How to Get the Most from Exercises in All Fours
Why should you do all-fours exercises?
Today I wanted to spend a little time talking about the all fours or “quadruped” position.
A favourite question from you in class is always "Why is this good for us?".
As we get older, we lose muscle mass. Women have less mass in their upper body to start with, and we lose it quicker than men.
That means that we need to continue to challenge our upper bodies to try and maintain it.
This position allows us to load our upper body while at the same time supporting the load with our lower body (and indeed working the butt).
But to do this effectively, we need to make sure that we're setting ourselves up correctly.
The picture above was a photo I downloaded from some magazine. Obviously not posed by anyone who does Pilates.
But it does give a really good image of what I'm checking for when I'm wandering around class.
How can you do it better?
- Spread your fingers out so that you have got a wide base for your balance and to disperse the load.
- Get your shoulders above your wrists so that you can transfer the force in the most efficient way down to the floor.
- Straighten the elbows fully, again, to enable the transfer of force. Push the hands down into the floor and push the force back up into your armpits. This is the action that's making your upper body stronger!
- Contract both your abs and your back muscles to keep your back long and straight. Annnnd don't forget your neck is actually called your "cervical spine". Keep that in line with the rest of your spine. You should be looking just in front of your hands.
- Square your hips to the floor and keep them there without rotation.
Donkey Kicks may be "The Ultimate Butt Sculpting Move" but only if you're actually using your butt...In the top picture, the model is using her lower back muscles and that's causing her to rotate - you can tell because her lifting leg butt cheek is higher.
It's not about how high your leg is, it's about how much butt activation you can get!
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