How to Do Pilates Jackknife Exercise - Women's Fitness
- 13 years ago
How to Do Pilates Jackknife Exercise - part of the women's fitness video series by GeoBeats.
Hi, we're Katherine and Kimberly Corp. We own Pilates on Fifth in Manhattan, and we'd like to show you the Pilates exercise, Jackknife. Jackknife is a more challenging exercise, and it's very good for strengthening the abdominal muscles. So we'll give it a go. We're also lifting the hips off the upper body, so its a different way to work the abdominals. So there's a little bit of neuro-muscular connection that goes on as well. So Kimberly is going to make a strong connection between her ribs and her hips. And you really want to flatten your abs. Think of drawing that spine towards the mat. And now she'll lift one leg up into table top position and, exhale, lift the other leg up into table top position. And you don't want to be doing this exercise if you don't think you have the strength to do it, you'll see. Stretch the legs nice and long here. Now we will, on an inhale, she's going to send her legs all the way over head, inhale all the way over. But you still don't want to be up on your neck. No up on the neck. Now exhale. She's going to reach her toes to the ceiling and you don't want the hips to change space. Now inhale. She's going to start to roll down really squeezing the inner thighs and then exhale trying to keep her toes pointed to the ceiling the whole time as she rolls down with control. That was lovely. We're going to let her do it wrong the next time just because it will give her a break too. So she'll inhale. Send her legs over head. Again, watching to make sure you don't go up on the neck. Exhale. Send the legs to the ceiling. Now inhale, starting to roll down. What once that happens here, your glutes give out and legs come towards the face. Ya, this is what we do not want to happen. That makes it way too easy. We don't want this exercise to be easy. So again the right way, inhale, sending the legs over head. Exhale, squeezing the inner thighs, squeezing the glutes. Point the toes straight to the ceiling. Inhale. Start to roll down. Its like you're trying to keep the toes exactly where they are, pointing towards the ceiling as you roll down with control. And one more thing that she's doing nicely is not letting the shoulders roll forward. If you press too much to the mat, your shoulders start to roll forward, so don't do that. And we'll just do one more, that's ok. Inhale here, exhale reaching the legs up, squeezing the inner thighs, squeezing the inner thighs will help you. Inhale start to roll down and you still have that image of rolling through one vertebrae at a time as you roll down nice and slowly. And then to come out of this safely as always we'll bend the knees, and then let the one leg drop and then the other leg drop. And that is the Jackknife.
Hi, we're Katherine and Kimberly Corp. We own Pilates on Fifth in Manhattan, and we'd like to show you the Pilates exercise, Jackknife. Jackknife is a more challenging exercise, and it's very good for strengthening the abdominal muscles. So we'll give it a go. We're also lifting the hips off the upper body, so its a different way to work the abdominals. So there's a little bit of neuro-muscular connection that goes on as well. So Kimberly is going to make a strong connection between her ribs and her hips. And you really want to flatten your abs. Think of drawing that spine towards the mat. And now she'll lift one leg up into table top position and, exhale, lift the other leg up into table top position. And you don't want to be doing this exercise if you don't think you have the strength to do it, you'll see. Stretch the legs nice and long here. Now we will, on an inhale, she's going to send her legs all the way over head, inhale all the way over. But you still don't want to be up on your neck. No up on the neck. Now exhale. She's going to reach her toes to the ceiling and you don't want the hips to change space. Now inhale. She's going to start to roll down really squeezing the inner thighs and then exhale trying to keep her toes pointed to the ceiling the whole time as she rolls down with control. That was lovely. We're going to let her do it wrong the next time just because it will give her a break too. So she'll inhale. Send her legs over head. Again, watching to make sure you don't go up on the neck. Exhale. Send the legs to the ceiling. Now inhale, starting to roll down. What once that happens here, your glutes give out and legs come towards the face. Ya, this is what we do not want to happen. That makes it way too easy. We don't want this exercise to be easy. So again the right way, inhale, sending the legs over head. Exhale, squeezing the inner thighs, squeezing the glutes. Point the toes straight to the ceiling. Inhale. Start to roll down. Its like you're trying to keep the toes exactly where they are, pointing towards the ceiling as you roll down with control. And one more thing that she's doing nicely is not letting the shoulders roll forward. If you press too much to the mat, your shoulders start to roll forward, so don't do that. And we'll just do one more, that's ok. Inhale here, exhale reaching the legs up, squeezing the inner thighs, squeezing the inner thighs will help you. Inhale start to roll down and you still have that image of rolling through one vertebrae at a time as you roll down nice and slowly. And then to come out of this safely as always we'll bend the knees, and then let the one leg drop and then the other leg drop. And that is the Jackknife.