Quick Pilates Magic Circle For Shoulder & Hip Strength

A fast-paced, 9-minute Pilates practice using the Magic Circle to build shoulder and hip stability. We start standing, then move to the mat for the second half, keeping the pace quick throughout. Give yourself a few rounds to settle into the pace and you'll see it gets easier each time. It's completely safe for every level. All you need is a Magic Circle and a mat.

Transcript

Welcome to this quick magic circle shoulder and hip stability session. We start standing, So grab your magic circle and bring your heels together, The toes apart. Hold the magic circle hip high in front of you, Always with your fingers long and together. Now with your elbows a little bent, Try to press the magic circle together using your entire arms and your back. So 10 times, Press the magic circle together and release. Press together and release and make sure you always feel the entire back working, Not only the arms, Not only the shoulders. Then after 10 repetitions, Lift your arms shoulder height, Still with your elbows a little bit bent, But still long in front of you. And again, 10 times, Press with your hands and your arms and with the entire back into the magic circle. Then lift your arms even higher, Yet still in front of the body and repeat for 10 repetitions. Keep the spine really tall. Make sure you're not arching the back. So it's a lot about stability. Think of long, Tall spine. Bring your arms behind your back with a magic circle. Open the shoulders, Open the chest, But don't arch. And try to press the magic circle together. Don't worry if there's not much happening. This is quite challenging already. We're going out of four times pressing together. And then bring your hands in the magic circle again in front of you. Now in eight counts, Squeeze together and lift the arms up to the ceiling and in eight counts, Lower the arms back down. Again, Lift your arms and if you want, You can also lift your heels as you raise your arms up and lower the heels as you lower the arms back to the hips. Again, Lift the arms, Pressing together in eight counts and lower the arms, Pressing together in eight counts. Lifting the heels as you lift the arms, And lower the heels as you lower the arms. Try to find lengthening in the body. Try to find your balance in the body. And last one, Lower the arms down. Then the next one, That's usually the hardest one for the shoulders. Place your hands inside the magic circle, Bend the elbows at a 90 degree angle, Keep the elbows very, Very close to the chest and now press with your hands out into the magic circle. So there's not much movement happening, But try to think of external rotation in your upper arm and you really want to press your hands out as much as you can. The elbows close to the chest and in that 90 degree angle in front of you. And we're going to do a couple of more. You definitely should also start already feeling a little burn in the shoulders. Then the next one is you gently press out and lift the elbows in front of your shoulder heights and lower the arms back down to the chest. The hardest part is to keep the elbows in. And lower the elbows back to the chest. It's always good to do this in front of a mirror because we always want to put the elbows out as we lift the arms. And that's actually exactly what we want. We want to keep the elbows really, Really in. And five to eight repetitions are absolutely enough. From this movement because it's really challenging usually. So we do one last one. And I guess the shoulders are already burning. So let's go onto the mat for some hip work. So please sit down with your legs inside the magic circle. Place the pad slightly above the knees, So not really on the joint, Slightly above the knees. And then press with the knees out and relax again. Best case scenario the heels are together the toes apart and for a couple of more times press really out and release. You can always check with your hands if your hamstrings are really kicking in. Because that's exactly what you want. So when you press out, You want to feel the sit bones coming together. And for the next one, You press out with the knees and then you start rolling back the spine, Touching the tailbone down onto the mat and then lift the spine back up. Try to find that really round and opening in the lower back so pressing the knees out should help us create a bit more space to roll back bringing the lower back into the mat. Maybe you have to bring the heels a bit closer to you or a little bit further away. Try to figure out for yourself what works best for you to roll back with a really nice lower back movement massaging into the mat. Let's do one more time like this. And then lift up and we change position this time bring the magic circle between your knees and now instead of pressing out you press with your knees together either close the heel or keep them slightly open as I have here in this position and three times press with the knees together and then release again and then with the next one press together and roll back again signed with your lower back the mat And when you start rolling up, Try to press even more with the knees together. Try to feel and to get an awareness which version for you is easier, Which makes it harder. And ooh. What helps you to find a better round in the lower back so that you can really roll through the lower back up and down. Then take the magic circle out of your knees and with control come down onto the mat, Lying down. Still with the knees bent, Bring the magic circle between the knees and place the feet on the mat. If you can, Heels together, Toes apart. From here, Try to press with the knees, The magic circle together. I want to say the knees, It's still the pads are slightly above the joint. So it's actually more the inner thighs. And see if you can press the magic circle so far together that the pads inside are even touching. You can always place your hands on your hips just to check if the hips are not moving or keep your arms long by the side. Try to find really that midline that both legs are working equally. And try to find that strength from the middle. Then we change again, Place again the legs inside the magic circle and now press with the knees out. And Julie. Again, You want to keep the hips fairly stable and press with the knees out. Angelique. Keep your feet on the mat a couple of times more. And then we add a little pelvic lift. So as you press out, Lift the hips and slowly articulate the spine back down. It's really just a pelvic lift, Not a full shoulder bridge. So you just want to keep the hips really curling up as the chest is still fairly down. So don't open the chest, Don't lift the chest too high. We still want to work on the hip stability. In this case mobility so you press out with the knees as much as you can curling up only the lower back only the hips keep the mid-back still down and find that long line from the chest to the knees. Then slowly articulate the spine back down. You can take the magic circle out and that's it. Thanks for joining me.