Pilates Practitioner 101: Spring Ahead for Weeks 18-21

Last month, I’ve passed on going to my Monday Pilates class at the gym, due to cold freezing weather and tons of pouring snow. But that didn’t deter me from doing my Pilates home practice. Although I didn’t do any On Demand video watching, since I was pretty much busy, I stayed true to the word and continued to do Pilates practice. It really did warm me up last month. I’ve finished the About.com Total Full Body Workout and ventured on my home. I did take a quick break from it, since I had fatigue and a nasty cold, before I created my own workouts to do, three times a week, around the same time period. It took me about fifteen minutes to do it in one session. (And when I returned back to class this week, I’ve changed the days and altered the times to do my routines.)

For the past two weeks, here’s how I created my own routines and modified it for my own needs. I zoned it in the core and back for the focus area. If you don’t have Pilates equipment like I do, you can modify the exercise or the amount of rep you do per exercise by going up or down a number. Feel free to use mine as a template to borrow or create. I’ve even added a new Pilates exercise to last week’s exercise to give it a try to see how it feels.

Workout #1: I did 5 Supported Half Roll-Up and 5 Supported Roll Back to warm-up my routine. I followed it up with 1 cycle of the 100, 6 Chest Lifts, 6 Criss-Crosses, 6 Single Leg Stretches, 5 circles per leg for the One Leg Circle (both ways), 5 Open Leg Balances, 3 Swan Preps, and 5 Double Leg Lower Lifts. To slow down, I did 3 reps for the Saw, and 3 times both sides for the Side Stretch and Mermaid Stretches.

Workout #2: I warmed-up with the 5 Pelvic Curls, 6 High Clams and 1 Wall Roll Dow. Then I followed it up one I cycle of the 100 with lowered legs, 5 Roll-Ups, 5 Corkscrews per leg arc (both ways), 6 Single Straight Leg Stretches, 5 Teasers with One Leg (both sides), 4 Rolling Like a Balls, 3 Swan Preps with Neck Rolls,and 2 Planks. Then I slowed down with 3 Darts, 6 Single Leg Kicks {new exercise}, 10 Heel Beats per 2 sessions, and 1 Spine Stretch.

Notice how I modified the 100 and the Swan Prep with giving the exercise a twist for any level.

Yesterday I went back to class. My Pilates instructor was glad that I was back. But she knew I walked to the gym for practice, and knew the weather would hinder my chance of coming to class, along with walking to the sidewalk/roads, too. Once again, we were handed the exercise rings for that session. We warmed up with the stretches and did the 100 in various modified ways: table top, pointed legs, in between, with the ring and so on. I only do the 100 in my own sessions once a day. We also did the criss-cross, double leg circle, double leg stretch, and other exercises with the ring. Then we had the ring between our knees and stretched our legs with opposite hands with the ring, too. Once again, we did some stretches on our back, like the swimming inversion exercise I’m still having trouble with, even with inhaling and exhaling. To slow down our routines, we did the side-sashays, bicycle, reverse bicycle for both sides, cat-cow, plank and side plank, and the mermaid stretch.

As for Hydro Pilates, I hope to start class, next week, or in two weeks, depending on the weather in the morning. If so, I’ll be adding that to my Pilates hubs, including my next hub in two weeks.

On much happier news, I had my six-month follow-up visit with my Neurologist, three weeks ago. All around good news for me. My back pain have decreased and had been minimal. My last round of X-rays showed no signs of Scoliosis from my past and looks good. Overall, that means for me, no more visit at my neurologist’s office, no more X-rays, and hopefully no more flare-up and reoccurrences of back pain. With my clean bill of health, as long as I stay active with Pilates (and maybe even with Hydro-Pilates) and Swimming, no more back pain for me.