Pilates: More Moves:)

[livewell]

I really like these. They may not look like much, but when done correctly with the proper breathing and stretching, from my experience, they really do tighten the tummy. I like pilates!:yes

The Roll Up


Step by Step
1. Stretch out to your body's full length, the way you might stretch your waking body as you get up in the morning.

2. Squeeze your buttocks tightly and press the backs of your upper inner thighs <http://diet.ivillage.com/workouts/wpilates/> together.

3. Flex your feet into the Pilates stance
and bring your straight arms forward over your head.

4. As your arms pass over your chest, lift your head and inhale as you begin to roll up and forward.

5. Imagine that your lower body is strapped down to the mat, stabilizing you just below the hip bones.

6. In order to feel the articulation of your spine it is helpful to imagine this rhythm: Lift your chin to your chest, lift your chest up over your ribs, lift your ribs up over your belly, lift your belly up over your hips, and try to lift up out of your hips and over your thighs.

7. Exhale as you stretch forward from your hips while keeping your navel pulled back into your spine. This is opposition at work!

8. Initiate rolling back down by squeezing your buttocks and slightly tucking your tailbone underneath you. Inhale as you begin pulling your navel to your spine.

9. Reversing the sequence of the exercise, exhale as you feel each vertebra pressing into the mat beneath you. Keep squeezing the backs of your upper inner thighs together for stability.

10. When the backs of your shoulders touch the mat, lower your head and bring your arms over into a full-body stretch before beginning the movement again.

11. Complete three to five repetitions and end by lying flat on the mat with your arms long by your sides.



Spine Stretch Forward


Step by Step
1. Sit tall with your legs extended straight out on the mat in front of you and open to slightly wider than your hips' width.

2. Straighten your arms out in front of you and flex your feet as if you were pressing your heels into the wall across the room.

3. Inhale and sit up even taller as if the crown of your head were pressing up and through the ceiling above.

4. Bring your chin to your chest and begin to round down toward your belly, forcing the air out of your lungs. Imagine you are forming the letter C with your body.

5. Exhale as you stretch forward, simultaneously pulling in your abdominals. Imagine you are stretching over a beach ball held between your legs. Squeeze the imaginary ball with your upper inner thighs as you lift your chest up over the top.

6. Inhale and reverse the motion of the exercise, rolling up as if constrained by a wall behind you.

7. Exhale as you return tall seated position, pressing your shoulders down and stretching
<http://diet.ivillage.com/workouts/wpilates/> your arms long in front of you. Really feel your back stretching flat up against the imagined wall behind you.

8. Repeat three times with the goal of increasing the stretch down the spine with each repetition. End by sitting tall and bending your knees in toward your chest.

[desperate housewife]

thanks for sharing that...the spine stretch sounds great