles, turning the small, core muscles off.
- Injuries tend to make us rely on our largest muscles because they are the strongest, again, turning the small core muscles off.
- If you can maintain excellent posture throughout the day then your core strength is intact. Excellent posture uses your core muscles all day, every day.
- If sitting still hurts, that pain indicates that your spine is collapsing while you sit; pushing bony structure onto nerves or other bony structures instead of being lifted and supported. Pain while pursuing activities indicates that you lack core endurance.
Core strengthening, while beneficial to all, is especially beneficial to anyone who has every suffered an injury. As an interesting side note, core strength is not just about the spine and the stomach muscles. Every joint has core muscles; all the smallest muscles in charge of the balance and control of the joint are the core muscles. So any injury throughout the body benefits from core strength. Cool, huh?
At Pilates Teck we are able to accept your health insurance through our partnership with Santa Clarita Valley Therapy Services, a physical therapy clinic that offers the most up-to-date and thorough care in traditional therapy as well as occupational and aquatic therapy. Need to know more? Please call us! 661.260.1609.
Back Hurts When You Sit?
Thursday, September 16th, 2010 by KarenaAs far as I can tell that is the best kind of back pain to have. Lucky you!
In very broad terms, I see two
Many happy hours sitting at the computer can make for a very sad spine.
types of back pain clients: The first has increased pain when they are still, especially sitting, and the second group has increased pain when they are moving. In both scenarios great improvement can be made to pain levels but, generally, the first responds most quickly to therapeutic exercise or pilates exercise.
If you feel pain when you are sitting but feel relief when you get up and walk around the fix is pretty obvious: Move more. As a rule, even painful joints have pain-free ranges of motion. Maybe your back hurts when you do ‘X’ but you can still do ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. That’s very common, so be sure to continue to do ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. The importance of moving, moving, moving is in this short little note. Take a peek if you haven’t seen it already.
I had a frustrated client today. He said: ‘Exercise isn’t going to change the fact that I have a bone spur or how the bone spur pushes on the nerve and hurts like heck.’ I agree on Part I: Your bone spur will not be affected by exercise except that it may not get larger if your alignment is corrected. I don’t agree with Part II: That exercise won’t change the pain you feel from the bone spur pressing on a nerve. When did your pain get bad? Six months or 2 years ago? And when did you develop that bone spur? Probably long before that. If we age inactively then the muscles supporting the area around the injury (the bone spur, in this example) become weak and offer less support in a position of great compression (sitting).
Get exercising. Get stronger. Lose the pain. If you can walk without limping, take short walks that don’t flare up your back muscles and then find a few toning exercises to take care of your weak spine muscles and butt muscles.
Use the navigating tabs to the left to go to find free exercises for back pain: Look up Back Pain Series 1-8. Also, our DVD for exactly the issue of weak spines can be found under the store tab on this site. Please let me know if you have any questions!