Mind Your Body

How has your body been feeling lately, {{first_name}}? 

If you've been feeling stiff and achy, and maybe even a bit rundown, then today's video is for you.  It's the first video in a series I'm creating, all about "finding your body".

Sometimes we go through our days not even realizing where our body is in space.  We live on autopilot of slouched shoulders, grippy low backs, and pounding leg joints as we move around. When we repeat these poor postural habits and movement patterns all day long, only aggravating the stiffness, pain, and exhaustion.

This video series is intended to help you become more aware of how your body moves and communicates.  By the end of the series, my hope is to have you moving with more ease, strength, and power.

Unless you've been doing Pilates for a long time, you probably have some sleepy muscles in your body.  And the more they sleep, the weaker they get (think deep inner hamstring muscles)- while your wide awake muscles (think quads) get stronger and more stiff.  This scenario is a recipe for injury, fatigue, and pain, especially in the vulnerable areas of the body such as the shoulders, back, hips, and knees.

However, when you wake up those muscles and they start communicating with the rest of your body, a beautiful balance happens where you have more energy and strength to do all those activities you love to do!

For instance, I often see gripping in the hip flexors for most people - which means quick burn out when doing any sort of ab or leg exercise.  With Pilates, you'll learn how to wake up the butt, hamstrings, deep ab muscles, and inner/outer thighs to help stabilize the pelvis so your center-body supports the movement.

It's like a beautiful dance that happens - your body moves with efficiency and grace and you're on your way to the safest movement patterns and deepest strength that will last a lifetime. 

Here's what gripping hip flexors over time can mean for you:

• Low back stiffness and pain
• Tight and weak hamstrings
• Weak and painful knees
• Weak and painful ankles
• Pelvic instability
• Forward head and rounded back - hunch back
• Stiff neck
• Grippy, achy, pinchy shoulders - Ouch!

See how it's all connected?

You're only as strong as your weakest link.

Follow me on YouTube so you can join this video series all about Finding Your Body so you can wake up all those sleepy muscles and find more power, energy, and efficiency. 

When that happens, you'll see the rest of your life shine brighter, because when you feel good in your body, life just feels better.

MIND YOUR BODY WITH PILATES

xoGretchen

 PS.  If you'd like to workout with me this week, come check out the LIVE workout I did with my Core Club!  You can find the workout HERE.