Think of your ‘tall ribs’ and get twisting

This exercise at a good slow and controlled pace really gets those oblique abdominals and upper trunk muscles going. Remember that these muscles are needed every day for any movement involving a turn of the body. Add to that your great shoulder stability and pelvic control and this exercise is a challenge for the whole trunk. This version has you in sitting, but you could also try it in a static wall squat or deep lunge position.

The Starting Position:

The focus:

• Sit on a chair or Swiss ball in ‘active sitting’. Active sitting starts with legs hip width apart to your feet, a neutral pelvis posture, long waists and a lifted breastbone.

• With a partner or your theraband fixed at one end, hold your theraband with clasped hands out in front of your chest.

• Set your shoulder blades softly and widely into their ‘pockets’ in the upper back and melt the tension away from your neck and shoulders.

• Imagine you are on a skewer, turning with a beautifully tall and centred axis.

• Twist with long waists and tallness between all of your ribs each side of your trunk. Think of the rib rack and thick meat between each and every rib.

• Keep melting through your shoulders and neck and keep stable and neutral on your pelvis.

The Movement:

• Breathe in deep and wide to prepare. As you breathe out, gently lift your pelvic floor muscles and imagine your hip bones drawing together at the front as your navel deepens.
• As you next breathe in, turn your trunk against your theraband resistance, keeping your hands in front of your chest at all times.
• As you exhale, slowly return your trunk to the middle.
• Repeat to the same side 8-10 times, before changing your set up to turn to the opposite direction.

Tip:

Try this same movement with a partner as you squat against a wall to really challenge your legs and pelvis more so for that complete body workout.

The rack of ribs

Have you ever found yourself in a Pilates class wondering why we’re telling you to ‘think long through the waists’ or to ‘melt between the sit bones’? We can hear you thinking ‘What new impossible task will I be asked to do this week – wiggle my spine-toes?’ Explain The Pilates Cue is a new category of articles you’ll see popping up in Fix News over the coming months in which we will look a little closer at all those weird and wonderful verbal cues and uses of imagery we mention so often to aid us during our Fix Program classes.

So why do we love to use these cues at The Fix Program? We know from the research that motor learning and skill acquisition can be greatly improved by the use of visualization techniques. We layer multiple cues which, through practice, reinforce the laying down of new nerve pathways in the brain during exercise and postural practice. This way it will become a new habit for you, even outside the context of the studio.

Let’s get into unraveling our first cue, the ‘rack of ribs’ – which is certainly not an invitation to dinner! Our familiarity with their shape, however, makes it a useful visualization tool which can, through applying the right Pilates techniques, address problems in our posture.

Imagining the iconic meal of ribs, where each individual rib is parallel and separated by even gaps filled with delicious meat. These intercostal muscles (the ‘meat’) should be just as equal between parallel ribs in our own body, making the ribcage equally tall on both sides. For those of us who slouch to one side, we can imagine the result - a tightening of the intercostals muscle space between each rib can become smaller and less even – by thinking of the results on the dish. When the ribs close together like a folded accordion with a slight sideways twist, it is far from ideal in both the culinary and the physiotherapy sense. This poor rib posture can set up poor movement patterns and muscle activations in the trunk, can affect the neck and lower back, change nerve dynamics in the area and even interfere with our breathing.

Putting this into practice, imagine how we might reduce the space between our ribs when we valiantly attempt to ‘glide the shoulder blades down the back’ (a cue for another post perhaps?). When doing arm work and setting the shoulder blades, think of the blades gliding freely over the top of the rack of ribs without causing those ribs to lose their lovely parallel gaps and collapsing downward on one side. Another reason to ‘keep both sides of your trunk long’ (yet another cue)!

Why not try thinking of your rack of ribs next time you’re doing Scissor Arms on the mat or as you stretch into a Wall Twist? And then carry this visualization into functional activities as you carry your child or a heavy bag of groceries or when sitting long hours at your desk.

Then you can get back to dreaming wistfully of dinner.

By Tabitha Webb

To cycle, or run or walk – that is the question

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/ask-well-is-it-better-to-bike-or-run/

I recently came across this article in the New York Times, which briefly discusses the pros and cons of common exercise. I thought I would lay out some of the reasons for choosing or avoiding various forms of aerobic exercise. The three forms of exercise that were compared were walking (6kph), running (14kph), and cycling (28kph).

Firstly, there is weight management. Running is the winner here at 1,000 calories per hour, cycling is close at 850, and walking consumes only 360. Clearly the high-intensity workouts are best. Note also that you need to walk for nearly three times as long as you would run if you wanted to burn the same amount of calories.

In addition, running and cycling (as high-intensity workouts) cause lower blood levels of ghrelin, a hormone linked to hunger, so act as appetite suppressants as well. However these two more strenuous exercises compare very differently when considering impact – as cycling does not involve weight-bearing, injuries and muscle soreness are far less common among cyclists than runners. Walking is by far the least strenuous, of course!

The characteristic shared by all exercises is a positive effect on wellbeing – aerobic exercise leads to cardiovascular fitness, which is linked to lower risk of chronic diseases and an increased lifespan. Additional motivators for us at The Fix Program are that fit people experience less pain, have improved mental health and sleep better.

As with any form of exercise, combining them with a core stability, postural and stretching program (such as Pilates) can reduce risk of injury and improve performance by ensuring your body is working in optimal, stable balance as you train. There is no ‘best choice’ of exercise to pair with such a program and achieve all these benefits – any form, or even a variety, can be modified to best suit your preferences, safety and weight loss needs.

Author Tabitha Webb