I’ve also been getting questions from both previous participants and those who haven’t taken a Pilates challenge. The two biggest questions have been, “When is the next challenge?” and “Could we do something like that more often?”

Sooooo…

I’ve been kicking around the idea of offering a 3-week Mini-Challenge to help you get ready for summer. This would be half the time commitment of the regular challenge, but would still create a major goal and a huge opportunity to make some big changes in your body in just 3 weeks.

But I have a question for you…

First, have a look at the 2 possible packages we’ve put together below.

Then answer the question that pops up on this page (below, right).

Lastly, if you have questions about it, or just want to comment or make suggestions, please add a comment to this post and let’s talk about it.

Here are the two possible packages in a nutshell:

Pilates Mini-Challenge

Dates: April 23rd – May 13th

Mini-Challenge with Private Sessions: $450

Includes:

• 6 private sessions
• 6 mat classes (includes option to attend the new Ball class)
• 9 cardio sessions

Mini-Challenge with Classes $216

Includes:

• 6 mat classes
• 6 reformer classes (includes option to attend new Monkey Gym classes)
• 9 cardio sessions

Both packages include daily emails and a private Facebook group just for our Mini-Challenge.

I’m still in the planning stages with this idea so I really need to hear from you if you think you’d be at all interested.

If you want this to happen, it’s really important that you reply quickly and let me know. If there’s enough interest in it, I would definitely love to make it happen.

Thanks so much, have a fantastic week and see you in the studio!

Sydney

P.S We are also launching 4 new classes this month—2 Monkey Gym classes, Reformer Stretch and a Ball Class! Stay tuned for more details.

We originally started with the feet and made our way up the spine. Now it’s time to take a look at the head, neck and shoulders and then put it all together.

In my first career I was a hairstylist. Four years ago, after doing hair full time for 11 years and part time for 3 years, I finally retired my scissors for good. Over the course of my hairstyling career I developed a lot of pain in my body, mainly on the right side of my neck and my right shoulder. It was actually because of this pain that I found Pilates and I’m eternally grateful for that.

If I’d known about and used the first six exercises I’ve already shared, my body probably would have handled the stress of doing hair much better. But there’s SO much more to this than just handling the stress! We can actually improve things over time when we practice all these exercises.

If I’d had the knowledge of these next three exercises I know could have actually avoided the damage I did to myself completely. That’s a big deal and I want to share it with you so you can avoid the mistakes I made.

7. Relax The Shoulders

Ever notice how helpful the muscles in the neck and shoulders like to be? Especially in situations where you don’t need extra help like driving, working on the computer, talking on the phone, or in a Pilates session. You don’t intend to, but they always seem to tense up and creep toward your ears when you’re not noticing. I find mine in particular like to help when I’m practicing exercise #5.

When doing an activity that requires holding the arms up, like driving, or working on the computer, the upper trapezius muscles may tend to do more work than necessary. In my own body, my upper traps helped out way too much when I would cut and blow dry hair.

It’s not only tiring, but over time it creates chronic pain in the arms and shoulders and can also lead to headaches.

There are a variety of exercises and stretches that help correct this, but the first step in carrying less tension in the shoulders and neck is awareness.

Once you begin to catch yourself in the act of tensing the shoulders, you’ll more easily be able to relax them.

Next time you find your shoulders unnecessarily tense, take a deep breath and as you exhale, consciously relax them. Next, try lifting the shoulders up towards your ears, roll them back and feel the shoulder blades moving towards one another. Feel the chest open in this position.

Then draw the shoulder blades down the back and feel the shoulder blades spreading apart, feeling now as though you are closing the front of the chest. Pause, and feel the stretch between the shoulder blades and then draw the shoulders up towards the ears again.

Repeat two more times in this direction and repeat for three circles in the opposite direction. Go slowly, breathe and really exaggerate the movement.

8. Where Is Your Head In Space?

This is a biggie for me and with the amount of time a lot of people spend on the computer, riding in a car, or using a smartphone, I think it’s a biggie for most of us.

Take a second right now and notice how your posture is as you read this. Are you leaning forward to bring your head closer to the screen to read the text? Chances are high that you are. This is the way many of us spend large portions of our day.

Over time, holding the head forward in this manner for long periods, day after day, will alter the natural curve in the neck called the cervical curve. Instead of the weight of the head (which is between 8 –12 lbs) resting on the top of the spine and supported by the sacrum below, this weight ends up out in front of the spine. This triples the weight on the sacrum and puts a lot of strain not just on the neck, but also on the spine.

The muscles in the upper back get overstretched in an effort to support the neck and head. And even though they are overstretched, they get really tight. When this happens to a muscle it’s called “locked long” and it really hurts.

Once the muscles have locked in this holding pattern with the head out in front of the body, it takes time to retrain and encourage the muscles to go back into a more natural position.

However, here again, awareness is the first giant step to correcting this pattern.

To check for your own head and neck alignment, stand up against a wall with the feet a few inches from the base board. Ideally you want to feel your sacrum, base of the ribcage and the back of the head all against the wall.

If you have difficulty bringing the back of the head to the wall, then you can tell you have some forward-head-posture-alignment issues. The exercise below will get you started on the road back towards proper head and neck alignment.

1. Sit down and feel your bottom bones grounded beneath you. Take a moment to lengthen your spine. Imagine pressing the ceiling away from you with the top of your head.
2. Place one hand on the back of your head, above your occipital bone.
3. Gently press your head against your hand. You will feel your skull slide back a little bit, but don’t tuck your chin in.
4. Hold for 5–10 seconds and release.
5. Repeat, pressing the head against the hand. This time while you are pressing back, gently press your head up as well. Hold for 5 – 10 seconds.

The six exercises discussed in the first 2 articles will help make returning to proper neck and head alignment easier.

Other things you can do:

• When reading, align your reading material as close to eye level as possible.

• Also when reading, or driving, notice if you are leaning your head forward in an effort to see where you are going, or what you are reading. If so, slide your head back without tucking the chin.

• When texting, lift your phone up closer to eye level. It may sound silly, but with the amount of time people spend texting, this excessive forward tilt of the head is going to alter the curve of the spine and eventually it’s going to hurt.

9. Putting It All Together and Practicing Patience

Developing new patterns in the body can feel really unnatural at first and takes time. Pick one foundational exercise to focus on each day and practice it three times, once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening.

As you begin to feel confident with how a specific exercise feels in your body, add another one to your practice. Continue to add each exercise. As time goes on, you’ll find that the feeling of new, more ideal alignment in the body feels more natural.

It’s this incorporation of these fundamental ideas into your daily life that creates the biggest changes. Ultimately, it’s all about awareness, specifically body awareness.

These exercises are the tip of the alignment iceberg and are designed to help you begin to discover patterns in your own body and create a healthy foundation that you can rely on for any physical activity you may ever do.

I hope to hear that you tried one or all of these exercises and noticed some changes in your body. And of course, we have many more great techniques that build upon these foundational exercises at Pilates Tonic so if you have specific issues that need a customized regimen, just let us know and we’ll be glad to help you create a specific practice designed just for your body.

If you missed the first two articles, make sure you read and follow those recommendations to complete your healthy foundation:

9 Exercises Everyone Should Be Doing — Part 1

9 Exercises Everyone Should Be Doing — Part 2

If you have any questions about the exercises discussed here, or have experiences you’d like to share, please feel free to post in the comments below.

See you in the studio!

Sydney

Previously, we discussed softening the knees, awareness of where the weight is distributed through the feet and how to bookmark these feelings in the body. (Keep an eye out for further info on the ankles, feet and knees—I learned so much more from the workshop I just attended and can’t wait to share it with you! )

Now we’ll move upwards from the foundation to the midsection of the body for these next three foundational exercises.

4. The Diaphragm is a Core Muscle Too

I’ve always known that learning to breathe correctly was important, but I never realized the impact breathing has on posture and the many important roles the diaphragm plays in maintaining structural body health.

The diaphragm is your breathing muscle. It’s a dome shaped muscle (similar to a jellyfish in shape) that forms the floor of your thorax. It has deep muscle fibers that reach out and insert into the tips of the 11th and 12th ribs and has tendon-like extensions into the vertebral bodies. It also has visceral relationships with the lungs, heart, pulmonary system, lymphatic system, iliopsoas, sacrum and spine. Because of these relationships, the diaphragm acts as a massage therapist to the internal organs and a chiropractor for your sacrum and spine. That’s a lot of responsibility for one muscle!

Good posture and a healthy, functioning body structure are the result of breathing properly and understanding how best to activate and monitor your diaphragm.

When we get stressed out, or develop a habit of breathing shallowly, or only into the chest, it has strong, negative impact throughout the entire body.

The exercise below is a great way to help you discover how efficiently you’re breathing. If you’re breathing inefficiently, this will help you fix it.

The Seated Breathing Wave

(Try this exercise seated, lying on your stomach and lying on your back.)

• Place the back of your hands on your low back.
• Take a breath in and feel your low back filling out into your hands.
• Exhale and feel the lower back move away from your hands.
• After taking a couple breaths in this manner, notice whether or not your breath has slowed down.
• Empty your lungs out on the next exhale, seeing if you can exhale a little past the point where you feel you’ve blown all the air out. This will give you room for more air on your next inhale.
• See of you can inhale to the count of 4, filling your lungs and letting the belly and low-back expand.
• Exhale slowly to at least the count of 4. Notice how the abdominal muscles will naturally draw back toward your spine without any effort.

5. Multifidus, The “Conductor” of the Core

The multifidi are the deepest muscles on the spine and when they engage, other core muscles (the transverse abdominals and pelvic floor) are also engaged automatically. Because of this co-contraction that happens when the multifidi engage, they act as a conductor for the other core musculature of the body. Stay with me, this is a big deal and really cool (and not just for anatomy geeks).

The feeling of the multifidus in the body can be such a subtle feeling at first that it may be difficult to sense at all. Using mental imagery and your breath are the best way to access this muscle group.

Although we use many different images to find the multifidus, I’d like to share one that tends to work well for a lot of folks.

• Start by sitting tall with the bottom bones evenly grounded on the floor. Then rock forward a tiny bit to the front side of your bottom bones.
• Imagine you are wearing a pair of sweat pants, but backwards with the drawstring in the back, right at the top your sacrum.
• Take a breath in and as you exhale, imagine gathering the drawstring to the center of your sacrum and then dragging it up one vertebra.
• You should get feeling of lift in your spine—try to maintain that feeling and begin to work your way up your spine. Inhale and as you exhale gather and lift the drawstring up another vertebra higher.
• Check to make sure that your glutes, thighs, hip crease, shoulders and neck stay relaxed. These are all bigger muscles that love to help out and steal the show. Don’t let them.

You may find that in certain areas of your back you can feel the sensation of the multifidus and in other areas you can’t. This is normal. As you practice this exercise, you will find the sensation of the multifidus gets stronger and easier to find.

6. Smile Across Your Hip Bones

While you were gathering and lifting the drawstring on your spine, did you feel anything going on in the front of the body, most importantly, deep in the low abdominals? The deepest abdominal muscle (the transverse abdominal) turns on when the multifidus is engaged in this manner.

The transverse abdominal (TA) is the deepest layer of the abdominal muscles. It is the body’s inner corset. It actually attaches to the fascia that attaches to your lumbar spine. When the TA engages, it flattens across the front of the body and creates a pull on the lumbar fascia which contributes to the stability of the lumbar spine.

The TA is responsible for creating the look of flat abdominals, as well as the hour glass shape so many of us like and are working to create.

The TA can also be a subtle muscle to find at first and the other abdominal muscles will try and disguise themselves as the TA. Here’s an exercise to locate and begin to strengthen the TA. You can do this lying on your back, sitting or standing; whichever is most comfortable for you.

• Find the front of your hip bones and slip the pads of your fingers right on the inside of each hip bone. Then slide your fingers about an inch towards the center.
• Now smile across your face and notice how the corners of your mouth draw up.
• Bring your awareness back down to your fingers on the inside of each hip bone. Locate your pubic bone and imagine a smile just beginning to form above that area.
• Take a breath in and as you exhale imagine the corners of the smile forming above your hip bones beginning to widen. Draw the corners of the smile up towards the fingers on the inside of each hip bone.
• The feeling you are looking for is one of widening, or spreading and drawing up. If you feel a bulge into your fingertips, that is your internal obliques and not the feeling you are looking for.

On a scale of 1–10, you want to engage the TA at about level 5. Once you’ve found your smile, see if you can maintain it. Take another breath in and as you exhale, feel the smile widen and draw in and up further. See how many breath cycles you can keep the smile going without feeling the internal obliques bulge into your fingertips.

The above exercises are vital to improving body function and gaining an important understanding of your body’s foundational mechanics. Having conscious control over these fundamental systems will open up a whole new world of improved physical health.

Connecting your conscious awareness with these core muscle systems will help you make huge positive advancements in everything you do, whether it’s taking a Pilates class, gardening, playing a sport, sitting at a desk, or cooking in the kitchen. These core muscles are the source of much of your basic stability; if muscles were runners, these would be your marathon runners.

If the body has gotten out of sync with these core muscle connections it will remember quickly. It just needs a gentle reminder.

Stay tuned for the 3rd article in this series when we continue to move on up the body to the head, neck and shoulders.

Yours in creating a new normal!

Sydney

With these next 3 posts, I’m going to share nine great Pilates tools that you can use anytime, anywhere and which will help you establish a solid and important foundation for moving through your everyday life, as well as your continued work in and outside the studio. These are not just for Pilates folks either. They’re more basic and foundational and I think they will help everyone who has a body.

Unconscious Patterns
First, let’s address the patterns that we are all prone to unconsciously adopting and how we can develop an awareness and keen sensitivity for our body’s state and position in space.

We’ve all developed patterns of movement and body alignment that aren’t ideal and which we’ve become accustomed to. In fact, these patterns feel normal and we rarely or never question or address them. When we introduce new alignment patterns to the body, it often feels “off”, crooked, or just plain wrong even though it’s a posture that is healthier for the body.

The first key to correcting these patterns is identifying them and feeling what the ideal alignment feels like. Once a pattern has been identified, it’s much easier to catch yourself in your daily life when you fall into it.

Each time you can recognize the moment you fall into an unhealthy pattern, you have the opportunity to correct it. The more often this happens, the more you’ll begin to strengthen your physical and mental memories of the ideal patterns of alignment. With consistent practice you’ll eventually have a brand new version of normal!

I’ve experienced firsthand the awkward feeling that comes with creating new patterns in the body. I also know the painful side effects from living a life with really poor posture.

But I also know what it feels like to radically change my posture and alignment habits and it feels really good. In fact, it’s better than good, it’s a whole new world!

While it’s taken me years to create my brand new version of normal, I’d like to help you shave off a little of the time it might otherwise take you to learn these things by sharing some of the tools I’ve found along the way; tools which have had the greatest impact on my Pilates practice and my life.

Here are the first 3 of 9 things you can do right now to incorporate Pilates into your life and begin to create a new, healthier version of normal for yourself.

Exercise 1: Soften The Knees.
It’s possible that because my own knees hyperextend (lock out or go backwards) I notice it more in others. I see it a lot. When the knees hyperextend, not only is it not good for the knees, but is also changes the alignment of the pelvis and spine.

Try this:
–Stand with the feet parallel to one another, hip socket distance apart with the weight distributed evenly under each foot. You can even pretend you have an independent bathroom scale under each foot and you are trying to make each scale register the same weight.

–For a moment, let the knees lock. Now soften both knees.

–One more time, let the knees lock. This time notice what happened to your pelvis when you locked your knees.

–Now, soften them again. Notice what happened to your pelvis.

You can see in the photos below how dramatically my posture changes when my knees aren’t soft.

If you’re used to feeling your knees hyperextend when you soften your knees, it’s probably going to feel really unnatural, as though your knees are completely bent. It takes some time to get used to the feeling of softer knees.

If you happen to have a leg length difference, like I do, this is the #1 thing you can do to help even out the difference and help to prevent negative side affects of the leg length difference in the body.

Exercise 2: Where Is the Weight In Your Feet?
Stand with the feet parallel to one another, hip socket distance apart, knees soft. Lift your toes off the floor and notice where you feel the weight distributed.

With the toes still lifted, imagine four corners on each foot. Feel weight behind the big toe knuckle. Feel weight behind your little toe knuckle. Feel weight on either side of each heel.

Maintaining weight on the four corners of each foot, relax the toes onto the floor. Did you lose a corner? If so, see if you can redistribute the weight to the corner you lost.

Often, it’s the little toe knuckle corner that gets lost. This is the corner I lose in my own body. Check out the photos below and see the difference in my ankles.

Because we get used to poor patterns in the feet and ankles (and modern shoes perpetuate the issue) this too can feel unnatural at first. This is a great exercise to practice in front of a mirror. That way, you can see for yourself how your ankles and feet are aligned.

You may feel as though you’re over exaggerating the weight to one side of your foot. Using the mirror will help you see for yourself the position is indeed in alignment and looks normal.

Now try to balance weight thru the 4 corners of each foot and relax your toes at the same time.

Exercise 3: Bookmark This Awareness
As you feel these new patterns you are creating in your legs, ankles and feet, “bookmark” how they feel. As you move through your day, you’ll begin to notice when you’re locking your knees, putting more weight into one leg or sinking into your arches.

When you catch yourself, remember the feeling of the new normal and go there. Hold yourself in the new normal for 10–30 seconds. Believe it or not, this counts as a strengthening exercise. When you begin doing this throughout the day, it all counts and all adds up quickly in the body.

I know it sounds so simple, possibly even too simple to be effective, but it really works. Awareness is at least 80% of what it takes to create new alignment. (Actually, I suspect it’s actually a much higher percentage than 80.)

It’s when these small changes begin to happen in your daily life that big changes start to occur. The beauty of it all is you can do this anywhere!

While I’ve grown leaps and bounds in creating new patterns in my own body, I’m still a constant work in progress and I have learned to love the process and the work.

In the next 2 posts we are going to work our way upwards, providing you with six more tools to help build a strong foundation for your body.

Have you had an a-ha moment of awareness of patterns in your body? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below and let’s talk about it.

Yours in creating a new normal,
Sydney

P.S Go ahead, give it a try right now. Stand up, soften your knees, find the four corners on each foot. How does that feel? Bookmark it. Your posture just got better! After adding the next six foundational tools, you’re probably going to get taller too!

I’ve been really busy getting things ready for the Pilates Challenge that starts on Monday the 9th.

In fact, I just finished putting together the video you see above and it answers many of the questions I’ve received about the Challenge and gives you a much better idea (I think!) of what to expect.

I really had a blast doing this video and I’m looking forward to doing more. If you have questions, or comments, I’d love to hear ‘em! Just enter comments below.

If you want to find out more about the Pilates Challenge or sign up, everything you need is on the Pilates Challenge information page…

See you in the studio!
Sydney

UPDATE: The Challenge is here! You can find out everything you need to know and register here:

http://www.pilatestonic.com/pilates-challenge-winter-2012/

Let us know if you have any questions at all…

One of our main goals with the Pilates Challenge is to help you feel what it’s like to consistently incorporate Pilates and effective stretching into your life. To really have the Pilates principles and benefits of effective stretching integrated into your life, 3 – 4 hours of Pilates and stretching every week is optimal.

The Pilates Challenge helps you achieve a minimum goal of 3 – 4 classes per week. Depending on the package you choose, you’ll receive enough private sessions and classes to use over the 6-week time frame to come in 3 – 4 times a week.

And let’s not forget about cardio. It’s an important component all of us need to include consistently in our lives. The Pilates Challenge inspires and motivates you to get 2 hours of cardio in a week. That’s just 20 minutes a day!

We offer outdoor cardio sessions at Pilates Tonic that are included in the Pilates Challenge packages. You may be thinking outdoor cardio sounds crazy in January/February, but last year it was one of the most loved things about the Challenge. Not to mention how good it is for the mind and body to get outside during the Winter months.

(On a side note, one of the winners of last year’s Challenge just completed her first 1/2 marathon. That’s 13.1 miles. I can’t wait to tell you her story!)

We offer cardio sessions that are all walking. We offer sessions that are walking and running and we also offer a cardio session that’s all running.

This year the Pilates Challenge is coming with some bonuses that we’ve never offered. I am beyond excited about them! But I can’t give you bonus details just yet.

However, I can share some of the package details with you…

This year there are 4 packages to choose from. We are offering our standard 3 and 4-hour Pilates Challenge Combo packages.

For the first time ever we are offering a package for those of you who are new to Pilates Tonic, or new to Pilates altogether.

We are also offering a package for people who aren’t new to Pilates Tonic, but new to reformer classes.

The Basic Packages

New Tonic Challenge ( For people new to Pilates or new to the studio)*
This package contains a Pilates 101 package (3 private sessions), the Reformer Prep Package (3 more private sessions to get you ready for reformer classes), reformer classes, mat classes and cardio.

New Reformer Challenge (For people new to reformer classes)*
This package contains the Reformer Prep Package (3 private sessions to get you ready for reformer classes), reformer classes, mat classes and cardio.

Three Hour Challenge
This package comes with a goal setting private session, mat classes, reformer classes and cardio.

Four Hour Challenge
This package comes with a goal setting private session, mat classes, reformer classes and cardio.

We are also in the process of making the class and cardio session schedule for the Pilates Challenge. If there is a class time, or day we don’t currently offer that you want, let me know. We add classes for the Pilates Challenge to specifically suit your needs.

I promise I’ll have bonus details for you very soon. In the meantime, email me your dream class schedule and I’ll see what I can do to make that dream schedule a reality!

And if youy still have questions about any aspect of the challenge at all, please post your question below in the comments section and I’ll make sure you have an answer for you right away.

Yours in consistency,

Sydney

P.S. – Don’t forget that when you subscribe to the Pilates Challenge updates list (form below) you’re automatically entered into the Pilates Challenge contest. One person will be drawn at random to win a complete Pilates Challenge package. Good luck!

Every year at Pilates Tonic we fire up the Pilates Challenge and this is the time when you can make some incredible changes in your body and mind.

We know how difficult it can be to build time into your schedule to take care of yourself, but when you have an entire group supporting you, it suddenly makes it a lot easier. This is why we created the Pilates Challenge!

We will help you make the commitment, make the time and follow through.

In fact, we’ve been creating this new challenge to specifically address the problem that we all face with making and sticking with a commitment to a fitness goal.

2011 has been a whirlwind and 2012 will be here soon. Everyone who did the challenge last year knows how wonderful it was to start the new year off with what was essentially a brand new body and new powers of commitment and follow-through.

I encourage you to find out for yourself if you haven’t tried it yet. Obviously there are even more benefits than just the physical. You change your body and, quite literally, you change your brain when you embark on a program like this and that change shows up in every aspect of your life.

We are in the final stages of arranging all the details for this winter challenge and very soon you’ll be able to register for your place. There are a limited number of spots though so once registration is live, I encourage you to not dilly dally on this one!

Oh, and I can’t wait to tell you about the new technology we have to help keep you on track this year too. I wish I could take it myself!

So, here are the basics of the upcoming challenge. There’s more coming though and I’ll be sending updates about it all to the Pilates Challenge list.

The Pilates Challenge is a 6 week program designed to deliver outstanding results. We are going to start on January 9th 2012. There will be a number of different packages to choose from (details coming soon) and even if you’ve never done Pilates, we have a package for you that will get you off on the perfect foot!

If you want to know the moment registration opens and get updates and more information, please do sign up for the 2012 Winter Pilates Challenge list (form below). I’ll send you specific updates about the challenge, and everyone who subscribes will have their name included in the Pilates Challenge drawing. One lucky person will actually get a complete Pilates Challenge package!

I know, it’s a lot to take in, so take a deep breath and fill out the form below. I’ll let you know as soon as there’s anything new and juicy to know.

Can’t wait to see you at the Challenge!