Shoulders (knees & toes...knees & toes...)

When I started training with the Pilates Institute (PI for short!) the focus was on, naturally, the TA(Transversus Ab)..now as the training has deepened and my brain storage has released more space for me to take a bit more info on board...its also about the shoulders. Your core is your torso, think of a dot to dot drawing and draw a line from your right hip up to your right shoulder, across to your left shoulder, down to your left hip and across to your right hip...this is your core, your powerhouse.




Nearly everyone has a shoulder issue, even if they dont know about it..during class its common for someone whos done just 2 - 3 classes (who came to pilates to strengthen their abs...nothing else..) to say they have a tight neck or shoulder, as if it was secondary to wanting tight abs... just on Monday night one lady is a teacher and spends her time bending over desks at the primary school, her muscles between the shoulder blades are weak, and the muscles at the base of her neck are tight..having a massage will help release..but the problem reoccurs unless you regularly move and exercise and strengthen the muscles to permanantly address the problem.
So Ive been leafing through the good old Alan Herdman books, he is truly my best Pilates book author..dont be put off by the models used in the books...some of them are elderly in Pilates Plus for the over 50's, but the exercises treat conditions that we ALL have no matter what our age, its a shame it says 50plus on the cover, but then he does excel in Rehab Pilates for injuries, and slowly slowly (catchy monkey!!) is the way to ease tight muscles to release..

So have attached a couple of scans from a couple of his books for shoulders...please do them everyday, twice a day....takes 10 minutes of your time, maybe do them at a set time each day so you know its PS time! (pilates shoulder!) once at 9am once at 3pm, or once at 3pm once at 10pm..whatever suits your day! But do it for your shoulders, please release them (let them go....tra la la...) and make them softer but stronger so the muscles do what they are supposed to do, support your shoulder blades and your arm movements, not tighten up and cease to work efficiently..other muscles then start to do the work and cause even more problems..thats another story!

If the type on the pics is hard to read tell me and I will let you know what they say ..!