Lower Back!

Hey All- We've been working on lower back this week. I think most everyone understands water out the front (anterior pelvic tilt) and water out the back (posterior pelvic tilt). I love the illustration of this in the seated position. It's very easy to dump water out the back in the seated position- (see previous lower back post).
We tend to spend a disproportionate amout of time in a posterior pelvic tilt- from sitting at our desks, in our cars, on our soft cushy couches, so in class this week we are spending a lot of time in the anterior (water out the front) position.

A reminder: If your back is stiff following class (or any time really) , please use child's pose to relax those muscles.

Why does it all matter?
Pilates gets our bones working in a more neutral position and with a better coordinated sequence of muscular activation. This relieves some of the mechanical stress on our cartilage by encouraging muscular support of our spines, taking away some of the gravitational "squishing." Any kind of uneven pressure, even down, on the "Teflon" coated bone-to-bone surfaces can cause localized osteo (wear and tear) arthritis.


Many of you have cartilage damage; arthritis, stenosis, disk degeneration and/or compression- and others of us still may develop these limitations. Pilates can help us to avoid arthritis or slow its progression by increasing and/or maintaining range of motion in our joints. Please be aware of your limitations- work to your ability- and maybe even check in with your physician.


More on Arthritis soon...