How Yoga Can Wreck your Body in New York Times

There is a wonderful article this week in the New York Times about yoga.  There is also a bigger issue to address.

 A lot of students think pushing hard to almost an injury is a hard workout.

Many new students trying Pilates for the first time complain about being not hard enough.  The majority lack awareness and deep internal connections of how to stabilize.  If you are doing legs in straps or leg springs with no center control,  you can be pushing from your back.  Rudoph Laban had a wonderful concept of Stability/Mobility.  To mobilize a part of your body, you need to stabilize somewhere to facilitate any simple movement.

When you are weak and you increase the load, a lot of times you will initiate your poor habits to do the exercise.  When I do leg springs with a quiet spine, it targets the legs.  I have had many clients complain that their back hurts in legs springs.  One has to look at their form and retrain how they perform the movements.

The majority of new clients coming in, have no clear idea of how to stabilize the torso.  When you find it,  it has a lot of lightness.  They are very much into the more superficial mucles of the torso and body.

More does not equal more.  Awareness, concentration and precision in form is key to any fitness routine.  This is the “MORE”

One of my friends had this picture on Facebook.

At Movements Afoot we jokingly talk about mooning.  Why?  It gets you to learn how to use your hip joints which is needed in most activities.

A lot of people locked their hips.  The hip joints is a much stronger mobile joint to hinge at then from your spine.  Many people blow out their backs because they are using their backs as the fulcrum to pick thinks up.  A safer action is to squat to lower your body to the floor.

By learning to use the hip joint correctly,  the legs have to do more work. When the legs are working correctly, it also changes the quality of tone in your core.

Stand poorly and tighten your abs.
Your posture doesn’t change.

Now stand well and engage your abs.
Notice how your posture immediately changes.

]]> http://movementsafootblog.com/2011/10/14/mooning-techniques/feed/ 0 40.745342 -73.990191 40.745342 -73.990191 Body thinker Mooning http://movementsafootblog.com/2011/07/11/sitting-up-straight-to-avoid-back-problems/ http://movementsafootblog.com/2011/07/11/sitting-up-straight-to-avoid-back-problems/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:11:34 +0000 Lesley Powell http://movementsafootblog.com/?p=2938 Read more]]> Sit Up Straight. Your Back Thanks You.

Click on above link for a great article in NY Times

When you sit, do you know where the sacrum is.

The sacrum is the triangular bone in the back of the pelvis.

Tilt the top of the sacrum backwards. Feel how this curves and flexes your upper body.

Now reverse it and arch your back.  Notice how the weight goes towards your pubis and your lower back arches.

Find the place of the sacrum between those two movements.  This is neutral.  Placing the top of sacrum in the correct place can be like a shelf for your spine.  By placing the bones in the correct position, your muscles will know how to work better.

Stand poorly with your pelvis in anterior tilt
(stick your Butt out )
Feel the tone of your abdominals.

Now stand with your pelvic over your feet and notice how the tone in your abdominals changes.

Now not all gluts are the same.  There are glutes that when you squeeze them, will tuck the pelvis under.  We want to target the glutes more on the sides sometimes with the coordination of the hamstrings.

Many clients with glut weakness compensate by tightening the hip flexors, and back.  Learn how to target the correct muscles that will change your posture, body tone and relieve your backs.

Come Swing your Butt into Action 3/5

A fun(d) raising 
Pilates class to
Swing your Butt into Action for 
St.Jude”s Children Research Hospital

with Lesley Powell Sat 3/5/2011 from 1:00-2:15 PM
Minumum $20

All checks/cash will go towards St.Jude”s Children Research Hospital.  No class cards can be used for this event.  
For donations by credit card,click here

49 W. 27th St. Mezzanine B, New York City 212-904-1399 www.movementsafoot.com

For those who want to know more about Irene Dowd’s schedule, go to Noho Pilates

Last year Dianne Woodruff taught a fabulous workshop on Glute Strength.  She is an amazing teacher.  She returns this January to teach on Upper/lower Cross symdromes.  Every time I take a workshop with her whether it be an hour or a full day workshop, she changes my teaching.

Dianne Woodruff’s workshop at Movements Afoot to register

Taking a stand

I have been teaching Pilates Upright (I incorporate this in my Friday’s Dancing MindBody class at the studio) for years.  I have been working with a block in my mat class to help students develop better glute strength.

In 2011 I will be teaching Pilates Upright a full day workshop at the studio and Pilates on Tour in September 2011 in NYC.

Lesley Powell’s workshops

Taking your Pilates teaching to the next level

With Lesley Powell August 21   1- 5 PM  $75
Come together.  Pilates teachers. Share. Workout.  Problem solve.  Laugh.

This meeting will be moderated by Lesley Powell.  Come with ideas, questions about the body, problem solving about professional issues (i.e. Difficult clients, non-payment by clients, burn-out, etc.)

• Bring any questions about the body, Pilates exercises and teaching.  We will take time to explore issues coming up, your designed workout for your client and questions about learning to see movement.
• Then you will teach a client a session with Lesley Powell observing.
  Here we will look at your design of your workout, how you cue and issues about form with your client.
• After your workout,  Lesley will go over each person’s class, any specific problems with client’s movement history and how they can improve on their teaching.
  

Click here To Register

It is always wonderful to observe great teaching. Lisa Love has such an amazing knowledge about the body.  How she cues through words and touch is so inspiring.  I look forward to having her back to teach teachers again.

Back Extension Exercises from about.com

New ideas of stabilization can enhance the body without making the body rigid. Past old principles of knitting the ribs together and tucking does not allow proper movement principles of walking, dancing, golf and tennis for example.  The problems of the back being hyperextended may have other reasons than weak upper abdominals.

• How does the legs organize the pelvis?
• Are the legs not doing their correct job and the back is compensating?
• The Back muscles are tight.
• The iliopsoas is tight.

When I feel well organized over my legs, my abdominals naturally engaged.  With full breath and a diaphragm that moves,  the pelvic floor and transverse abdominus can engage.  Knitting the ribs together diminishes the movement of the diaphragm.

Visualizing the multifidus helps me get back my flexion in my ribcage of a neutral spine.  We have a skeleton at the studio that suppose to move.  Seeing the skeleton, its posture is horrible.  When I bring the spinal processes together, you can see the skeleton come back to a neutral spine and the ribs open in the back.

Taking a stand

What makes Pilates Upright different is using the block.  Betweeen a workshop with Liz Koch, Marika Molnar and my studies in yoga, they inspired me to play with the block to explore balance and correct sequencing in standing.  Many are trying to use the gesture side to hold themselves up. The block shows how important the standing leg is.

Disc Risk

With Lisa Love
Date:  Saturday, June 5, 2010
Time:  1-5:30   $150
Early Bird Discount $120 by 5/28

Developing Pilates programs for adults with back pain associated with ruptured, herniated, bulging and/or degenerative discs.

Pilates teachers are often engaged in preventing or improving chronic or intermittent back problems.  Some of the most commonly diagnosed causes of back pain relate to disc pathologies. To be effective and not put clients at risk, it is important for the programs we design to contain relevant, customized exercises with intentional, flexible goals.

This four hour workshop will focus on disc problems and basics of how they might affect the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine.  Attendees will review related trunk anatomy and spinal biomechanics. We will then actively apply this focus to specific Pilates repertory, determining whether an exercise is indicated or contraindicated.

Lisa Love, Ed.M., R.M.T., has an Advanced Master of Education in Motor Learning from the Department of Movement Sciences & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University with additional graduate studies in biomechanics and clinical kinesiology at NYU.  She has taught movement reeducation for over 20 years, and maintains a private practice in Pilates in NYC.  She has been researching and working with MS clients for 15 years.

Great article about Sciatic pain and Pilates in about.com

by Lesley Powell

I have had the great fortune to start my Pilates career in a physical therapy practice.  We had clients with Repetitive Stress Injuries (reporters injured from the work on  the computer), back, knee and shoulder injuries.  Pilates works on the entire body, not just the injured place on the body.

As with the journalists, Pilates worked on improving their posture and the foundations of support.  When you have poor posture, it changes how you use your shoulders and arms.  Try it. Slump and lift your arms up.  Stand tall and feel how different your arms feel.