Please go to Session 22/23 in your Course Packet and follow along. Pause the video to review the question and your answer as we progress through each question.

Video & Article

Now, let’s take a look at another “out of the box” abdominal exercise. Watch the following Session Video and read the accompanying article below to learn how to not only work the deep transverse abdominals, but also the more superficial abdominals.

These outer abdominal muscles are actually what create movement as we find flexion, extension, side bending, and rotation. Be sure to start your clients with just the beginning sequence of this exercise and slowly progress from there. Be on the lookout for too much gripping in the neck and shoulders. This usually means their range of motion is too large.

ABDOMINAL STRENGTH AND MOBILITY

by Jennifer Gianni

The core muscles are very important for stabilizing the pelvis and spine, but they do not bring us into movement. The core muscles hug and protect our spine and pelvis so that when our global musculature fires and brings us into movement, our skeleton is protected and we are less likely to sustain an injury. So it is important that we train the firing sequence of the muscles to protect us from dysfunction. We want the core to be on before the bigger and more superficial muscles contract.

We are shape-shifters and we can create all sorts of shapes with our body, but to be safe our body has to have a strong and sound foundation and core. When we go into big movements—whether flexion, extension, side bending, rotation, or any combination of the above—the muscles have to be working in a synergistic, balanced, and coordinated way.

One aspect that can be overlooked when we start to do big movements is joint mobility and articulation. The ability to move fluidly through the joints of the spine, paired with balanced abdominal strength, is the recipe for success in exercises like the roll down, corkscrew, boomerang, and countless others in the Pilates repertoire. For example, if you have a client who is having trouble executing a roll down, you probably have to slow them down and give them some type of support system so they organize around the descent and the coming up. In mat class, a great way to give support to the roll down is a Theraband around the bottom of the feet when the legs are extended. Another option is for the client to keep the knees bent and the feet on the floor, and keep the hands behind the legs as they go down and come up. It is also very helpful if the teacher can cue the client with two fingers along each side of the spinous processes as they come down. It is common for folks to come down too quickly, so tell your client that they will be taking three to four breath cycles to come down, and then another three to four to come back up. You will need to cue heavy relaxed shoulder blades as they do this slow version. It is also helpful to have a landing pad for the upper shoulders and head. Some will need a bigger incline than others, but this really helps to create a smooth landing and roll up.

The key to helping your clients find balanced and coordinated movement in the torso is emphasizing efficiency of movement: where to put the emphasis and where to soften a bit more. For example, when we let go of our upper traps in teaser, then the deep abdominals, along with the superficial ab muscles, can take on more of the work—but as long as the upper shoulders are preforming your ab curl, the real players are blocked from the game.

Make sure to initial and date that you have completed Session 23 in your Master Log.