Hello, I'm Julian Littleford and I own and operate J.L. Body Conditioning of Pilates
Studio in Delmar, California and Abby has been kind enough to demonstrate for me, thank
you Abby. We're going to play a little bit on the Cadillac and we're going to take away
the sling apparatus and replace it with two straps. We're going to work the abductors
against the abductors, we're going to work the front side of the torso against the back
side of the torso and we're also going to work just a little bit on coordination. First
off she's going to lie down with her head down here and place her feet up in the straps.
I've got two red springs here attached up and it's obviously bolted in so it doesn't
move. The yellow long springs with handles and you can increase the tension, obviously
I've got it set about eight inches below the top rung here. You can set it to wherever
you need to. She's going to squeeze the legs together, externally rotate, draw the scapulas
down in the back. She pushes down through the heels as the pelvis lifts up. She then
brings the hands down to the table, all the way down. The most important thing is that
they can hold this position. So if they can't hold this position with that setting, bring
the bar down just a little bit. She pins her shoulder blades back against the table, taking
it out of the neck and putting in the upper thoracic spine. She stays there, she squeeze
the legs, she brings the hands to the hips, she then brings the hands back down to the
table, all the way down and then up to the hips. No higher than the hips. Down and up.
Two more. Down and up. One more. Down and hold them at the hips. She stays there. She
takes the left leg down towards the table and back to center. She takes the right leg
down and back to center. Left leg and right leg. We now combine both. The right hand and
the left leg go down towards the floor and back to center. Left hand and right leg down
towards the floor. Back to center. Right hand, left leg down and back to center. Left leg
and right hand and back to center and then she slowly rolls the spinal column down and
lifts the arms up. And gently, thank you. So in the exercise, what you're going to see
is you're going to see a lot of different things. You're going to see the scapulas
pin forward versus pin back. We do so much forward flexion work that the scapulas very
often end up coming, creating a stooped appearance. And I'm very much interested in bringing
them down. So what we want to try to see is that the scapulas pin down against the table
and we've talked about taking that Superman logo across the back and bringing the scapulas
down so they join in the small of the back. When the legs are out, what you're going to
see is you're going to see the leg bend slightly if they think of working the heel towards
the floor. When she holds the leg up in the strap here, sorry, there we go. If she brings
the heel down, bring the heel down, you see how the knee is going to start to bend. Do
it again for me? Just putting it there. Okay. If she thinks of working the hamstring down
towards the floor, there's energy in it and the quadriceps stays out of it. That's the
most important thing about when you're bringing your legs down towards the floor behind that
midline. So realistically, that set of exercises, individually working the legs, working the
arms against it and then combining the two is very, very challenging. Again, it's probably
for some of your more advanced clients as the beginner exercises is the classic breathing,
just standing there and holding it and then put the arms into it and then the legs. Thank
you very much indeed.
