Welcome to another Balanced Body Podcast. My name is Shantel Lopez and I am co-owner
of Pilates Collective in Sebastopol, California. Today helping me is Melissa Cacavis and we're
going to be working on a version of standing spine stretch, which is a much more challenging
version of the classic spine stretch on the mat. It's an exercise that you can add in
to increase the challenge of any mat work that you're doing currently. It's going to
help you develop the hamstrings and deep and low back and deep abdominal strength.
So Melissa's going to start with a slightly wide stance and I like to usually to facilitate
the forward fold to have her stand slightly internally rotated just very gently and this
should be comfortable on your knees and your ankles. She's going to take her arms out to
the side, take a breath in and very slowly she's going to start to tip forward right
at the hips keeping her neck in line with the rest of her spine without letting her
weight shift back into her heels. So part of the challenge of this exercise is to keep
the weight forward on the toes. So there's actually a little space under the heels. She's
going to keep the sit bones widening reaching the crown of the head across the room as she
reaches the sit bones behind her. Take a breath into the rib cage and as you exhale without
changing the spine just hug the abdominals. Inhale one more time just staying there really
feeling the lift of the sit bones, the activation of the hamstrings. Exhale as she deepens.
On the next inhale she's going to lengthen out and come up in a flat back position lowering
her heels and resting her arms. So that's the beginning position. We're going to do
that two more times making sure that there's no pain or discomfort in the back of the knees.
It's very easy to shift the weight back and hyper extend the knees. So there's a lot
of lift through the inner thighs and from the heel to the back of the knee to the line
of the glutes. So let's do that two more times and then we'll add on another challenge.
So inhaling the arms out. Exhale she's going to tip forward widening the sit bones making
sure the ribs stay connected. Beautiful. Three breaths here Melissa. Inhale into the ribs.
Inhale deepening the core, narrowing front to back and side to side. Inhale two more
times and exhale. And I'm just, I'm noticing and I want you to notice what the legs are
doing how your knees feel in this position. Put a little more weight forward on the toes
for extra challenge. Beautiful. And on the next inhale she's going to lengthen out and
come up letting her heels settle and relax the arms. One more time. Inhale arms out to
the side. Exhale she tips forward. Weight comes onto the toes right away as if you were standing
up against a wall. Inhale three and exhale. So you can take a quick inhale or you can
take a nice deep long inhale deep in the exhale. Keep the shoulders broad, deep in the abdominals
and then on this last inhale she reaches the crown of the head towards the wall and comes
all the way up. And then bring your arms together and then step your feet together and then
just bend your knees a couple of times. Yeah. Just to relax the legs. It's a lot of work
through the whole back line of the legs so even if you're being careful not to hyper
extend there's still a lot of work happening. So we're going to add on a little challenge.
She's going to come forward into the same position and add some pelvic curls so mimicking
something like spine stretch. Ready? So legs go out wide, slightly internally rotated.
She takes the arms out to the side and slowly keep the ribs connected. You can also do this
standing up against a wall which is a really interesting experience to feel that you're
not setting back but that you're actually feeling this energy move out away from the
wall. So from here without affecting too much of the upper spine take a breath in Melissa.
She's going to exhale and take a tiny little pelvic curl and then release it back to neutral.
Stay soft in the shoulders. Lower the arms down just a little. There you go. And then
the next exhale little curl. There's a lift from the heel all the way up to the sit bones
as she curls. Last one. Exhale as you curl. Good. And then lengthen out. Take a big sniff
in. Reach the crown of the head and then she comes all the way up to standing and let
the arms rest. And that's it. And you can do two to more repetitions of the second exercise
with the added pelvic curls if you're really up for another challenge. Alright, that's
it. Thanks so much for joining us and we'll see you again.
