Pilates Equipment: How to Use What You Got

Written on December 26, 2023 - 11:03 pm | by admin

Did you get something Pilates for Christmas? An exercise ball, resistance band, or Pilates ring for example? If you did, you might be wondering, what’s the official Pilates thing to do with this?

Before I point you in the direction of exercise instructions, I’d like to offer a suggestion:

Play. Get to know the equipment a little bit before you get serious with exercises. If you do, it will be easier to following instructions because you will have worked out the first bits of how the thing works. Also, your exercises will be more effective if you experiment with the potentials different pieces of equipment offer in terms of resistance or stability challenges.

If you got a band, stretch it all different ways — overhead, with it under a foot, on the diagonal, etc…. Find out how it feels to your muscles to stretch it as far as you can (reasonably). How about if you resist as you release it? What if you double it? Then move on to resistance band exercises.

If you got an exercise ball, let’s face it, you got a toy! Before you start following directions for what to do with the ball, just roll around and find out how it moves, and how it feels to have your body on it, or under it. What if you hold it between your hands and raise it up? What if you lie on the floor, put it between your ankles and push the exercise ball up toward the ceiling? — stuff like that. Then, move on to exercise ball exercises.

Finally, the Pilates ring. Chances are when you got it, you, or some iron pumping type, picked it up and pushed the sides together as hard as you could. Finding it not too hard, the ring was dismissed as girls stuff. Well, guess what? Pushing the sides together as hard as you can is pretty far from the point of this equipment. If you do choose to do that you have to be able to control the release just as easily as you did the contraction. But anyway, you have to get that first, I can crush this thing out of the way. Then move on to Pilates ring exercise instructions.

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