Pilates for Scoliosis: Stabilising Exercises — Transcript

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1. 0:00welcome to pilates for scoliosis i'm
2. 0:02rika brixie and i'm going to show you
3. 0:04just a few basic exercises to stabilize
4. 0:07your kirby spine
5. 0:09this exercise is going to work to
6. 0:11strengthen the obliques which are the
7. 0:12muscles of your core which control the
8. 0:14side bending and rotational movements so
9. 0:16often they're a little bit out of
10. 0:18balance and those of us with scoliosis
11. 0:20and this exercise is great to target
12. 0:22those imbalances so we're going to be
13. 0:24laying on the back on that
14. 0:27feet just about a distance apart
15. 0:30and i'm going to start by lifting my
16. 0:32left leg up into a tabletop position i'm
17. 0:35then going to take my right hand and
18. 0:36place it against my left thigh so i'm
19. 0:39going to create a little bit of tension
20. 0:41between my arm and my leg i'm squeezing
21. 0:43my thigh into my hand and my hand into
22. 0:46my thigh
23. 0:47and that alone starts to activate the
24. 0:49abdominal muscle so that might be enough
25. 0:51for you in which case please stick with
26. 0:52that
27. 0:53if you want to challenge it a little bit
28. 0:55more then we're going to deepen the
29. 0:57engagement of the abdominals i'm going
30. 0:58to try and keep my body completely still
31. 1:01and i'm going to lift the right leg up
32. 1:03into tabletop as well so i still have
33. 1:05that squeeze between my arm and leg
34. 1:07and then as i inhale i'm going to start
35. 1:09to lower my right leg down just to touch
36. 1:11the toe onto the mat
37. 1:13and then i deepen the abdominals and i
38. 1:15lift that leg up again and the entire
39. 1:17time i'm just trying to keep my body
40. 1:19nice and still
41. 1:20being careful not to arch the lower back
42. 1:22away from the mat keep the abs pulling
43. 1:24in
44. 1:25inhale to touch down
45. 1:28and exhale to lift
46. 1:30then we place that foot down release the
47. 1:32hand
48. 1:33and rest the leg so you can do maybe six
49. 1:35to ten repetitions on either side
50. 1:38we're going to go to the opposite side
51. 1:39now so left hand pressing into the right
52. 1:42thigh
53. 1:42squeeze the arm and leg against each
54. 1:44other
55. 1:45deep in the abdominals and then lift the
56. 1:47left leg up
57. 1:48and again i inhale to touch
58. 1:51and exhale to the left and the priority
59. 1:54is to keep the spine still so i might
60. 1:56not be able to lower my foot all the way
61. 1:58to the floor which is fine just keep it
62. 2:00in a range that you can control
63. 2:04and then placing that foot down
64. 2:07press the arm
65. 2:08and then the leg
66. 2:10and we'll also do same armor's leg so
67. 2:12you'll notice some differences in all of
68. 2:15these ranges here i'm squeezing the left
69. 2:18arm and leg together deepening the abs
70. 2:22and lifting the right leg
71. 2:24inhale to touch down
72. 2:26and exhale to the left
73. 2:28and some sides might be harder than the
74. 2:31other side it's important that we
75. 2:33execute them all to create balance
76. 2:39and then
77. 2:40resting that arm and leg down lastly
78. 2:43right arm and legs squeezing together
79. 2:45left leg lifts
80. 2:47and with inhale touch
81. 2:49and exhale left
82. 2:56and then rest the foot
83. 2:58press the arm rest the leg
84. 3:00and that is a comprehensive abdominal
85. 3:04exercise
86. 3:05looking at all those different
87. 3:06asymmetries that might be in place
88. 3:09so i'm going to show you just two simple
89. 3:11exercises that can be done to help to
90. 3:13mobilize the spine often we can have
91. 3:15different areas of tightness in the
92. 3:17spinal scoliosis and this will hopefully
93. 3:19help to relieve them
94. 3:21so we're going to start on the hands and
95. 3:23knees
96. 3:24so you want your hands directly
97. 3:25underneath your shoulders
98. 3:27knees directly underneath the hips and
99. 3:29i'm aiming to have a flat back here so i
100. 3:31feel like i'm holding the ceiling up
101. 3:33with the back of my head my abdominals
102. 3:35are drawing in just to stay still
103. 3:38and as i exhale i'm just going to begin
104. 3:40to round the spine so i tuck the pelvis
105. 3:42under and i'm going to curl my spine
106. 3:44into a rounded shape
107. 3:45now i want you to be aware that you have
108. 3:47equal pressure between both hands and
109. 3:49equal pressure between both knees here
110. 3:52and feel your skin against the clothing
111. 3:55on the back of your body so you want to
112. 3:56try and make sure that you're getting
113. 3:58even contact through both sides of the
114. 4:00back
115. 4:01we're going to stay rounded
116. 4:02and then you're going to just start to
117. 4:04lower the pelvis back towards the heel
118. 4:06so as the pelvis moves back it should
119. 4:08transfer into a little bit deeper
120. 4:10stretch in the lower part of the spine
121. 4:11just go as far back as you feel
122. 4:12comfortable to
123. 4:14and then we're going to flatten the
124. 4:16spine thinking of sticking the tailbone
125. 4:17out behind you lifting your chest up and
126. 4:20forward
127. 4:21and then come forward onto your hands
128. 4:23and knees and think about lifting the
129. 4:25chest
130. 4:26arching the upper spine
131. 4:28and we return to neutral
132. 4:31and again surrounding the lower spine
133. 4:33lifting up with the abs try and create
134. 4:36that even contact through both sides of
135. 4:38the back against your clothing and then
136. 4:40start to sit the pelvis back just take
137. 4:42it to a point where you feel a good
138. 4:44stretch
139. 4:45and then pause there
140. 4:47roll through neutral
141. 4:50press into the hands arch the upper back
142. 4:53and then coming up onto the knee hands
143. 4:55and knees keeping that upper spine out
144. 4:57just be careful don't throw your head
145. 4:59back
146. 5:00keep the head in line with the spine
147. 5:02and one more time breathing out
148. 5:05tucking that pelvis under if you know
149. 5:07which side of your spine is concaved you
150. 5:10might want to feel as though you press
151. 5:12that side up towards the ceiling a
152. 5:13little bit more to help open some of
153. 5:16those areas that can get stuck
154. 5:18sitting back with the pelvis
155. 5:21and then roll through neutral arch the
156. 5:24upper spine
157. 5:26and come up onto the hands and knees
158. 5:29and then back to neutral
159. 5:31so we can stay here and do a little bit
160. 5:33of mobilization in rotation as well
161. 5:36so same setup now i'm just going to
162. 5:38begin to bend my left elbow
163. 5:41and i'm pointing my elbow directly
164. 5:43towards my knee so i'm going to place my
165. 5:45forearm down onto the mat
166. 5:47as my forearm goes down i'm trying to
167. 5:49keep my right arm straight so that that
168. 5:52encourages my spine to twist towards the
169. 5:54right hand side i just breathe in there
170. 5:57just enjoying that stretch
171. 5:59and then press down into the left hand
172. 6:01straighten the left arm to come up and
173. 6:04we go to the other side so dropping the
174. 6:06right elbow down keep the left arm
175. 6:09straight
176. 6:11easy breaths
177. 6:15and then pressing into the right hand to
178. 6:18return to the center and again side to
179. 6:20side you want to keep feeling as though
180. 6:22you're lengthening the spine as you
181. 6:24rotate in both directions
182. 6:26aiming for length on both sides of the
183. 6:28back
184. 6:30and then press into the hand to return
185. 6:31to the center
186. 6:33last time
187. 6:35dropping that elbow
188. 6:37breathing into the spaces in the spine
189. 6:40and then return to the center
190. 6:44so two simple exercises that can help to
191. 6:47mobilize those stuck places in the spine
192. 6:50i hope you find that helpful and have a
193. 6:52lovely day