Use these exercises to bring focus to your core and center of balance before your weight training, aerobic work or ride. For both movements, sit on an exercise ball or chair in upright posture, feet in front of you, hip joint width apart.
Front-to-Back
- On an exhale breath, pull in your abdominal muscles to rock your pelvis into a tuck, pointing your seat bones toward your heels and rounding your low back.
- Allow your shoulders to follow the movement; do not lean back.
- Inhale and use your deep back muscles to rock your pelvis back so that there is a slight arch in your spine and your seat bones point backward.
- Rock back and forth 6 to 8 times; concentrate on using your torso muscles to move your pelvis, not your leg muscles.
Side-to-Side
- Lift up the left side of your pelvis, engaging the trunk muscles on that side, while sinking weight onto your right seat bone.
- Imagine that you are shortening the distance between your armpit and pelvis on your left side.
- Come back to start position, and repeat on your right side.
- Do 8 to 10 swings side to side. Note: Most people have one side for which this exercise is straightforward (the strong side), and one side for which it is not (the weaker side). Feel what happens on the easy side. Try to duplicate this on the harder side.
- Be careful not to shift your shoulders to the side or twist your body. The motion is a small side-to-side movement of your pelvis by the trunk muscles, like a pendulum.
To learn more from Beth, visit riderpilates.com.
