March 2022 – Pilates With Ayla

– March 2022 –

So, March has been a relatively quite month for Pilates with Ayla. Lots of enjoyable weekly classes but also lots of disruption due to COVID isolations. Nevertheless, progress is still being made and milestone are still happening.

Starting from April I will be trialling a new class time at Boulder Shack climbing gym, Mondays 11:45am-12:15pm, bookable through their website, not myself.

Fingers crossed, soon, I will be supporting Board in the City with a new project to support 12 individuals who have mental health needs, to see if a holistic approach can help them rebuild their mental health. So, watch this space for updates on this.

Saturday 19th March was my first FULLY MALE class, teaching at Boulder Shack. This may not seem like a big deal, and I usually have a good mix of male and female clients but, considering Pilates was created by a man, there is a widespread, modern misconception that “Pilates is for girls”. So having a full class of 8 men just made me soooo elated! I had repeat customers and new faces which just made the whole thing even more exciting!

Scissors

Full Scissors is quite a tricky advanced move but luckily there are many ways to make this move accessible and still have a good work out for your hip mobility and hip flexor and abdominal strength.

Breathing:
-Breath in to prepare, breath out as your leg moves away from the body, breath in as your leg returns, then repeat with the movement.

Step 1

Set up

– Lay on your back, knees and feet hip width apart.
– Have a small gap under your lower back with ribs touching the ground.
– Lift your head and shoulders up and reach fingers towards your feet.
– As you exhale raise one leg into a tabletop position.

Step 2

Toe dip

– Pivoting from the hip, keep your knee bent and lower your toe to the floor.
– Return your leg to the start position.

– Repeat this leg action 6-8 times on each leg.

Challenge 1

Try hovering a leg

– You can repate this toe dipping action just the same as above while adding in a leg hover with the stationary leg.

– Hovering the second leg will had more work to your abdominals.

Note: as you raise the second leg try to push your back ribs into the ground and slightly close the gap under your lower back to portect it.

Challenge 2

Coordination

– Why not try having both legs moving at the same time.
– Dip one toe to the floor while the other leg gets closer to your body.
– Fluidly swap legs.

-Repeat 6-8 times.

Note: keep your ribs low and your lower back close to neutral. Enusre your abdominals are pulling towards your spine.

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