Hi everyone and welcome back to another Pilates practice with me.
Today,
Let's explore extension.
And with extension,
Usually when we hear back extension,
We think of back bending.
But actually,
Extension begins in stabilizing the spine through the muscles in specific positions.
So even though we're going to practice back extension today,
This practice will be totally safe for most bodies.
Of course,
If you have back issues,
Just listen to the body.
With your physio or with your doctor that you are fine to do all the movements.
But this practice is specifically designed to be really safe for almost every spine.
Let's get started.
From here,
Please come onto the mat,
Lie down onto your stomach.
Both hands above each other.
And put your forehead onto the hand.
For now,
Try to find a very long body line,
Meaning you want to keep the hips heavy on the mat,
But the top of your head is reaching forward and the toes and your legs are reaching back.
Think of the hips are the center of the body and your legs want to elongate back and your upper body wants to elongate forward.
For now,
Just think hips heavy into the mat.
And without moving the hips,
Try to lift your left leg.
And lower.
Without moving the hips,
Try to lift your right leg.
And lower.
Each side two more times.
And it sounds very easy but it's actually not if you really pay attention that you're not moving the hips up and down.
So try to feel your hip bones in the mat that no matter what the legs are doing your hips are fairly stable and not going one or the other way.
One more time right and lower.
Now,
Next stage is bend the left knee,
Flex your foot so you pull the toes to the shins.
And from here the same thing without moving the hips.
Try to lift the knee.
And lower.
Extend the leg,
Other side.
Bend the knee,
Lift the knee.
And lower and reach back.
Each side two more times.
So you will notice that in this version already the entire body has to work,
Not only the back of your legs and the glutes,
But the entire body.
Okay.
Now try to lift both legs at the same time straight.
Lift both legs up.
And lower.
Two more both legs up and lower.
Especially when we move the legs,
Make sure that you're not putting any pressure in the lower back.
So imagine the tailbone is still reaching to the heels,
You keep lengthening and opening the lumbar spine and you lift the legs long back.
And lower.
Okay,
Sit back for just a moment.
To decompress.
The lower back,
The spine.
So this is already extension.
So we are doing already extension work.
Now with the upper body,
Same position,
Hands above each other,
Forehead down.
If you can,
Try to keep the heels together.
If heels together creates too much pressure in the lower back,
You can open the legs hip-width apart.
That's not a problem.
So this time keep your hands down.
Heavy hips,
Long legs,
Long upper body,
But this time with your next inhale,
Try to lift the chest just a little bit.
And lower.
Again,
Lift the chest just a little bit.
And lower.
One last time.
And lower.
Hands under the shoulders and the elbows are facing up and the arms are going in towards your center line.
Keep your forehead down first.
Now gently press your hands into the mat.
You should directly feel an engagement underneath the shoulder blades when you do this.
So press your hands down and now lift the chest with the support of your arms.
And the world.
Two more.
Press your hands down.
Just lift up a little.
And lower.
One more time.
And lower everything back down.
Sit back onto the heels again.
Decompressing the spine.
Next one we try to combine both the upper body and the lower body which is in a classical sequence already the swan from the mat in its very basic version.
So keep your hands above each other,
The forehead on top of your hands,
Your legs straight,
Heels together as good as possible.
With your next inhale,
Try with the same technique,
With the same quality to lift your legs and lift your chest.
Lower everything back down.
For this version,
Keep facing down,
So you look down onto the mat to keep the neck long.
Again,
Inhale,
Lift your legs and lift your chest.
Everything down.
One last time.
And lower everything down so back onto the heels.
Before we do our last round of extensions,
Let's decompress the lower back just with a little rounding forward.
Knees bent,
Hands under the thighs and just roll back halfway.
And roll up again.
This should feel nice and easy.
You use your hands,
You just move the spine now in the opposite direction into flexion that you can stretch the spine for a little moment.
And come up.
Very nice.
Last round of extension.
This time it's a little bit more work for the upper back.
So legs long,
Arms long forward as good as you can.
Tie a forehead down onto the mat.
And now try without lifting the chest too much.
To lift one arm.
And lower.
Lift the other arm.
And lower.
Each side two more times.
And lower.
Now try to lift both arms at the same time,
Just hovering above the floor,
Forehead still down,
So keep your forehead down,
Arms up and lower.
Again,
Arms up and lower.
Keep your hips heavy,
Keep your lower back stable.
So there's nothing happening in the lower back right now.
It's all in the upper back.
And down.
One more time,
Sit back.
Before we come to the last one.
Exercise.
It's also an exercise from the mat,
Which is called swimming.
So keep reaching with your arms long forward,
Keep reaching with your legs long back.
Keep your forehead down.
I'm just lifting my head a little bit so the mic has a better distance.
From here,
Lift your right arm,
Left leg,
And down.
The other side.
Left arm,
Right leg,
And down.
Each side one more time this way.
And down.
Lift.
And down.
Okay,
Now we're gonna try to put everything together.
So this time a little lift from the upper back.
Long legs,
Long arms,
Everything as long as you can.
Just lift everything up as little as you can and then alternating left and right,
Move the legs and the arms for another five.
Four.
Three.
You.
One and that's it last time sit back onto the heels give yourself a nice stretch Think of pulling the tailbone to the heels.
Shoulders relaxed.
Slowly roll up the spine and that's it.
