Exercise doesn’t always mean 30-minutes on a stationary bike or a treadmill. As contradictory as this might sound, fitness can be more effortless. In fact, using less force might be a better way to build positive habits. Instinctive, extra movements are some of the best things you can do for your body and mind throughout the day. Make them easy and natural. Incorporate other things you love, whether it’s the feeling of fresh air, the smell of baking bread, or the sound of a loved one on the phone. BlueZones offers a short menu of juicy ideas to add more movement throughout the day. Bon appetit!
Breathing
A gentle yet strong reminder and collaboration by some amazing artists
What it means to scoop your belly
From the Mind Body Moderate Archives, October 26th, 2010
You are in a Pilates class and the instructor says, “Scoop your belly!” Do you:
A. Think, “What the heck does that mean? I can’t scoop anything.
B. Suck in your gut and hold your breath.
C. Give up on this weird Pilates stuff and take yoga next week instead.
The abdominal “scoop” is not only an essential part of Pilates but for all types of sports and activities, including sitting at your desk. Contrary to what it might initially seem, scooping the abdominals does not mean tucking the pelvis under or rounding the low back. To scoop the abdominals one must engage their transverse abdominal muscle, often referred to by physical therapists as the TVA. This is the deepest abdominal muscle. When engaged, the TVA muscle contracts like a corset around the waist. It supports the pelvis and spine and creates the long, lifted, “pulled-in”” look.
The transverse abdominal muscle is like a corset, pulling the waist in
Too often, people who regularly exercise still complain of a protruding belly and back pain. In attempting to build the perfect "6-pack", the focus is often on the top abdominal layer – the rectus abdominal muscle. When doing crunches, for example, that rectus muscle might be burning, but if you are unable to engage deeper muscles of the trunk, the back moves unsupported, and the belly pushes out. You might actually be a few steps further away from a "6-pack" than before the exercise began! Always keep in mind, a strong core does not exist on one muscle alone, or even two, it takes a coordinated effort from the whole body. This is a primary tenant of The Pilates Method. Like an orchestra performing a symphony, every muscle has a part to play in every exercise. Starting to find underutilized muscles is the first step in better overall control and coordination. So, let's start with the elusive scoop. Here are a couple of moves to help you begin mastering yours:
Belly in/Belly Out Quadruped
Step 1. In a tabletop position on all fours, allowing the stomach to relax down towards the floor. Keep the spine straight and still. No arching!
Step 2. Draw the belly and organs in and up towards the spine. Again, don't move the spine. It remains planked. Your bones don't move! Only move the soft tissue of your abdomen.
On all fours (if it bothers your wrist, a forearm position is fine), plank the spine. Do not allow the back to sag or round. Holding this table position will enable the belly muscles to relax towards the floor. Exhale and draw the belly muscles in and up towards the chest, like you are scooping your guts up and into the back of the ribcage. Hold this scoop for 3 breaths and then allow the belly to release down towards the floor again, maintaining a flat spine. Try this 5 – 10 times.
Leg extension Quadruped for Core
Add a leg extension for a more challenging core challenge.
Once you feel the scoop, try maintaining it while sliding one leg back and stretching it out. Hold this position for three breaths, while keeping the spine planked (no sagging back). Hold 5-10 seconds. Switch legs. Press into all the finger joints to help lift out of the wrists. It can also be done on fists or the forearms. Try doing 5 sets.
Deep belly sitting
Sit up tall, and imagine vacuuming in the abdominal wall. Hold while taking 3 gentle breaths. Release.
This one can be done sitting at home, at your desk, or at the opera. No one will know you are working out, but they might comment on your good posture. Sit up tall, and imagine vacuuming in the abdominal wall. The vacuuming feeling is akin to putting on a pair of tight pants as you pull up that last bit of zipper. Do you feel that? That is your TVA. Another image is if someone were to give you an uppercut to the belly button, punching in and hooking up…not a pleasant thought, but it works. Take a deep breath and, on the exhale, vacuum the TVA and hold the contraction for a second or two. Inhale and release. Alternatively, while holding the TVA vacuum, take three gentle breaths, expanding the air into the mid back - as though you were expanding marvellous wings.
*Important note: Be careful of your breath pattern. Breathing is so important to Pilates, and a shallow breath pattern is not something we want to cultivate. If you’re having difficulties, please work with a professional.
Other great exercises to strengthen the TVA and the entire trunk are forearm and side planks.
Forearm planks and side planks are also excellent ways to strengthen the TVA, as well as the entire trunk of the body. Remember, you never want to overwork just one muscle. It takes a coordinated effort from all muscles to keep the body balanced and healthy. There is some debate over what the TVA does and how important it is. No matter, the awareness of any muscle is valuable to a better understanding of yourself and how you move.
Why Pilates leg turnout builds core strength
Pilates position, Pilates stance, Pilates “V,” – all of these refer to the positioning of the legs in Pilates exercises – a 30-degree turnout of the legs from the hip socket with the heels pinched together and feet turned out – roughly 3-4 fingers apart. The common assumption is that it’s a “dance thing,” and often, students look down, turnout their feet, and move on without knowing why.
The problem is if the feet are only twisting from the ankle or more often, from the knees, without incorporating from the hips, it could lead to knee and leg strain, tightness in the hips, low back, and even neck pain. It is essential to feel the femur bone at the top of the thigh is rotating outward and stretching away from the trunk to create the turnout in the feet. No movement is forced in the knees or ankles. We extend and reach out from the hip joints without gripping in the buttocks, but wrapping and using the muscles underneath the buttocks and at the top of the thighs like you’re pinching a dime between your cheeks. This is how to turn out, the result of which is seen in the feet, but not initiated from them.
Ok. Fine, but why?
This turnout position allows the pelvis to stay neutral and slightly disengages the quadriceps muscles (the front of your thighs), helping lengthen the “zipping up” sensation of the core muscles – from the pelvic floor through the deep belly and psoas, all the way up to the diaphragm and releasing the tension in the neck muscles. Remember, Pilates is never just “abs,” but requires control and understanding of all the muscles and how each affects the other to create overall balance and postural health. Pilates V position is not so much an extreme ballet turnout, as it a military stance. Standing upright with an assertive “chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in,” keeping the heels together, toes apart, with weight balanced forward over the balls of the feet – stable and centered, the body is standing active and ready for action.
A good time to practice your Pilates position is waiting in line at the grocery store, using the cart handle for balance. Draw your thigh bone outward, heels together, and weight over the balls of the feet (but keep your heels on the ground). At the same time, lift through the crown of the head and draw your core in towards the spine (like you are putting on a pair of tight jeans). Your entire body should be in lengthening and working at the same time. Now try to take your hands off the cart handle, just don’t fall into the candy and magazine racks.
Falling Forward
“A gesture, be it a leap, turn, run, fall, or walk, is only as beautiful, as powerful, as eloquent as its inner source. .Purify, magnify, and make noble that source. You stand naked and revealed. Who are you? What are you? Who, what do you want to be? What is your spiritual caliber?”
José Limón
January 12th was the 112 anniversary of Jose Limon’s birth. Since the introduction of the Limon technique in college, not only was I taken with the exuberance and playfulness of dancing his movements, but even more with his conceptual philosophy, because it seemed to be an ideal representation of moving forward in most aspects of life. It’s of the stuff of what makes us human, distilled down to a repetitive cycle, carried out in infinite ways, yet remaining as monumental or mundane as need be to the movement and efforts we experience over and over in a single step: We rise (one foot up) We fall (one foot down). We stabilize (standing even). Repeat.
This is what we do. In one way or another, we carry on
Conceptually the image of life and movement as a fall and recovery - a rhythm, a wave, that single step forward - that has stayed with me throughout my life. Here’s a bit more about Jose Limon’s technique directly from Jose Limon Dance Foundation website.
The Limón technique is based upon the movement style and philosophy of theater developed by modern dance pioneers, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In the early 1930s, both Weidman and Humphrey developed a dance vocabulary that worked in opposition to the strict rules of classical ballet. Their intention was twofold: to demonstrate human emotions in a less stylized manner than ballet; and to incorporate in their work the natural movement patterns of the body and its relation to gravity. Limón further developed their ideas for his own work and technique.
The Limón technique is divided among various physical extremes: fall and recovery, rebound, weight, suspension, succession and isolation. These ideas can be illustrated in the way a dancer uses the floor as a place from which to rise, return to and then rise from again. The way a dancer explores the range of movement between the one extreme of freedom from gravity and the other of falling into it; for example, the moment of suspension just as the body is at the top of a leap, and the moment the body had fallen completely back to the earth. There are many words and ideas that are immediately associated with the Limón technique, i.e. its humanism, its use of breath, musicality, lyricism and its dramatic qualities; however, the overwhelming consensus is that through the movement is always demonstrated some physical expression of the human spirit.
