Pilates Takes a Walk

Hamstring Stretch Starting position: Lying on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, feel the weight of your head, ribcage and pelvis. Action: Wrap a band around your right foot and extend that foot to the ceiling while holding the ends of the band with your right hand. Do not allow any part of your torso to come off the floor, even if the stretch is small or you have to bend your knee. Try to feel the stretch at the top of the hamstring by the sitz bone. The goal is to stretch the leg without moving the pelvis. Breathe deeply. Repeat other side.

Low Back, Outer Hip, and Side Stretch Starting position: Lay on your back, knees bent, feet flat on floor hip width apart, arms out to T position. Feel your head, ribcage and pelvis heavy on the floor. Action: Without moving your feet together drop both knees to one side, the pelvis and lower back will rotate. Stay here, breathe, and relax the tension in your legs, hips, and low back allowing the legs to release as much or as little as possible. On an exhale use your abdominal muscles to bring your legs back to center. Use your breath here to help you access the deepest layer off your abdominals. Repeat other side.

Hip Flexor and Quad Stretch Starting position: Kneeling, with your body upright, keep one hand on a chair for balance. Feel the abdominals working by pulling in the spot 3” to 5” below your belly button. Action: Place the right leg forward, almost to straight. Gently begin to shift your weight into the extended right leg by bending the knee (lunge forward). Do not let your back arch and tighten or take the right knee past your right foot. Move into the stretch breathing and trying to feel a lengthening at the front of your left hip. Repeat other side.

Chest Stretch Starting position: Lying on your side in the fetal position, hips and knees bent, arms long and reaching forward, hands together. (If your head/neck is uncomfortable place a towel or pillow under it.) Action: Reach top arm towards the ceiling, keeping your hips fixed in place on the floor, allow the spine to rotate and the chest to open and face the ceiling, while the arm continues towards the floor. Follow your hand with your eyes. Relax the upper back and breathe deeply. On an exhale engage from the abdominals and rotate arm and torso back to starting position. Change to other side.

By Tracy Broyles and Jerry Roylance

What is Pilates? It is a system of exercises designed to strengthen and stretch the body while improving tone and posture. Through slow controlled movements that build in complexity and difficulty, Pilates challenges strength, coordination, flexibility, alignment, and balance. A certified studio should be dedicated to offering a complete approach to injury prevention, rehabilitation, and core conditioning. (The goal of core conditioning is to effectively recruit the trunk musculature and then learn to control the position of the lumbar spine during dynamic movements.)

Over 70 million Americans are walkers, which makes walking America’s top sport. Out of the readers of Walk About magazine about half are Pilates enthusiasts. Why are so many walkers turning on to Pilates? Stretching, stretching, stretching. Walking tightens the hamstrings, calves, hips, and the lower back just to name a few areas that need stretching. When those muscles get tight and overused they can cause imbalances in the skeletal system creating inefficient gait and pain. Pilates aims at releasing those areas through stretching and core education. By witnessing our own gait we might notice imbalances in the muscular and skeletal system, which not only affects our feet, but knees, and hips as well as the whole body. Look at the bottom of your shoes — what is the wear pattern? Is one side more worn then the other? Is the heel the most worn- down part? All these are indicators of foot placement while walking. In Pilates we not only focus on stretching and core strengthening, but also on correcting posture tendencies. It is these posture tendencies that affect gait.

Three typical postures are Lordotic, Kyphotic, and Sway Back. The Lordotic posture is an excessive C curve in the lower back with the butt sticking out and usually with the stomach falling forward. This causes a tight lower back, short hip flexors, and lack of abdominal tone. Walkers who have this posture type need to stretch out their lower backs and hip flexors before walking, and while walking keep their abdominals pulled in and let their legs swing freely from their hip joints.

The Kyphotic posture looks similar to “the old man look” with an excessive curve in the upper back, shoulders rounded forward and the head either dropped forward or turtled up. This causes the back of the neck to be short, upper chest to be narrow and closed (which hinders correct breathing), and spinal extensors overstretched. Walkers with this posture type should focus on deep breathing and opening their chest before walking, and concentrate on keeping their shoulders back and down, their breast bone lifted and allowing their arms to swing freely while walking.

The Sway Back posture or “slouch,” looks like a typical model pose with the pelvis placed forward and the chest sunk back, which causes a compressed lumbar area, short hamstrings, and depressed ribcage. Walkers with this posture type should stretch their hamstrings and lower back before walking and while walking concentrate on keeping the abdominals engaged so the ribcage aligns over the pelvis, as well as keeping their breastbone lifted. Most people are not just one posture type but a combination of two or more.

Here are some stretches to complement your walking. This is just a sampling of stretching exercises. We hope that using them will make your walking experience pain free and enjoyable. Perhaps Pilates can provide some new stretches for you to use but just as important it can help you, while walking, to stay in the present, keep in alignment, and ensure that your whole body works smoothly and efficiently.