15 Minute Pilates workout

Hello, my name is Deborah, I'm a classes instructor at Horta Healthcare. Today I'm going to show you some basic exercises that help to stabilise the back and the pelvis. They can also be used as a warm up for more challenging exercises later. So I'm going to start by making sure you've got an appropriate space to exercise in. You need enough space to be able to lie fully stretched and be able to move your arms and legs around your body. You need a supportive head support. You can use a cushion if you haven't got a block or a rolled towel. Some water and also another spare towel. If you've got a Pilates ball, then great. You can use that as well. So just remember to go at your own pace. If you should experience any worsening aches and pains during the exercises, please stop, and if necessary, contact the Horder Healthcare physiotherapy department or your GP. So I'm going to start in our rest position. So if you want to lie down onto your mat and roll over onto your back. So we'll go through the five key elements starting with placing your feet together, turn the toes out and bring your heels in alignment with your toes. Moving up towards the pelvis, we want to place your pelvis in neutral. So put your thumbs together, your fingertips place the thumbs in the belly button and the fingertips on the pubic bone. We're gonna start to rock the pelvis forwards and backwards. As you tip your pelvis forward, you're gonna feel your back arching, and as you tilt your pelvis backwards, you're going to feel your back flattening into the mat. So just feel those two movements and then come to rest somewhere in between those two movements. Your pelvic diamond should be flat, and if you feel your lower back should just have a little gap there, just enough space to thread a silk scar through. Moving up towards your rib cage, you're gonna soften your rib cage. You're gonna feel the back of the ribs just widening on the mat underneath you, feeling your collarbones widening. Place your arms down by your side, feeling streamers on the ends of your fingertips. Gentle nod of the chin just to feel that lovely lengthening through the back of the neck, making sure there's no tension through the front of the neck. Focusing then just on your breath, so we're going to breathe in through our nose, and exhale through the mouth. And again, in, and breath out, and set your center. So we're ready to start now. We're going to start with a hundreds level one exercise, taking a breath in. As you breathe all the way out, float the arms about an inch off the floor and begin to tap your fingertips into the mat. Breathing in two three four five, breath out two three four five, breathe in, two three four five, breath out, two three four five. So just going to take you through some teaching points, trying to maintain that neutral pelvic alignment. If you can, try not to squeeze through those buttocks, focus on your center and your breathing, keeping the collarbones wide. So this is going to help train endurance of your center. So let's just do a few more. Breathe in two three four five and exhale two three four five. And one more time, and then rest the arms down by your side. We're gonna move on to single leg stretch level one next. So taking a breath in to prepare, as you breathe all the way up, set your center and slide one leg away from you, and slide the heel back, and on the other side. So the breath out is on the movement away from the body, breath in is on the slide back. So just some teaching points again. Imagine you're trying to reach your big toe to the wall in front of you, and to avoid any rocking at the pelvis, try and imagine the pelvis is a block of cement. Imagine you've got a tray of drinks resting nicely on that pelvic level, and you don't want to spill any of those drinks on the tray. Keep the legs nice and light. So imagine you've got a ladybird underneath your heel, and you don't want to squash your ladybird into the mat. One more either side. Last one, and coming back into your rest position. We're now going to move on to the arms, so focusing now on floating the arms up to above chest height. We're gonna take a breath in. As you breathe out, we're gonna lower the arms down behind you into double arm reach. Breathe in as you come back. You can have your palms of your hands facing each other, you can have your hands facing away from you if you prefer, the breath out is on the movement behind you, the breath in as you come back. And again, you don't have to take all the the arms all the way back, You're focusing on now on that rib cage position. You're trying to keep that rib cage soft, try not to let your back arch. So the breath out on the arms down, the breath in as you bring the arms back into your start position. Breathe in, and breath out, keeping that center set. Breathing in. So we're trying to train that stability of the back and the pelvis with those arm movements. Last one. Well done. And bring the arms back to your start position in the rest position. We're now gonna move on to hip twist level one. Take a breath in. As you breathe out, drop one knee out to the side, and then bringing that knee back in line with the hip and the foot. Dropping the knee out on the opposite side while stabilizing through the opposite leg. So some teaching points. Just remember again, trying to keep that pelvis from rocking. Imagine it is a block of cement as you move, or imagine you've got a tray of drinks. So this is a really nice exercise that can help with walking, climbing the stairs. So you're trying to train that stability, the pelvis and the back for rotate rotatory movements of coordinated leg movements. So let's do one more either side, and now back to your rest position. We're then gonna move on to hip twist level two. So you can pick up your ball or your spare cushion, placing it between the knees. Stretch the arms out to the side. So you can have your palms down, but if you want a little bit more of an extra stretch across the chest, then place the hands palms upwards. You're gonna take a breath in to prepare. As you breathe all the way up, you're gonna drop the knees down to one side, turning the head in the opposite direction. You're gonna breathe in to hold. Exhale, bringing the knees back to your stop position. Repeat on the other side. Breathing in to hold, and breath out. So some teaching points. Just make sure that the rib cage isn't flaring. If it is, maybe don't take the knees down quite so far just to prevent that arching in the lower back. If you're getting any discomfort through that lower back, yep, just that little extra squeeze through the ball to help engage those inner thigh muscles. Great exercise for mobilizing the whole spine. Last one. And then return to your rest position. So we're gonna keep the ball in between the knees, but we're gonna bring the feet out now back to hip distance apart. Taking your head cushion away using your small folded cushion or straight onto the placing the head straight onto the mat. Bringing the heels nice and closely towards buttocks, we're going to now go into shoulder bridge level one. Another great exercise to mobilize the spine as well as activating the bottom muscles. So we're gonna take a breath in to prepare. As you breathe out, start to draw the sitting bones together. Start to lift the buttocks off the mat. Start to peel the spine bone by bone off the mat till you're resting on your shoulder blades. Checking that your rib cage is soft and lower than your hips, take a breath in to prepare, and exhale, sinking down through the breastbone, coming down bone by bone until you're connecting back onto your tailbone. Again, take a breath in, pushing through the feet, start to peel the the pelvis and the spine bone by bone off the mat, resting on your shoulder blades. Breathe in, exhale, sinking down through the breastbone, then the middle back, then the lower back, then the tailbone. So those teaching points again, drawing those sitting bones together, imagining your spine is a string of pearls, lifting one pearl at a time off the mat. Stretch the knees over the toes, lift that pelvis, and then reverb crow the spine bone by bone back down onto the mat. Keeping the collarbones wide, keeping your little chin softness there through the neck, breathe in and exhale. Now if you have osteoporosis, try and keep the back strong and straight, so you're going to lift the hips with the spine strong and straight, breathing in to hold, and exhale strong and straight back down, and again push through the feet, sitting bones together strong and straight, and back down. One more time for everybody. Well done. Coming back into your rest position. So just take the board away, place it on the floor, and just hug one knee to the chest and the other knee, and just stretch out any tension in that lower back. Okay. So we're gonna go onto our sides now. So rolling onto your side, grab your big cushion or your big block. If you've got any neck or shoulder issues, use your big block and that will help release any discomfort through the shoulder and the neck. If, however, don't have any neck or shoulder issues, using your smaller bill or your small folded towel, extend that underneath arm. Check your heels in alignment with your sitting bones so you can just check the position. Yep. So heels underneath the sitting bones, your sitting bones underneath your shoulders, and in alignment with the head and neck. Trying to keep that neutral spine position, try and lengthen that top hip away from you to create that little tiny gap again to thread that silk scar through. So now we're going to go into clam level one. This is gonna train those deep stabilizing buttock muscles of the pelvis and hip. So fingertips resting on eggshells, around about the belly button level, just to stabilize. Gonna take a breath in to prepare. As you breathe out, draw the sitting bones again. Let that top knee just float up towards the ceiling and back down. So you're gonna breathe out to lift, breathe in to lower. Keeping the feet together, trying to keep the pelvis nice and stable. Almost imagine you've got a cup of tea now resting on that top part of the hip bone, trying to keep that pelvis stable. And the muscle you want to be working is in that top buttock area. So if you're not sure, you can always have just feel that buttock area, just make sure you're feeling some tension there. If you're not really feeling that that activating, if you take your hand just slightly forward, roll the body forward a little bit to take a bit more body weight through those fingertips, working a little bit harder now against gravity. Yep. You might start to now feel that buttock muscle working. So two more. Well done. So we're gonna do the other side. So you can either just turn round and face the other way, but, ideally, if you can come up into sitting, coming up slowly and coming down the other end of the mat. So we're gonna repeat the exercise now on the other side. So checking the heels are underneath the setting sitting bones, pelvis underneath the shoulders, and the shoulders in line with the neck and the head. Fingertips in front of the belly button, lightly touching, feeling all that weight on the bottom hip. Take a breath in. As you're breathing out, draw those sitting bones together, keep the feet together, and let that knee float up, and then relax back down. Keeping again that little gap under the waist, you still thread that silk scar through. Relax the shoulders. And, again, if you're not feeling it in that buttock area, just bring the fingertips forward slightly, roll the body forward. So having to work a little bit harder against gravity now. Okay. A couple more. Last time. Excellent. So taking the headlock away, slowly coming back up into sitting. Be careful if you feel a little bit dizzy. Come up more slowly. So I hope you enjoyed those basic Pilates exercises, and you will join me again soon. Thank you very much. Bye bye.