Being a Boss at the Basics
I focus on the basics of movement ALOT. What’s a basic movement? Let’s take bridging for example, a lot of folks think of that as basic as it is deemed a warm-up exercise. Lie on your back, lift your booty, bring it back down. And, that may sound easy.
But the essence of that movement is more than meets the eye.
The posterior line (think booty, hamstrings, spinal extensors) should be working
The front of the hips should be mobile
The quads should be lengthening
The abs should be active so your low back doesn’t go into extension
The feet should be evenly weighted, so no rolling out or in
The line of the thigh bones should be shooting out in alignment from the hip
And that’s just 6 right off the top of my head.
But, a lot of times folks attempt the bridge and their hamstrings go into a nervous attack and start cramping. Or the knees flair out to the side. Or the feet are at a 45 degree angle. The low back is in hyper-extension. All compensation patterns to get to the tippy top bridge.
Let’s take the first pattern of camping. We could do 956 more bridges to see if the hamstrings get the message that we want to bridge and eventually not cramp. Hmm…is that setting ourselves up for 5 minutes of hamstring cramping and irritation?
Instead, let’s bring to mind a great quote from, Albert Einstein:
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
So, I prefer to try other things to get the elements of the bridge between the front and back of the body working synchronously. It will probably be Pilates-ISH. Still based on the principles, but not necessarily straight out of the Pilates textbook. Hence a synthesis of movement.
Once we get a cramp-free bridge with the all elements working between front and back body, we move on to more complex movements that involve the basic movement.
Using the initial example; being the boss of bridge on the mat and performing all elements pain free and cramp free gives us license to the more advanced or super advanced repertoire of Bridging on the Tower.
Photo cred: photo shoot by Lance Thurman with me and my sister at her studio 314 Pilates in St. Louis
