If you come to any of my private or group sessions you will see that I never teach flexion in the traditional pilates series from the floor or crunch type movements. I have attended many types of movement sessions around the world where I see participants straining their neck and being told to build strength [...]
Breathing - Part 2 The abdominals as well as the diaphragm play an important role in respiration. The abdomen can be likened to a liquid filled, flexible container, which can change its shape but not its volume (i.e. is non compressible). In contrast, the thorax can be compared to a gas filled container, which can [...]
Breathing This is one of the most basic functions in life, then why is it that most of us are breathing incorrectly? Do you know that many of us are breathing too fast, with short sharp shallow sharp bursts? Breathing affects the PH balance of the body; it’s the primary function of the diaphragm. Stress [...]
Back bending is an action that takes place in every day life, from reaching up to a cupboard, changing a lightbulb, to putting a jumper on. Then why is some us find this challenging and don't have the ROM (range of motion) to reach our desired drop backs or experience pain when doing even the [...]
When on earth did we become so stiff and wooden like, especially in our spine? Any one who knows me will know that I am a great believer in a good upright posture, but we need to have freedom of movement to come in and out of the posture with a relaxed but held together [...]
During my travels in New Zealand I visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. I came across a most magnificent canoe – “The Waka ceremonial canoe”. The 35-metre-long canoe needs a minimum of 76 paddlers to handle it safely on the water. It weighs 6 tonnes when dry and 12 tonnes when saturated What fascinated me was [...]
"Yikes - I have back pain !" As a movement practitioner the most common reasons that clients will come and see me is probably the words ‘BACK PAIN’. About 80 percent of adults experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. But what actually is back pain? Pain in my experience is a [...]
As the hype continues after the recent catwalk shows, the Victoria secret angels have been doing Pilates Reformer, Yoga and Barre to stay in shape. But can doing these pastimes really give you the catwalk body that you may desire? As I reflect on another cadaver study this week, this re-affirms the thinking we are [...]
Why is it that some of us are able to tilt the pelvis and some of us cannot? I have seen this time and time again in seated forward bend asanas, GYROTONIC handle unit, and Pilates variations of the roll down and roll up. We are forever being sold solutions to gain flexibility in our [...]
Wow what a vast subject, don’t know where to start, here is just a snippet of what many others and I call: “The Pelvic driver'. The Pelvis being a large basin, is one of the leading areas of power in sports biomechanics as well as basic gait pattern. It also houses some of the most [...]
