This is for your hamstring or back of your leg.  Sitting on your chair stretch one leg in front of you and place your heel on the floor.  Keep your knee straight and gently lean forward.  Try to flatten the upper back and gently arch the lower back to increase the stretch.  Be careful doing this – be gentle since you are not warmed up.  This is only to release tension from sitting!

This is for wrist extension and releasing tension from typing.  Start with arms low to your sides then extend wrists like you are pressing the heel of your hand toward the floor.  Slowly start to raise arms only to a somewhat comfortable height.  (No pain – just stretch).  Keep your shoulders down, elbows long, and fingers open.

This is a neck and upper shoulder stretch.  Grab the seat of the chair with one hand and lean away.  Keep your shoulder down and neck long.  Let gravity and your body weight do all the work – you just lean and get the benefit!

If you like blogs like this – let me know – I can put  a lot more basic exercises in here for you!
Please remember, you are taking your health into your own hands when you participate in exercise programs.  Before doing these stretches or any exercise, check with your doctor to make sure the movements, exercises or stretches are appropriate for you.  These exercises are not intended to diagnose or cure any ailment other than the cubicle blahs.

But when I really think about my time, I go home exhausted after working and veg out in front of the boob tube.  Not a great way to make a mark in this life.  I can see it now, my epitaph will read – Melissa Francis – owner of Intelligent Exercise Pilates and Fitness Studio made watching evening TV an art form! 

You might think I’m being a little harsh but maybe you can relate to this?  You work really hard both mentally and physically during the day and the last thing you want to do is use your brain or body when you get home.  The only thing I want to do is eat, and ….well that’s pretty much it.

So I’ve been contemplating what is going to get me motivated to unleash my creative side.  Less work?  Not likely in this economic stratosphere.  So that leaves me to less TV.  And then I start to panic.  But what will I do if I can’t watch TV while I eat?  How will I relax after work?  I can’t turn to alcohol!!  How will I turn my brain off and refocus, what will I actually do if there is no TV…I can feel the panic rise up in my stomach and I wonder if I’ll be able to sleep.  Yep – I realize as I write this, I’ve got it bad.

I slow down for a moment and think about what kind of person I actually want to be?  How do I want others to see me?  What do I want to leave in this world?  What truly makes me happy?  Big questions with many different answers. And this is just trying to make a resolution.

I definitely don’t want to be a middle aged- brain dead- TV watching- slug.  So…baby steps.  This blog is an attempt to get me into writing again.  My goal today was to write something – ANYthing to break the chain.  So I’ve accomplished my mission – writing.  And I am promising myself not to turn on the TV AT ALL tonight.  Just one night.  I’ll report back tomorrow! (I’m freaking out because I don’t even have a good book to read…)

OK – so where does this all fit in to the “getting in shape” aspect.  What does “getting in shape” mean to you?  Is it, lose weight, or feel better, or tone my abs and arms, or relieve low back pain, or get your annual physical and go to the dentist, or have more fun, or go jogging, or reduce your stress level, or eat better, or start a diet? You know what I mean…..  This statement is complex and different for everyone. 

Just like my one day goal writing something and not turning on the TV – start with baby steps. Step one:  Decide definitively what “getting in shape” means to you.  Step two: make ONE call to ONE place that seems to do what you need or have what you’re looking for.  Then congratulate yourself for taking the first step. You’ll find yourself after just these two steps getting  a little more motivated.  Step three: call at least two more places for information.  Step four: pick one of the three places and go to check it out – the atmosphere, the quality, do they really fit your needs?  Can you picture yourself continuing to go to this place day after day or week after week if that’s what your goal requires?   

Get the picture?  Even if I do…accidentally…. turn on the TV I know that I did take one little step and that was to write something today.  So say you are going to start a diet.  Which diet is it?  Does it fit your lifestyle?  What kind of changes will it bring to your every day life?  Grocery shopping? cooking time?  All these questions with one little resolution.  Start with baby steps – maybe cut out the pop or late night snack while you’re researching the diet that will work for you.  Or better yet – replace that late night snack with something for breakfast if you are breakfast skipper.  Then congratulate yourself for your one step that you can manage and stick with.

I know, I know…really I know – how hard it is to make change (I’m still inwardly obsessed about the TV right now).  But if you break it all down to little teeny weeny things you can do every day…you’ll be amazed at the outcome. 

I already feel better from writing!

So the first question that needs to be answered is, “Can Pilates help you lose weight”?  Despite what the advertisements say – the answer is – it’s neither the best nor the most efficient exercise method to help you if this is all you do.  However, don’t be too discouraged to try it; there are some huge benefits of doing Pilates while you’re on your journey. 

There are three components to weight loss.  Diet (not meaning starve yourself – but a sensible diet with sensible portions), Cardio or aerobic exercise and resistance training.  Pilates is the resistance training piece of the puzzle.  It helps to build long lean muscle mass and balance your skeleton (among its many benefits.)  Building muscle mass will help you to metabolize food more quickly.  So in this sense – better muscle mass equals better metabolism equals easier to lose weight than if you did nothing.  Always remember – diet and cardio are the other keys to weight loss. 

Pilates can also help with body image or body awareness.  Pilates is a mind-body exercise method.  If done with this focus – you literally get inside your body to help you feel what’s going on more deeply.  You use the mind body connection to feel better physically, increase focus, and improve sleep quality.  Pilates is known to give people an increased feeling of overall well being.  My amazing cousin pointed out that Pilates would have been great before and after she went through gastric bypass surgery.  She said that the ability to reconnect with her body would have been a huge help rather than just jumping on a treadmill for the required “prescription” of cardio exercise.  Pilates also is good for improving proprioception, meaning knowing how your body moves in its own space.

So if you are trying to lose weight…remember, sensible healthy diet, cardio for fat burning, resistance training for building muscle mass and metabolism efficiency and specifically PILATES for the double benefit of mind-body awareness and resistance training simultaneously.

So I just wanted to say thanks to all my amazing clients for what they share with me.

First – a test (no pressure)….do you have, or have you ever held stress or tension on the top of the shoulders?

AH HA!  I bet about 90% of readers would answer yes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about shoulder girdles these past couple weeks. How important and in a sense, fragile, our shoulders are.  We have these long arm bones (humorous) attached by various muscles and tendons to our torso. They lift and lower, roll forward and back, rotate, and circumduct. With all that movement it’s no wonder a lot of stuff happens in and to our shoulders.  Shoulders are affected by posture, stress, overuse, and anatomy.

When I studied aerospace engineering, one of the concepts that sticks with me and definitely applies to our bodies is this…when something is more agile and mobile – the less stable it is.  When something has less movement – it tends to be more stable.  Think of the difference between a jet fighter (agile and therefore unstable) vs. a commercial aircraft not a lot of movement, slower, more stable).  Of in terms of bodies – shoulder joints (more mobile with more range of motion) vs. our elbow (hinge joint, only one plane of movement).

The past week I took a Mat class with one of my instructors and while I was engaging my shoulders down my back for stability I felt my abs engage more deeply.  It immediately made me think about all the muscles that attach arms to shoulders to torso and more definitively to our abdominal wrap or powerhouse.  We have muscles called the serratus anterior that go from the tips of the shoulder blades around our ribs and weave into the obliques.

These serratus muscles are important muscles in the powerhouse or abdominal wrap. Engagement of these along with the bigger muscles in our backs (mid to lower trapezius and latissimus) assures that your shoulders are stable, supported and your neck is elongated. Many times our shoulders get tense because we are subconsciously lifting them (shortening our necks and unstable through our core) – while we do Pilates classes, type, drive, talk on the phone and many other daily activities.

Next time you feel tension in your shoulders, notice if you are holding your shoulders higher than normal. Try lifting them and lowering with a drop a couple times. Do some shoulder circles forward, up, back, and down. Press your shoulders down gently, feel the engagement under your arms, in your mid back. See if you can feel the wrapping sensation from the back to the front by the ribcage. Try to sit up taller and take some deep breaths. Think of your shoulders resting on top of your first ribs in the front and back like a ball in a cup. Do they feel more relaxed?

When you are in you Pilates class next time – try a little extra shoulder engagement during hundreds or any other exercise where you are flexed forward and notice that you will feel more abs AND less neck tension.

What do shoulders have to do with it? A lot!

Some experiences from the past.

When I was 4 or 5 years old I had another of many asthma attacks.  My mom told me to go up to my room and relax.  I was at first extremely upset to say the least that I was shunned when I couldn’t breathe.  But I did as I was told.  I was up in my room and I started to calm down and I realized that I was actually feeling better and able to breathe easier.  It was the first of many times I relearned what our minds and bodies are capable of doing.  I outgrew asthma at 6 years old and haven’t had another attack since.  I have never forgotten what it was like to feel suffocated.

When I was 8 or 9 I realized that a large gap between the two front teeth was a prominent feature on my dad’s side of the family – which I inherited.  I knew our family didn’t have the money for braces.  I also knew that my friends tightened their braces once a week or so.  I decided I was going to fix my teeth myself and I stood in front of the mirror every day pressing my two front teeth together until I could feel them start to shift.  I don’t know the duration of days, months or even years of pressing my teeth together, but my teeth are still straight today.

I started to realize that our minds have a powerful effect on our bodies (even at that young age).   This is a realization I relearn a lot with my own body but also with my clients.

Through most of my adult years I worked in the automotive industry as an engineer and project manager traveling and working at a desk in a very high stress environment.  I suffered from: migraine headaches induced from stress and/or exercise (if you can believe it).  I have allergies.  I used to throw my neck and back out regularly (every 3 months or so).  I have acne, a hamstring pull which I have to be very careful not to re-injure, PMS, a minor case of scoliosis, whiplash from a car accident.  I injured my shoulder in a dance performance. I have very flat feet, bow legs, and overly tight psoas muscles which act up when I am over working or not stretching enough.  Just think of the feeling of vice grips pulling your ribs to your hips and that will pretty much describe the feeling I get.  These are just a few of the “body issues” that I experience.  And this is not all – just a quick summary.

Back to today…

What the heck do all my physical problems have to do with anything?  I bet every single person could name a million things wrong with them and the maladies would be different on different days.  And of course this doesn’t even get to family history!  Even people who are “in shape” have physical issues.  Movie stars and astronauts, line workers and professional athletes all have physical maladies.  Even the people who do nothing feel something!  These human bodies are not and never will be perfect.

A very wise and dear friend of mine said just last week, “You are not your body”.  “Your body is a vehicle with which you ride through this crazy drama called, “life”. 

Very wise indeed.  Our physical appearance is such a minor aspect of our existence. Our bodies are our vehicles but so many of us rarely even maintain them as we would our everyday transportation.  If you get regularly scheduled oil changes – do you do the same thing for your body?  Do you drink enough water for the day to keep you hydrated?  Do you get your tires rotated regularly so the car stays in balance and stable?  Pilates is a good comparison in this case – balancing your body to keep the rest of you stable so nothing else gets out of whack. 

I opened my Pilates studio so that everyone could experience living in their own bodies; fine tuning their own vehicle to the best it can be; being aware that their minds are able to accomplish amazing things physically.  When you are in the best physical shape you can be – when your mind is aware of what is happening to you physically there are so many benefits which include to name a few:

Improved overall health

Decreased stress

Better sleep

Better sex

A more focused and active mind

Better overall life balance.

All these to me make up a huge part of complete happiness.

This doesn’t even include the blatant advantages – stronger core, more toned physique, more flexibility, better range of motion, increased metabolism.

I have seen some amazing things teaching clients.  A woman with a rod in her spine can actually articulate.  People in constant pain now are able to live pain free.  People have improved their golf swing. They can ride a bike now, or play an instrument.  They can actually sit down for hours without pain.  They are more flexible.  They are stronger.  They survived cancer.  Their running stride is better and without shoulder pain.  They can lift their baby and not be sore the next day.  They are able to climb stairs with a laundry basket in tow. They can check their blind spot without rotating their entire body.  Some of these may be small but make a huge difference in our ability to age with grace, confidence and activity!!!  But mostly I have seen the difference in myself and wanted to share this vigor and health with as many people as I could.  The differences in me include: very rarely do I get migraines when I suffered from at least 2 / month.  My allergies have subsided.  I can actually snuggle with our cat.  I haven’t had the flu for at least 4 years.  I haven’t thrown my neck or back out for at least 4 years. I am more balanced strength-wise instead of being lopsided from scoliosis. PMS symptoms are nearly gone. My posture is better. I have actually grown ½ inch since I started this business.  My shoulder and hamstring are strong and more flexible. I am a better, more fluid and free dancer because I am more confident in my body and its movement.

I don’t claim that Pilates is the absolute cure for all ailments.  But I will adamantly exclaim that it and all physical activity are huge pieces to the health and aging puzzle.  I’ve seen the proof in myself and over and over in my clients.

My clients don’t have my body – but their own bodies are working better than they have in years.  They have beautiful upright but relaxed postures, new length and energy in their bodies.  Their confidence is increased. Their lives are better.

So what I hope people ask for when they call or email is – the Pilates body:  a body that is strong, sleek, flexible, supple, fine tuned, healthy, and most importantly, aware.