Video on Pelvic Floor

I guess my Pilates mentor was getting frustrated with her trainee teachers for being so confused with the pelvic floor. They just don't seem to understand where exactly this group of muscles is located and how it works.

I don't blame them, it is really hard to imagine the location of the pelvic floor from 2D diagrams. You just can't show your students with tactile cues like touching and stroking this group of muscles and say, "Hey, here is your pelvic floor and now contract it!". Imagery cues like "squeezing your sitting bones together" or " bringing your pubic bone and tail bone closer" sometimes make it even more confusing on how to activate the pelvic floor.

But pelvic floor is just too important in our daily function and it is almost a sin if one do not know how to use it properly. My mentor found this wonderful video by Samsara which explains why you need to work the pelvic floor. The video actually answers the question why men need to work their pelvic floors too!

Picture says a thousand words, and moving pictures definitely say more! So go take a look at the video :-)

Pilates for Runners

Found this video which recommends and demostrates some basic Pilates exercises which are supposedly good for runners.

Though I didn't quite like the presenter's form in her demostration, she provided good justification on why are the exercises good for runners.

Rectus Diastasis - nightmare for pregnant ladies

Quoting my friend Karen, "Pregnancy really does have a toll on the woman's body!"

Besides putting loads of fat on the body, pregnancy can throw the woman's body out of balance, create tension, weaken muscles and even damage joints. Rectus diastasis (abdominal separation) is just another "job hazard" that pregnant woman may suffer. 

The combination of abdominal weakness, hormonal changes, weight gain, and abdominal wall stretch exerted by your growing baby, can cause muscle separation along the centerline of the abdomen. It is more common in multiple births and repeated pregnancy and it usually persists long after the woman gives birth (Karen said one Pilates instructor recovered only 15month after the delivery!!!). 

Well, rectus diastasis can actually be prevented. Exercise no doubt is beneficial to both mother and fetus, but one must be sensitive and avoid doing certain exercises (see another post for exercise guideline). In Pilates class, strenuous flexion-based exercises plus long lever loading on the abdominals  (e.g. 100s with straight legs at 45 degree, Plank) should be avoided.

Not sure if your abs separated? Do this self-test.

When I was pregnant, I did more exercises on Reformer, while on the mat I only did pelvic tilt, quadruped, mermaid, Chestlift, femur/leg circle, side lying/kicks, small degree of spine stretch, spine twist.  

Karen pointed me to a video on abdominal separation on youtube. It was posted by Samsara, a Pilates and pole dance instructor, who also suffered from abs separation. Like what she said in the video, doing Pilates helps close the separation because it strengthen the transverse abdominals which act as a corset. 

More videos on Rectus diastasis:

How It Affects Exercises for Pregnant Women

How to recover from Diatasis

Pilates on AsiaOne

Joe from Option Studio shared with me this article on AsiaOne. It gives a great concise introduction about Pilates as well as three informative videos. My favourite video is "Armchair Pilates".


Enjoy!

My Sports Bra Gives me Neck Ache!

It's a shame that, though I practive Pilates regularly, I suffered from bad neck aches.

Sometimes my neck ached so bad that I felt like the whole world was crumbling down my head.

Pilates had already given me a lot of pain relief. So you can imagine how bad it had been.

I changed my mattress, got myself a new memory foam pillow. I am careful with my posture, I have strong back muscles and I stretch regularly. I didn't know what's causing the ache and I even suspected something was wrong with the Feng Shui of my room, so I painted the walls a new colour and shuffled furniture into new layout. But why didn't the neck ache go away?

One weekend I was all alone at home working at my laptop and my neck started to ache badly. I wanted to rub the ache off my neck, so I reached for the massage oil. But the moment I took off my sports bra to make way for the massage, the pain immediately reduced 80%! Only then I realised, gosh, my favourite sports bra was the culprit!

I have been wearing this sports bra for years. I liked it a lot because it gave me very good support (maybe too good support) for my run. Apparently my body had changed over the years and my upper body had grown bigger, meaning the sports bra became tighter. The shoulder straps of the bra acted like super shortened upper trapezius muscles and bound my shoulders and neck uptight. That was what made my neck ached! No wonder all my stretches didn't work.

Besides neck ache, wrong bra size can also cause backache, shoulder pain, tender bust and bad posture. It is not a matter that ladies should take casually.

If you do have neckache (and bra size is not the main culprit), try the following:
1. Isometric exercises

• clasp hands together behind head and press head firmly against hands for five seconds, then relax pressure
• bend head forward and apply gentle pressure with hands for ten seconds, relax pressure once again
• repeat five more times or as needed.
  
• Do not force head too far forward and stop if any pain is felt.

2. Stretching

• bend head to right and hold for ten seconds, then roll gently, head forward, then to left.
• shrug shoulders, hold for a few seconds and then release.
  
• Repeat if needed.
  
• Go slowly and don't force head to shoulders, only go as comfortably as you feel.
  

Anyway, I found this video pretty cool, it gives a short and sweet overview on neckache and pain relief good exercises:

Pilates: How To Prevent And Relieve Neck Ache