Basic Pilates Workout

In this video Peter presents a short exercise sequence that is great for practicing T-zone activation, perfect as a warm up before your workouts at POGO or as a home exercise option. Get social with it. Please Like, share and comment. Transcript Hi everyone, Pilates Pete here from POGO Physio. So today I’m going to go through a small exercise sequence for you, just three exercises. It’s a low level set of exercises good for T zone activation and as getting used to activating your T zone and strengthening so a nice basic exercise sequence you can do at home or before you do your workouts when you come into POGO Physio as well. Ok so the exercise we’re going to go through, bend knee fold outs, lift foot and leg slides so let’s have a look at them. So all done in the one position, so lying on your back, neutral spine, T zone is on and your feet are about hip distance apart. So you are going to start by engaging that T zone, inhale, lower one leg out to the side and exhale, raising back up to the centre. Inhale lower and the other leg out to the side and exhale bringing it back into the centre and changing leg again. So inhale as you lower down and exhale as you bring that leg back up to the centre and continue to alternate leg. So what we’re looking for here is to maintain pelvic stability so making sure the hips stay level on the ground at all times so as you lower one leg out to the side making sure you’re not letting that opposite hip lift up at all. If you are starting to feel that hip lift, just don’t lower the leg as far and keep the buttocks gently squeezed as well keeping that T zone all nice and strong. Keep going with that just for a few minutes, alternating legs, inhale as you lower, exhale, as you rise back up. One more to the other leg and back to the start. Excellent, ok the next exercise is lift foot. So simply again, staying in the same position, neutral spine. So you’re going to gently squeeze the buttocks and then inhale to engage the T Zone, exhale and raise one foot off the floor and inhale to lower back. Exhale to rise changing back to the other leg, inhale lower, exhale raise and continuing to alternate legs. Exhale as you raise and inhale as you lower back down. So what again what we’re looking for here is that hip stability so making sure the pelvis stays nice and level on the ground at all times and we’re not feeling any rocking and rolling through the hips there ok. And with the leg that’s not lifting up, you want to keep that foot pressing down into the ground and keeping that buttock squeezed slightly to keep the hips nice and level as well. So exhale as you raise and inhale as you lower. We’ll do one more to each leg, exhale as you raise, inhale lower, exhale raise, and inhale lower back down. Excellent, ok so moving onto our last exercise which is leg slides. So staying in the same position, neutral spine, feet about hip distance apart so making sure that T zone is on. Ok, so we’re going to inhale to prepare and then we’re going to exhale, slide one leg away from us on the floor and inhale and draw it back up to the start. Changing legs, exhale sliding that leg away and inhale to bring it back in. Continuing to alternate legs, exhale as you go away and inhale as you come back in. So nice slow and controlled with these, exhale out and inhale coming back in. Again looking for maintaining stability in the hips so not letting the hips rock and roll or one lift as one leg goes away. Making sure we maintain that neutral spine as well so if you start to feel the back arch, want you to not go as far with the leg so just reducing the range of motion until you get a little bit stronger. If you are feeling any pain in the lower back try incrementing the spine slightly and that might help to alleviate that until the back get a bit stronger so exhale as you go away and inhale as you come back in. So also what we want to make sure of is we keep the ribs connected to the hips so when we go out with the leg we don’t want that rib cage flaring out at all and keeping nice and level through the body. Ok, so one more each leg, exhale out, inhale back in and exhale out and inhale back in, and resting, excellent. So that’s the end of our exercise sequence today as I said good one that you can do at home, practice just during the ad break or whenever you have a few minutes. Good to practice that T zone activation and activating the obliques as well, also a good exercise sequence you can do as a warm up before your work outs at POGO Physio. So thanks for watching guys look forward to seeing you at POGO Physic real soon.