How to Do Pilates Saw Exercise - Women's Fitness
- 13 years ago
How to Do Pilates Saw Exercise - part of the women's fitness video series by GeoBeats.
Hello, we're Katherine and Kimberly Corp. We own Pilates on Fifth here in Manhattan, and today we'd like to show you the Pilates exercise, the Saw. Now the Saw is a great exercise for rotation of the spine. So you're really using your obliques. So that's great for any rotation sports like golf, tennis, whatever. It is not a hamstring stretch, and we'll go over that. So Kimberly's going to start sitting right on top of her sit bones. Now what you want to make sure that you can do is get right on top of the sit bones. If you're rolling back and your hamstring flexibility is preventing you from doing that, go ahead and bend your knees just a little bit, or you can sit cross legged. You can even do this exercise on a chair. But the main point is you want to feel those sit bones, those 2 little bones that get really sore if you are sitting on bleachers for 3 hours or something. Those are your sit bones, right on top of those. Your feet, your legs, excuse me, are shoulder distance apart, and your feet are flex. She's going to reach her arms out to the side. And we'll start by rotating to the right. So she's going to rotate to the camera, excuse me, that's to the left, on the inhale. On the exhale, start from the top of the head, scooping over. Its like she's scooping over a big beach ball. And then on the inhale, like someone's pulling her from the back of her hand maintaining the rotation, and then exhale, back to center. So inhale. Rotate towards me now. Exhale. So it's like a water fountain almost. The energy goes up and over. Scooping over, you're sawing off your pinky toe. That's where the name comes from. Inhale, rolling back, maintaining that rotation, and then exhale, to center. So now we're going to show what it is not. It is not a hamstring stretch. So she's going to rotate here, and now she's just going to collapse over her legs. So if you're very flexible, this feels really really good. if you're not flexible, its not even a possibility. But the whole idea, rotate one more time, too, is to keep up and over. So it's like you're only trying to flex the thoracic and cervical spine. Keep the lumbar spine untouched, pulling up from there. On the inhale and exhale back to center. And we'll do one more, just a balance her out. Inhale rotating nice and tall again, and then exhale scooping up and over. The nose is pointing towards the knee. Inhale, reaching back in that rotation and exhale back to center. And that is the Saw.
Hello, we're Katherine and Kimberly Corp. We own Pilates on Fifth here in Manhattan, and today we'd like to show you the Pilates exercise, the Saw. Now the Saw is a great exercise for rotation of the spine. So you're really using your obliques. So that's great for any rotation sports like golf, tennis, whatever. It is not a hamstring stretch, and we'll go over that. So Kimberly's going to start sitting right on top of her sit bones. Now what you want to make sure that you can do is get right on top of the sit bones. If you're rolling back and your hamstring flexibility is preventing you from doing that, go ahead and bend your knees just a little bit, or you can sit cross legged. You can even do this exercise on a chair. But the main point is you want to feel those sit bones, those 2 little bones that get really sore if you are sitting on bleachers for 3 hours or something. Those are your sit bones, right on top of those. Your feet, your legs, excuse me, are shoulder distance apart, and your feet are flex. She's going to reach her arms out to the side. And we'll start by rotating to the right. So she's going to rotate to the camera, excuse me, that's to the left, on the inhale. On the exhale, start from the top of the head, scooping over. Its like she's scooping over a big beach ball. And then on the inhale, like someone's pulling her from the back of her hand maintaining the rotation, and then exhale, back to center. So inhale. Rotate towards me now. Exhale. So it's like a water fountain almost. The energy goes up and over. Scooping over, you're sawing off your pinky toe. That's where the name comes from. Inhale, rolling back, maintaining that rotation, and then exhale, to center. So now we're going to show what it is not. It is not a hamstring stretch. So she's going to rotate here, and now she's just going to collapse over her legs. So if you're very flexible, this feels really really good. if you're not flexible, its not even a possibility. But the whole idea, rotate one more time, too, is to keep up and over. So it's like you're only trying to flex the thoracic and cervical spine. Keep the lumbar spine untouched, pulling up from there. On the inhale and exhale back to center. And we'll do one more, just a balance her out. Inhale rotating nice and tall again, and then exhale scooping up and over. The nose is pointing towards the knee. Inhale, reaching back in that rotation and exhale back to center. And that is the Saw.