Crab as prep for Shoulder Bridge
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.
Cornu Neck
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.
Moving away from center
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.
Neck Pull hands touching head or not?
Here is a video that comes from the question of making contact hands to head in doing the Neck Pull and related exercises. The idea is the framework for the discussion. You could always pick a different framework but not one that comes closer to the original method. And the framework is just the basis of the discussion, it gives perspective to different ways of doing things and how they relate.
Up Stretch on the Reformer
for me, the Up Stretch is one of the hardest to do, and certainly for me, hardest to teach.
I just added a video of someone new learning the Up Stretch.
Notice how my foot on the reformer carriage controls when the client can open it.
What would be the effect of setting the foot bar on a lower setting?
Long Stretch on the Reformer
http://www.hermit.com/michaelmiller/courseware/reformer/ref118.htm
when you look at the fourth image in the stills you see a line in the back.
New menu options show performance and instruction of the Long Stretch. The distinction between performance and instruction: performance has no instruction.
There is a lot of information in the eye test.
My main question after watching it several times is whether or not to have made correction at all. It was very good to start with, I could have said nothing, but the session was one of corrections and cuing. So given that, I went for a better sense of tension between the ears and neck, and then shoulders to hips.
My cuing gets bad. Bad. Too much, too quick...don't do that.
My willingness to move on to the next exercise is a good example. Remember, flow to get fusion.
Her unwillingness to move on, is an example of a good student, knowing there is a feeling to be had and not wanting to move on without having some connection to it.
My tactile cuing was the right hand drawing the tension of the rib cage through the body into more tension of tuck in the hips, which is what my left hand was guiding from the sacrum.
The Eye Test is: could you see a difference in the first couple repetitions, to the last couple repetitions, alignment being the primary focus?
The idea of Michael Miller Pilates give you the confidence
to teach
what matters for me
the depth of the clarity you have of the idea
because the idea is something you can understand that is really clear
and you can take a lot of questions, and teach a lot of different bodies, with the confidence the idea gives you.
Michael says this in a video clip subscribers can view here.
Shoulder bridge (further away from center)
(The extender straps adjust where the springs support the body. In this case they are longer so the springs don't get too supportive too soon. The springs have to support the body when it is (much) further away from center.)
These exercises in this order work on the same movement ability in progressive steps
Tower (ridgid support)
Shoulder bridge (normal gravity)
Semicircle (sub-level, further away from center)
Long spine (further away from center, support from above)
These exercises are the same exercise at different levels of support and distance from center.
These exercises refine and challenge control of eccentric tension between ears and shoulders.
Shoulder bridge (below the mat)
In the Semicircle you roll down lower than the level of your shoulders. Engage Cornu tension between ears and shoulders, and pull the awning of the rib cage through a deeper range of motion.
If this is more range, could further away from center be next? What exercise on what piece of equipment? Why?
Shoulder bridge
The Shoulder Bridge is about reaching out through the top of your head and while you go rolling down through your sping towards your hips in a decompressive manner.
Being able to visualize Cornu (the Michael Miller Trademark) helps find the right balance between release and tension.
A new video including tactile cueing is on the Shoulder bridge exercise page.
