Sometimes tense athletes get in their own way from really experiencing phenomenal results. Our intentions with Pilates is to help you discover your true selves in natural movement. Exercise is only as good as the posture you do it in. As we age, we layer faulty movement patterns over the effortless beautiful alignment we had as kids. We can help you uncover that. ——————————————————————————————- Here is a Buddhist story we refer to often, hope you enjoy it!
There was a young man who had a clay statue, a family heirloom. He’d always wished that it were bright shiny gold instead of plain brown clay. When he began to earn a living, he put aside a little now and then, until he had enough for his special project: to have his statue covered with gold.
Now it looked just the way he wanted it to, and people admired it. He felt very proud that he had a gold statue. However, the gold plating didn’t stick to the clay very well and it wasn’t long before it began to flake off in spots, so he had it gold plated again. Soon he found himself using all of his time and resources to maintain the gold facade of his statue. One day his grandfather returned from a journey of many years. The young man wanted to show him how he made the clay statue into a gold one. However, clay was showing through in many spots, so he was somewhat embarrassed. The old man smiled and held the statue lovingly. With a moist cloth he gently rubbed it and gradually dissolved some of the clay. “Many years ago, the statue must have fallen in the mud and become covered with it. As a very young child, you wouldn’t have known the difference. You forgot and thought it was just a clay statue. But look here.”
He showed the grandson the place where the clay was removed, and a bright yellow color shone through. “Underneath the covering of clay, your statue has been solid gold from the very beginning. You never needed to put more gold on to cover the clay. Now that you know what its nature really is, all you have to do is gently remove the clay and you’ll reveal the gold statue you’ve possessed all along.” ——————————————————————————————- IN essence our job is to polish our very own gold statues. Maybe we don’t have to change, just help find the inner statues within and let our GOLD shine through :-)
A great run, ride or a great yoga experience transforms life perspective and attitude profoundly. It helps break through the mind clutter or negative thoughts that distract us from what’s important in life. A great run can open up a space in your heart and mind, which you can fill in with your choice of the best energies life has to offer: strength, gratitude, inspiration, fire, endorphins, humor, guts, compassion, grit or moxie. Every time you enter this space and nourish these qualities, your life and your practice will flourish. This energy can alchemize doubts, fears, and insecurities in your head and even help tune it out of your environment.
How does that space open up into a magic elixir of good stuff and how do we break through the clutter to get there?
CORE Strength, Rhythm, Flow and Soul
These are the 4 key foundations of “breaking through” the clutter of the mind and body to enter the space where things become effortless.
CORE strength is the magic key both physically and energetically, it is the essence of your strength. You are poised for greatness when you align your body and support it with the groundwork of core strength and balance. All movement in your body originates at your center. Your power is the source around which arms and legs, muscles, facia, bones, tendons, ligaments can all work. Without a strong core foundation, everything has to work twice as hard, and work as separate entities. With all focus and energy gathered at your center, you can stop “trying” so hard to move your limbs. Your limbs will relax, and you feel harmonious in the flow of movement. You can be in sync with your breath and your body.
This creates the magic of rhythm. It doesn’t matter if you are moving fast, slow or not at all. When you tune in to your breath and feel a rhythm, you can relax into it. Rhythm comforts the uneasy, chattery brain, and it soothes the nervous system. Rhythm of breath, no matter how fast, keeps you in your sympathetic nervous system where the body can relax. It becomes easy to find the space for gratitude as your body lifts, lengthens and practically levitates. This is how to “break through” and find the soul of the run, or the soul of yoga.
This is the magic of flow. Flow is the difference between enjoying aerobic efforts and dreading them. Stressed out, shallow breathing and erratic form triggers chatter in the brain and the parasympathetic nervous system, or the flight or fight program. The brain starts saying, “I hope I’m burning calories, I hope I fit into size 6 jeans, I hope I’m beating that other guy. What will the scale say? I’m heavy, this hurts, I’m slow…” Going through the motions with the wrong intentions zaps the soul, extinguishes the rhythm, and diminishes strength.
The formula of flow is to begin by focusing on the core, relax your limbs, let power and energy flow through them. Find a rhythm with breath and movement, quiet the chatter in the brain, and tune in to the experience of the dynamic and soulful space right inside of you.
Here are some great stretches that you can do with this ‘magic’ little Red ball to turn your day around!
Place the ball under your sacrum and lie flat on the ground with legs out long on ground.
– Legs long and pelvis is neutral so the ball isn’t anywhere in your low back or too far down at your tailbone. You should feel your pelvis opening up..Hold for approximately 45 seconds
– One knee up toward your chest so the other hip flexor can stretch out. Hold same amount of time
– Switch
– Bring both knees up to 90 degrees and hold for one minute. You should feel your abdominals in this isometric ab exercise. Feel your chest melt and your ribs relax. Let your femurs drop into your hip sockets to help your hip flexors relax and allow your pelvic floor to engage more.
– To challenge more: straighten legs up to ceiling without bringing them closer to your chest. On exhale see if you can lower your straight legs down slightly and on inhale raise them. Repeat 5 times without moving the ball or coming out of neutral pelvis. Also do it alternating legs up and down like scissors
– Marching. Knees bent just alternating one foot down at a time in a marching motion concentrating on moving from your core and not your quads. Hips really still.
Ball placed between shoulder blades:
Lie on your back with the ball between shoulder blades. Pillow under your head and arms extended out to the side for a pec stretch. Hold for 1 minute
– Arms up to ceiling. With straight arms, reach them up to ceiling and then let them sink back down. 10 times
– Snow angels. Try with knees bent so you don’t arch your back as your arms reach back behind you. Start with arms out to side and drag them, on ground if possible, (making a circle) behind your head, then up to celing, down by your side and repeat. Then reverse directions. Do 3 times each direction
– Interlace hands behind head. Legs straight on ground. Inhale, and on exhale slowly nod your chin forward (keeping an imaginary tennis ball under you chin) while your ribs wrap together letting them float your upper body up toward a half roll up. (the red ball is still touching your back but you pull up to just on top of it) The funneling down of your ribs allows the upper body to bend up but the pelvic floor connection pulls you up. It’s a great exercise to help you isolate the lower abs that are so hard to get.. Inhale as you lower, Exhale as you come back up.
– With rotation, do the same exercise, but once you are up, inhale, then exhale and add a rotation to one side. Keep the hips still and keep your chin over your sternum so your obliques are really doing the small twist, not your head. Try 5 on each side.
