What are some functions of your pelvis? The pelvis is the base of our spine, area of birth for women and some consider the center of your body. Our cranium houses our brain, while the pelvis is home to our vital reproductive organs. This bone is crucial to posture and movement. In short this is an important area of our body we should bring some awareness to within our Pilates Mat repertoire.
My goal is not to teach the Pilates Mat Repertoire, but to offer some insight as to what I see when I complete them in my own personal practice. This is a series of postings so please look back at the previous posts to follow along.
1) "The 100"
Goal: Create a "C" curve in our spine to allow for deep flexion throughout the exercise, without creating tension in our neck.
Lie on your back with your knees in the table top position. As you exhale take your spine forward keeping your pelvis neutral (unmoving.) Lets put an image with the pelvis to help us image what is going to happen. Let's imagine our pelvis to be a bowl of water and as we come forward we don't want the water to be disturbed. Notice how much flexion you get and also your neck. Is there tension in your neck?
Now I'd like for you to come forward in table top allowing your pelvic bowl of water to lean towards the sternum, which is equally coming towards the bowl. The water will drip down your low back area, which is now flattened on the mat. Notice your flexion here, and also the tension in your neck. Which image/movement created the most flexion, without creating tension in the neck?
For me I find I can come out of a neutral pelvis to allow my spine to come into more flexion, release tension in my neck by keep the work more in my center. Lengthen your legs out at an angle and go right into the 100 with the image of pulling your pubic bone towards your sternum equal to your sternum coming towards your pubic bone.
2) "The Roll Up"
Goal: Fluid articulation of the entire spine, without creating tension.
Let's lie on the mat and visualize the pelvis. Our pelvic bowl is filled with water and this water is level, still and unmoving. We are on our back with legs lengthened on the ground, unmoving in preparation for the roll up. The moment we start moving things might begin to change...
Let's first come up and down in this exercise keeping our pelvis in a neutral position. As you come forward don't allow the water to be disturbed in the pelvic bowl, as well as when you come down. How did this feel in your body? Were you able to fluidly articulate the entire spine and not create tension?
For me as I do this exercise I picture the pelvis tip posteriorly as I come forward to allow me to articulate through my low back. Otherwise I feel I tense up attempting to articulate the low back keeping the pelvis neutral. As I sit up tall I feel my pelvis come back into the neutral position. As I go down I feel the pelvis lead the motion back posteriorly so I can articulate through my low back, but as I lengthen out long on the mat my pelvis returns back to neutral. When I am not moving I feel my pelvis in a neutral postion. But, the moment the exercise becomes dynamic I feel my pelvis adapt so as to not create tension when articulating the entire spine.
3) "Roll Over"
Goal: Fluid articulation of the entire spine, without creating tension.
A good image for this exercise that works well for me is visualizing it as the same as a roll up, you are just going to initiate from the other end. In a roll up we articulate our spine from the head to the pelvis and then pelvis to the head. Well, lets now try and articulate from the pelvis to the head, then head to the pelvis.
Let's take this image and just go through this exercise a few times visualizing a neutral pelvis, and not allow any movement of the pelvis as you articulate the legs over your head and then back down to the mat. How was this? Were you able to fluidly articulate the Entire spine, without creating tension?
Let's now try and take the image above and see how this might change the pelvis when the exercise becomes dynamic. As I begin to take my legs over my head I imagine the movement initiating from a posterior tilt of the pelvis, the bowl of water to spill out in the direction of my low back. This allows me to articulate through my low back. I use the image mentioned earlier of the pubic bone searching for the sternum. I continue articulating through the spine till I'm all the way up in the exercise. As I go down I'll want to continue with the Image of the pubic bone searching for the sternum, but the more my spine articulates down the more my pelvis will come back to a neutral position so I can articulate through the low back ending back in a neutral position. In this way, as in the roll up, I can articulate my spine from the opposite end fluidly without creating tension.
4) "The One Leg Circle"
Goal: Tension free movement maintaining a neutral pelvis.
This exercise is a great one for some movement in our hip joint. From an outward perspective we should not see the pelvis rocking around though right? If our back and pelvis remain on the Matt throughout this exercise? When I complete the "One Leg Circle" I aim to achieve this goal. Therefore I can remain in a neutral spine, and because of this a neutral pelvis. The execution of getting to the neutral pelvis is what I find a challenging.
As I complete my leg circle I work to keep my pelvis completely neutral, and in doing so activate a variety of muscles to hold my pelvis solid to the ground...unmoving. This does not achieve the goal of a tension free movement for me though. I feel my pelvis get very tense as well as my quads working.
I'm going to imagine a few things now to achieve the outward goal of a neutral pelvis. I picture my leg going over to the side and then into the center as I complete this exercise. My leg will displace my weight over to the side or the center as it moves. I need to balance out my weight distribution and therefore should find an image to allow me to do this.
First I'm going to find a bony landmark to assist me with this. I'm going to use my ASIS (Anterior Superior Iliac Spine.) These bony landmarks are found at the front of your pelvis. As my leg goes to the outside I will imagine I can pull my ASIS of that side in the opposite direction...Vice versa as the leg goes inward. As I do this I feel my pelvis and quads relax due to an image of counterbalancing.
Conclusion:
Movement is life and our pelvis has the ability to move, whether it is imaginative or actual. When we are working dynamically, holding my pelvis tension creates tension in my body. But, when I imagine my pelvis as dynamic within the movement I can achieve a fluid movement without the tension.
©2011 Matthew Deal Pilates
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