I hope you are well and feeling good in your body.
I was talking with someone the other day about priorities as a middle-aged woman – it feels wild to think I am middle-aged, but at 44, statistically, I am! anyway… what we were talking about when it comes to our health and fitness, our priority is health over aesthetics.
I no longer look in the mirror and criticise myself… I want to be healthy!
That priority could be from the fact that I live with health issues that can be debilitating when they feel like it, or I could be just older and wiser…
Anyway, I love simplifying and making my tips accessible, with a purpose and where you don’t need to carve out hours of your day to do a session or go to the gym.
One of the fantastic things about Pilates is all you need is a little floor space to do some exercises… You could even do some of them standing in a queue or waiting for the kettle to boil or even when you are walking around.
If you experience lower back pain, I first observe how you stand – what shoes are you wearing? how do you stand? what shape is your body making? What’s happening at your pelvis?
This week’s video is a wee demo of finding a neutral spine standing up.
Finding Neutral Alignment
In an ideal world, setting your pelvis into ‘neutral’ will allow your body to drop into a sweet spot of effortless posture.
I say in an ideal world because this would be the case as long are you are not holding tension in any joints, dealing with inflammation in your abdomen (including holding extra fat there) and you haven’t accrued any posture habits like thrusting your chest or letting your head move forward of the rest of your body, your shoulder slump… that kind of thing!
I would say most of us (including me) have wee things going on that need some attention to help release discomfort.
This is why I love Pilates… it brings awareness into our posture, gets us moving our joints and learning to engage our muscles…
Never done Pilates before? Why not sign up for my Pilates Beginners Course? You can start anytime as it’s a mix of pre-recorded tutorials and access to 4 weeks of live online classes (current timetable Tue 10am and Sat 10am).
Sign up here >>> https://iamjenwilson.thrivecar…
