An Anytime Workout

 You can do this for the holidays, when a little one is home sick, in addition to your regular workout, when you had the extra glass of wine, any time!

So there's a break in your classes, and you don’t want to lose everything you’ve built up at pilates Well, here you go- a simple, straightforward mat routine that targets your abs, butt and thighs. You can do as many of each move as you’d like- normally between 5 and 15- but make sure you do the same amount on both sides if it’s a split move!

If you're a pilates student, you know the drill-

• exhale to exert
• pelvic floor to maintain that neutral spine all the time
• shoulders down and back to engage your lats
• float your head

… just hear my voice in your head! These are simplified, brief instructions for each move, and you should recognize many of them from class. If you’re not familiar with something, be gentle or skip it so you don’t get injured.

*Make fun of these photos and just see how many "arms to a T" welcome you back!!!!

Ab Curls
Lay on your back with the feet on the floor, knees bent, back neutral, arms overhead. Draw the arms forward and curl, maintaining neutral.

Do it again, with the legs straight out in front, anchored to the floor and back still neutral.

And again, with the legs straight up to the sky and, you guessed it, the back still neutral. From your last rep, do reverse curls.

Oblique Work
Now you’ll do it all over again, with the arms in a diagonal. The top arm comes up and over, reaching for an invisible center line extending from the knees or toes up to the sky. Do all one side, then the other.
The hips stay square, and reach from the obliques.

Then,
Knee Changes
Legs in tabletop, NEUTRAL!, tap one shin then the other to change without rocking

Oblique Knee Changes
Fingernails to the forehead, palms open. You’ll twist into these knee changes, but think RIBCAGE to knee, not ELBOW.

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Leg Changes
The goal is to keep both legs straight, so if they don’t go to a full 90 degrees that’s fine. The other goal is to keep your spine neutral the whole time. Tap the back of the thigh, calf or ankle, not the knee joint.

Oblique Leg Changes
Put your arms on a LOW DIAGONAL- this really helps. Tap the inside of the thigh, calf or ankle, and twist the RIBCAGE again, not drawing from the shoulder

Roll Ups
Sit tall and forward, arms up. Exhale and roll back 3/4 of the way. This is the point when either A) your feet leave the floor or B) your shoulder blades hit the floor. Exhale back up.

After a few, begin rolling all the way back and exhale all the way up.

Kneeling Butt Work
You can do this on the floor, or on a solid raised surface. Think picnic table bench, ottoman, anything that lets the working foot go below the stabilizing knee. KEEP YOUR BACK NEUTRAL!

Leg Lifts
When you lift the leg, don’t torque the back; only lift straight behind you.

Lateral Lifts
Keep your hips level and your spine neutral! Lift the leg to the outside.

Circles
Point your toe and draw little circles out to the side. Now bigger circles, challenging but not losing your neutral, stable spine.

Hip Circles
Lie on your side. If you’re on a mat, hips and shoulders at the back, feet at the front. You want a tripod position, with shoulder-hips-feet forming a triangle for stability.

Lift the top leg, pulse, lower, pulse. Point up and flex down. Lift and lower like you’re in water, doing lots of work.

Small circles with the top leg parallel to the floor, toe pointed. Reverse direction.

Big circles by tracing a letter “D” in the air- straight up in a lift, around and forward to come down. Reverse direction.

Have fun, and we’ll see you when you get back!