Bule - Soma, corpo e movimento

 I wanted to show the hyperextension done in the reformer short box and the way I believe it should be done to be "good for the body" in Joe Pilates words. First both Bruno (the boy) and Zorica (the girl) hyperextend by letting themselves falling backwards arching mainly in their lombar spine. Actually this is what I've seen mostly people doing in this particular exercise. In the second attempt both practitioners kind of stop when they reach horizontal with their spine and from their they arch mainly through their thoracic spine. I'm helping Zorica by placing my hand/arm approximately in the middle of her thoracic spine and Bruno is using his elbows against the edge of the box to help support and direct his arch correctly. Of course, the aim is to do the bridging with no help from an external support. According to Michael Boyle's "joint by joint approach", the thoracic spine should be trained, in most people, to increase mobility whereas the lumbar spi...

I start by showing what can happen when we in Pilates ask for the hollowing position for trunk stabilization using the "hundred" exercise as an example. If we continue to ask for the abdominal do be pulled in and up, deep breathing will enhance the tension around the shoulder and neck area and will reenforce, what is very common among people in our days, the thoracic breathing pattern. As we have already mentioned this kind of breathing is linked to stress and is responsible for a lot of biochemical and physiological bad changes in the body. Then I ask for a diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing, first without any external load and then with the load of the legs hanging straight and the head up like in the "hundred" exercise. In this kind of breathing I like to emphasize the bulging of the stomach together with the imprint of the spine. Although this protrusion of the stomach may look extreme, it is a very tough maneuver for most fitness and sport people in our days...

I will try to post an explanation in english for the non portuguese speaking interested. I'm discussing the different breathing "styles" that we see in our clients and their effects. We encourage diaphragmatic breathing (where the abdominal wall expands during inhalation). The upper chest breathing "style" is linked with lots of physiological disfunctions, stress and tension in general (you can check more on this subject on Leon Chaitow's web site). When we (specialy Pilates teachers) ask for clients to "close their abdominal wall", we are encouraging upper chest breathing in most cases. We need to build client's capacity to keep diaphragmatic breathing with increased external loads on the core.  In this video we start to show what I called paradoxical breathing, where the stomach is sucked in during inhalation and movement happens mostly in the upper thorax. This breathing pattern is associated with stress, tension and a lot of biochemica...

I will try to post an explanation in english for the non portuguese speaking interested. I'm discussing the different breathing "styles" that we see in our clients and their effects. We encourage diaphragmatic breathing (where the abdominal wall expands during inhalation). The upper chest breathing "style" is linked with lots of physiological disfunctions, stress and tension in general (you can check more on this subject on Leon Chaitow's web site). When we (specialy Pilates teachers) ask for clients to "close their abdominal wall", we are encouraging upper chest breathing in most cases. We need to build client's capacity to keep diaphragmatic breathing with increased external loads on the core.  In this video we start to show what I called paradoxical breathing, where the stomach is sucked in during inhalation and movement happens mostly in the upper thorax. This breathing pattern is associated with stress, tension and a lot of biochemical...