Here’s an exercise for you that will not hurt your back but will really challenge your abs.

Lie on your back and fold in both legs to a “tabletop” position.  In this position, your shins are parallel to the floor.

Make sure that you have space underneath your lower back.   Do NOT flatten your back to the floor.    You should have enough space underneath your lower back that you can easily slide your hand underneath.    The first photograph shows the correct starting position.

Keep  your knees bent at 90 degrees throughout the exercise.

Take a deep breath in.  As you exhale, engage your abdominals and unfold one hip so that your foot touches the floor.

As you exhale again, switch legs.

Repeat 10 times.

The most important thing to remember is that you must keep space beneath your lower back.    This is the spine’s strongest position where the vertebrae all “lock together” so its important to strengthen the abdominals with the spine in this position.

I have created two different workouts that are great for strengthening your abs if you have any sort of spinal condition that prohibits you from doing traditional curls.  If you go to my website, you can download the Herniated Disc or Osteoporosis workouts.   Both are safe to do and I promise that they will help you!   Simply click on the gravatar on the right side of this page or go to www.PersonalizingPilates.com

If you have any questions or need help, let me know.

Sherry

I have a wonderful client who refers to the back of her thighs as “the dead zone”!    So we always do this exercise in class, just for her.  It’s a great exercise to strengthen and shape the backs of your thighs and your glutes.  And it will strengthen your deepest abs so that your tummy is flatter!

Your primary goal doing this exercise is to keep your hips level.

Start with both feet flat on the floor.  Arms rest by your sides.   Starting at your tailbone, start to curl your spine up off the mat one vertebra at a time until your hips are floating in the air.  Check if your hips are level, left to right as in the first photo.

Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, draw your navel towards your spine and lift your right foot off the mat just a couple of inches as in the second (are your hips still level???).   Place your foot down and switch.    Work up to doing 10 repetitions in total (5 each side).

Modification:   If you cannot lift your foot off, try lifting just your heel off the mat keeping your toes down, as if you were wearing a high heel on one foot.  Once your hamstrings, glutes and abs get stronger, try lifting the whole foot.

I have a lot of clients who have osteoporosis and I teach them this exercise so that they can train for balance, stability and strength in their hips.   It’s always surprising that one hip is so much stronger than the other so do a few more reps of this exercise on your weaker side.      You can also download this exercise from my website – the exercise changes monthly so check back at the beginning of each month!

Exercise of the Month for December 2009

www.PersonalizingPilates.com

Joan Breibart, head of the PhysicalMind Institute in New York, created this exercise and included it in her book “Standing Pilates”.  I love this exercise because it can be done just about anywhere, anytime.   It’s great for mobilizing the hip joint and for strengthening the muscles that support the hips.  This exercise is fantastic if you have osteoporosis because it’s weight bearing and I’ve included in my Personalizing Pilates/osteoporosis workout.   It’s also in the Runners workout since runners need strong hips and balance because there is always just one foot on the ground when running.

• Stand with your weight on the four corners of your right foot (base of big and baby toes, inner and outer heels). 
• Place your left heel on top of your right foot.  
• Your hips will be facing forward (a) and your eyes will be on your horizon.  
• Inhale and slide your right hip out to the right side (b). 
• Exhale and slide it back underneath you (a). 
• Repeat six or eight times and switch sides.

Start position

Slide your hip

As a Pilates teacher, I see many people who have lower back pain and problems.   I would estimate that 90% of these problems come from poor posture and from sitting way too much.    Our bodies are not designed for sitting but too many of us sit for hours and hours each day.   I dare you to calculate how many hours a day you sit – from eating breakfast, commuting, working at your desk, eating dinner and watching television.   It’s not uncommon to hear that people are sitting for 8 – 12 hours a day!  No wonder their backs hurt.

Here’s an easy exercise that you can do just about anywhere and anytime.  It’s not a classical Pilates exercise although you could say that it’s a version of Joseph’s swimming or flight exercise.   It’s known as a McKenzie exercise, named after Robin McKenzie who is one of the world’s leading authorities on lower back pain.

To do the exercise, follow these cues:

1. Stand with your feet a bit wider apart than your hips
2. Keep your knees straight
3. Place your hands in the small of your lower back, fingers turned inward
4. Imagine doing a back dive over your hands, lifting your heart out of your chest
5. Hold for a couple of breaths
6. Repeat three times

Try to do this exercise every hour or so when you need to sit.   If you’re at the office, you can do it in the washroom where it is private.   It will help to strengthen your lower back safely.

Questions?  Don’t hesitate to email me.   I’m here to help.

And please check out the downloadable MP3 workouts on my website.   They’re easy to follow and very effective.   Plus, if you input promo code 4001 when you place your order, you’ll get 10% off your entire order!     

Sherry

The Toronto Marathon was completed this past weekend and  I have several clients and acquaintances who ran the full or the half marathon.   I want to share a stretch with you that I teach my runners.   It’s also a great stretch to do after you have been sitting for a long period of time.    

The hip flexors are a group of muscles that fold the hip.   They pull the leg forward and they all attach at the pelvis or in the case of the psoas muscle, to the vertebrae of the lower back.   When the hip flexors are tight, they can cause lower back discomfort.

I would recommend doing this stretch every day, whether you have gone out for a run or not.   

• Start lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet wide apart (wider than your hips).   
• Reach your arms to the sides
• Look at the ceiling.
• Sway both knees to the right (as shown in the photo)
• Reach your left (top) knee away from you so that the front of your left hip lengthens.  Your left hip will lift up off the mat a bit.
• Hold for 3 breaths and switch.  Repeat 3 times on each side.

It’s common that one hip is tighter than the other so I recommend holding the stretch longer on that side.

I have a great Pilates for Runners workout available.   It’s a downloadable MP3 iPod workout that comes with photos.   Kathrine Switzer, the first woman who ever ran the Boston Marathon, does the workout and she says its “tremendous”.    Please check it out!

Let me know if you have questions!

Sherry

Our bodies are designed to move, they are not designed to sit for long periods of time.     One of the things that happens when we sit is that we lose the inward, lumbar curve of our lower back.    When this curve is lost, our posture suffers, we slouch and we put tremendous pressure on the discs of our lower back.     If you happen to have osteoporosis, a herniated or bulging disc, sciatica or any sort of lower back pain, it is absolutely critical that you have this lumbar curve in your spine at all times.     

The problem with sitting is that very few chairs have proper lumber support.   Even the ones that claim to have support, don’t have enough of it so we still slouch to a certain degree.    

How NOT to sit

In the photo above, you might think that this is an okay way to sit because my back is supported.    But here’s the problem.   Look at my lower back.   It is flattened and there is no lumbar/inward curve in the spine.   If you have a herniated disc, osteoporosis or sciatica, sitting like this (or slouching even more) is going to make the problem worse.

Here’s what I show all of my clients.   It’s the proper way to sit with support.   It will feel a little “rigid” at first but it will quickly become comfortable.    

First, you will need a good-sized bath towel.    Fold it in half lengthwise.   Start rolling it up until it’s a cylinder and secure the ends with elastics or duck tape.    When it’s finished, it should be 6 to 8 inches in diameter.     Now sit in your chair and wiggle your hips all the way to the very back of the seat.    Lean forward and place the roll behind your navel in the curve of your lower back.    There!   Now when you sit, your lower back has the lumbar curve in it but it is supported by the towel.     You’ll notice in the photo below that my spine is more vertical when compared to the first photo.   I’m not leaning back.    When sitting correctly, you should be able to draw a vertical line from the earlobe, through the shoulder to the hip.   In this photo, you can do that.   In the photo above, the line is not vertical at all!  

How to sit properly using a lumbar support

You can buy a lumbar roll instead of using a towel, but make sure it’s big enough.   Many of the ones that I’ve seen are only 3 – 4 inches in diameter which is not big enough for an adult.

Remember if you have questions, add a comment here or email me via the website (on the right).  And I’d really appreciate it if you would check out the workouts that I have on my website.    There are even special workouts for osteoporosis and herniated discs that teach you how to strengthen your abs while keeping the lumbar curve intact.

Cheers,

Sherry

I wanted to pass along a neat trick that I learned that is really helpful for people who have a weak or sore lower back.    This is not a Pilates exercise, but more of what I call a “common sense” technique that is easy to incorporate into daily life.    

One of the best ways to hurt your lower back is to bend forward and pick up something.    For example, bending forward and picking up a bag of groceries or even a pair of shoes off the floor will put a lot of strain on the small, supportive muscles of your lower back.     The first photo below is a perfect example of what NOT to do.    The model is bending forward with a rounded spine with both arms reaching down to pick up the weight.    

How NOT to pick up something

A better way to pick up something is to have “three points of support” – two feet and one hand.    The photo below shows a better way to pick up the weight.   The model is bending forward as well as reaching her hips back a bit so that her back is not rounded as in the first photo.   Notice that she also has one hand on her thigh.   She has lots of weight on her hand so that there is less stress on her lower back.   Once she picks up the weight, she uses her hand to push herself back up so that the small muscles of the lower back are protected.

3 Points of Support (2 feet and 1 hand)

If you have any spinal conditions, this is really important for you to do when picking up objects (even light ones!).   Even if your spine is healthy, why risk having a herniated disc?

Remember, I’m here to help if you have questions.   My e-mail and website are on the right side of the page!

Sherry

If you spend many hours every week sitting at a desk working on a computer, you likely have a stiff or sore neck and shoulders.    Here’s an easy exercise that you can do at your desk that will help to mobilize the neck and stretch the tight muscles.

• First, you need to sit up really tall and balance on your sitting bones (those bones you can feel in your buttocks!)
• Look straight ahead and try not to lift your chin when you do the exercise
• Imagine holding the steering wheel of your car at the 9 and 3 o’clock positions
• Lift your heart up a little
• Pull your imaginary steering wheel apart
• Look straight ahead and pull your head back as if you were a turtle retracting its head back into its shell
• Hold here for 3 breaths before you release
• Repeat 3 times

When you pull the steering wheel apart, you are contracting the muscles in your upper back that tend to get very weak when we sit for long periods.   Lifting the heart helps these muscles contract as well.   Pulling your head back as if you were a turtle helps to stretch the tight muscles at the back of the neck.    

Try it!   And if you want more great exercises that you can do at your desk, check out my Computer Hunchbacks workout on my website (link on the right).   It’s a downloadable, MP3 workout that you can do in 15 minutes – guaranteed to help with your neck and shoulder pain.   I promise!

Sherry

I was working with a new client this week who was referred to me by her chiropractor.   She came to me because she has lower back pain and her core stability needs a bit of work.    When we were chatting to determine her goals, she said that she didn’t understand why her back was sore because she did sit-ups every day and that her abdominals were strong.    When I did a few tests for her abdominal strength, we determined that she was actually very weak.     Once I taught her a bit about the anatomy of the abdominals, she understood why sit-ups weren’t helping her back (in fact, they were making it weaker).    

There are four different layers of abdominal muscles.  

Most of us are very familiar with the outermost, superficial layer because this layer creates the “six-pack” look that you see on fitness models.   This outermost layer is called the Rectus Abdominus.    The job of the Rectus Abdominus is to curl the trunk forward so it’s the main layer of abdominal muscle that  is used when you do a traditional sit-up.     Most people who want to flatten their tummy will start doing lots and lots of sit-ups so that they have a strong outer layer of muscle.   Unfortunately, this is NOT the way to flatten the tummy because flattening the tummy is the job of a different layer of abdominal muscle.

The next two layers of abdominal muscle are called the Outer and Inner Obliques.   These two layers of muscle wrap around the body on an angle and their job is to curl and twist the trunk.   So if you are a golfer, these muscles need to be strong!

The fourth layer is the innermost layer of abdominal muscle.  It’s called the Transversus Abdominus.   It is like a corset that wraps around the body and holds everything in place.    This is the layer of abdominal muscle that supports the spine so that you don’t have lower back pain.   It’s also the layer of muscle that you need to strengthen if you want to flatten your tummy!

If you want to flatten your tummy, here’s an easy exercise that will strengthen the innermost Transversus Abdominis muscle.

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat
• Place one hand underneath your lower back
• Place the other hand on top of your navel
• Take a breath in through your nose
• When you exhale, gently pull your navel down towards your bottom hand (avoid doing a pelvic tilt!)

When you exhale, you will feel that your tummy flattens underneath your top hand!   That’s the Transversus Abdominis muscle doing its job!

It’s important NOT to flatten your lower back when you do this exercise because doing so actually weakens the lower back.  So gently pull your navel down when you exhale but try not to squish your bottom hand!

Need help?  Have questions?   Let me know….I’m happy to help you!

Sherry

However, the problem is that this condition is made worse whenever you bend or curl the trunk forward.   So abdominal curls and any sort of ‘classic’ abdominal exercise is going to not only cause pain, but also exacerbate the problem.    I’m estimating that three-quarters of all classic Pilates exercises involve curling the trunk so that means that you absolutely cannot do these exercises.    Exercises such as The Hundred, Rolling Like a Ball, and the Single/Double Leg Stretch are not to be done!   

So how are you going to strengthen your abs and back muscles if you can’t do a curl up?     

Easy.   The simplest way is to do back-bending exercises and include only those exercises that can be modifed so that they are done in a ‘neutral pelvis’ position.    If you’re not sure about ‘neutral pelvis’, there is an earlier entry on my blog so check it out.   There is also a good back bending exercise that I posted in July.   It’s easy and safe if you have a herniated disc and it will help eliminate the pain you feel.    

I created a workout especially for folks with herniated discs – there’s no forward bending at all but it’s still a great workout for your abs.   You can listen to an exercise from the workout on my website (link on the right side of this page) – it’s on the Shop and Sample page.     It’s downloadable, green (no packaging!) and it’s an MP3 format compatible with iPods and all MP3 players.

If you have any questions about how to strengthen your back safely, let me know.   I’m happy to help!

Sherry