Sunday, 17th of February 2019
Sunday, 17th of February 2019
"exercise" — 4 posts
Exercise - Criss Cross
by Jeanette — Thursday, June 14th, 2007
Starting position:
Upper body in the folded up position (like in the 100's). Right leg bent and left out straight on a diagonal. Fingers interlaced behind your neck, elbows out to the sides.
criss cross
Exercise:

Inhale (through nose please) sending the air to the sides of your ribs to set up the breath.

Exhale and turn your upper body to the right, strive towards the right knee with your left shoulder, NOT with the elbow. Really rotate your spine and don't pull with your hands. Look back toward the back elbow and make sure you don't loose your wide arm position.
Exhale again as you switch legs and turn the other direction. Inhale and turn again, and inhale turn again.
The speed is pretty fast, turn for 6-8 reps. (4 in/exhales is 1 rep).


Variation: do the exercise slower, exhaling at each turn and holding that position for a few seconds. Try to get up a little higher than the picture shows. Inhaling on returning to a neutral position with upper body folded up and both knees bent. 6-8 turns.

Think about:
Keeping your arms and shoulder in a static position and let the movement come from the power house. Really try to get the shoulderblade that you are turning away from, to come up off the floor.
Lift up with a LONG rotating spine so you don't compress it and bend up.
Make sure the stretched out leg is really reaching in a diagonal, holding it on a height level that feels good for you. You can pinch you butt to control the leg.
Also, don't rock body from side to side when you are criss crossing the fast version, make sure that the power house is working to keep you stabil.

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Exercise - The Roll Up
by Jeanette — Saturday, April 28th, 2007


Starting position:

Lie on your back with your legs bent and pressing together, and feet on the floor. Arms straight on the floor behind your head. Don't let the shoulders come up to your ears, really draw shoulderblades and shoulders down.

Photo Credit: Janne Danielsson

Exercise:

Inhale, lift your arms and head up from the floor, float your shoulderblades up as well on the inhale. When you run out of lung room, and the upward movement is getting exceedingly harder, start the exhale and PULL your belly in, and continue to roll up . When you are about 2/3s up you can straighten your legs and finish the rollup stretched over your legs. DO NOT let the legs lift up off the floor, you must press them down (or pretend they are really heavy and can't be moved). Hang over your legs and stretch for one breath. You are not done yet, here's the roll down part of the roll up. Roll down with legs straight, using one breath if you can, go fairly slow and really work that sccop. Place your spine down bone by bon, lenghtening it down on the mat. Advanced/full version; do the roll up with straight legs throughout, a little faster but with full control. Repeat 6-8 times.

Think about:

You must draw your belly in the entire time, and if you see your belly pushing out you are not doing it right!. Therefore keep your eyes on your belly and pull that sucker in. Roll up in an even, but not too slow, motion. If you have to snatch yourself up, you are doing it WRONG. Better then to grab a hold of your legs for a little help and focus on that scoop. You will be able to do it w/o hands and with legs straight, eventually, I have seen it in many clients. Don't forget to press your legs together, drawing shoulderblades down and exhaling at the hardest part, all details will really aid and shape your roll up to true form.

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Exercise - Rolling like a Ball
by Jeanette — Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
Rolling like a Ball

Starting position
Sit with your legs bent, feet together and knees opened. Take hold with your hands on the back of your thighs and lift your feet of the floor, balancing back onto your tailbone. Pull your shoulders down from your ears, and shoulder blades down and out. Bend head slightly in to your chest and look at your belly, see that belly button pulling in towards your spine.

Exercise
Inhale and roll yourself back to your shoulder blades, keeping your rounded shape, like you are a ball. Exhale and roll up to your balance point again, do not put your feet on the floor. If you roll up too fast you may put the feet on the floor, which you should not do. Make the exercise a continous movement. Roll 6 times.

Think about
Don’t move to slow, you may not come back up again. That said, don’t roll too fast, there is some momentum involved but you will have to work your powerhouse to get back up correctly. On the inhale, pinch your sitz bones together and lift your tail bone up up up, to make a round lumbar to roll on. You must have a thick mat so you don’t hurt your vertebraes.
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Exercise - The Hundreds
by Jeanette — Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Starting position
Lie on your back with your legs together and lifted in a bent position. Exhale and pull your belly button to the floor, try to keep it there throughout the exercise and try to pull it down even more with every exhalation. Lay your arms straight above your head on the floor, without letting your ribcage push up. Feel your tail bone heavy to the floor without pushing it down, and don’t arch.

Photo Credit: Janne Danielsson



The exercise
Inhale into your back and float your arms, head and shoulders up, to the hundreds position. Feel like you are folded at your bra strap (men, please imagine wearing a bra). Actually, the picture of me, demonstrating the postition, is not showing the form as good as it could be, but I try.
Exhale and start pumping your straight arms up about 5 inches and down, pumping from your “back” (reach shoulders away from ears and shoulder blades down towards your low back. Inhale through 5 arm pumps and exhale through 5, pulling the belly button in more for each exhale. Breathe percussively (5 inhalation sniffs, 5 exhalations). Pump until you have reached 100 pumps. Advance by straightening the legs, and lean them out on a diagonal.

Think about
Keep your body up in the position with your torso muscles. Since you are up there, watch your belly engage, scooping, throughout the exercise.
Don’t drop the head back. To avoid this pretend you have to hold an apple with you chin against your chest. If your neck hurts too much, lay your head back down on the floor, (you will get stronger and able to hold the head easily through the whole 100’s) continue to pump your arms to 100. Reach with your fingers toward the opposite wall and feel how you are lengthening and reaching, to get that oppositional pull to stay in the position throughout the whole exercise. The legs are reaching long and the belly is reaching down

 

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