The mistake in rowings is to initiate from the shoulders instead of from the hips.
Subscribers can see the difference between the incorrect way to initiate versus the correct what to initiate here: http://www.hermit.com/michaelmiller/courseware/reformer/video/rowing1initation.wmv
To be a subscriber go here:
https://mmm1122.verio-web.com/hermi4/ampro/amform.htm
To order the entire session go here:
http://www.hermit.com/comfiles/pages/pages/109.shtml
Here's a before video clip of footwork:
http://www.hermit.com/michaelmiller/annapolis/cameronr104.wmv
Here's an after video clip of footwork:
http://www.hermit.com/michaelmiller/annapolis/cameronr106.wmv
Here's what the instructor did to improve the movement:
http://www.hermit.com/michaelmiller/courseware/reformer/video/cameronr105.wmv
To be a subscriber go here:
https://mmm1122.verio-web.com/hermi4/ampro/amform.htm
To order the entire session, a great session because of the performance and the teaching demonstrated:
http://www.hermit.com/comfiles/pages/pages/109.shtml
"be sure NEVER TO REPEAT THE SELECTED EXERCISE(S) MORE THAN THE PRESCRIBED NUMBER OF TIMES since more harm will result than good by your unwittingly or intentionally disregarding this most important advice and direction. Why? Because this infraction creates muscular fatigue--poison. There is really no need for tired muscles." Return to Life Through Contrology
This has to be one of the major faults of pilates mat presentation today. Aerobics instructors doing reps as endurance tests, building poison because they don't know any better.
An eye test is where you look at two pictures and see if you can tell a difference. If you were the teacher, what would you que towards?
For free, see the photos here.
I attended a mat class where a lovely woman was obviously a yoga teacher trying to teach pilates.
If she were teaching pilates it would not have been obvious that she had a yoga background.
Subscribers can learn more about the key issue here.
If you are teaching a mat,
allow someone to come to the mat and dissappear into the group.
Pointing them out, talking to them, trying to have a discussion with them during the class at the expense of the other participants is not good, when all they want to do is come to a mat and reach for the group cueing and be left alone.
I took a mat class recently, where after Roll Up, we did Leg Circles, and then Roll Over. I felt that the absence of getting to do the Roll Over before Leg Circles left my shoulders unprepared to hold stable for the Leg Circles.
The order matters, you don't have to follow it, but it exists for a reason. When you don't follow the order, you ought to have a reason.
I took a class from Jan Henson recently who liked to point out that when you are doing the Crab on your shoulders with your legs over your head it preps you for doing the Balance Control.
refers to drawing tension between the axis that runs through the ears and the axis that runs through the shoulders. By engaging in tension in this way you get expansion, sensational alignment, and fluorescence.
Subscribers can see a video here.
On the Reformer:
In the Coordination, hips and shoulders are contact points, and the pattern is in planes.
In the Backstroke, hips and shoulders are contact points, and the pattern is in circles.
In the Teaser, only the hips are a contact point.
In the Horseback, the contact point moves away from the hips to the inner thighs.
On the mat:
In the Leg Circles, the shoulders and hips are anchored.
In the Corkscrew, only the shoulders stay anchored.
In the Hip Circles, only the hips stay anchored.
The idea of pilates is: uniform eccentric loading through progressive patterns of movement.
In these two sequences, you see how loading is accomplished by moving further away from center by decreasing contact points.
