My Cali BFF came for a visit to ‘sunny’ Calgary. Sunny should read ‘snowy’. Oops, what was I thinking…

I asked her to do a post for us. You can see more of Sylvia Favela, ‘The Pilates Chick’ here and here.  I’ll let Sylvia take it away…

I spent the weekend celebrating Shawna’s birthday with her and our time together was super fun as usual. I’m a Cali girl, so I’m pretty accustomed to warm sunny days everyday.  So the snow was fun to be in for a bit.

After bundling myself up she took me to the gym. Her idea of  welcoming a house guest to town is to practically make them pass out at the gym: 20 minutes into our workout, I was still breathing (barely) and she kicked my butt with her workout.

Luckily, I’ve got Pilates to help through her workouts.  Don’t get me wrong, Shawna’s workouts are always a challenge and I look forward to them.  Even the guys at the gym where pretty embarrassed because she made the workout look so easy, so they inched away from our workout area.

I really don’t think Shawna noticed…

Of course I had to pay her back with a friendly (not so nice) workout, the “Pilates Pay Back Trio”….Perfect, right?

In the video below I take Shawna through three progressive Pilates core moves,
check it out >>>

Gotta love Pilates, it looks painless and effortless but it’s a deep intense workout.  That’s the beauty of Pilates, you can’t muscle through the movements.  It takes control and engagement of the deep core muscles and all surrounding intricate muscles to make for an effective workout.

Below is an illustration and summary of each move from Shawna’s “Pilates Pay Back Trio”

Heel Taps

• Interlace the hands behind the head, lift the chest and shoulders off the floor and keep them up.

• Do not tuck the chin to the chest.

• Knees bent and up in 90-degree angle, squeeze the inner thighs together.

• Engage the pelvic floor by doing a kegel, this includes both men and women.

• Inhale lower the heels down to the floor.

• Exhale lift legs back up to 90 degrees.

• Continue to breathe through the exercise with control. Preventing the ribs to thrust forward.

Heel Tap Switch

• Interlace the hands behind the head, lift the chest and shoulders off the floor and keep them up.

• Do not tuck the chin to the chest.

• Keep your belly button pulled in towards your spine.

• Knees bent and up in 90-degree angle, squeeze the inner thighs together.

• Switch legs as one lowers and the opposite stays at 90 degrees.

• Inhale & Exhale as you alternate legs.

• Keep the ribs drawn in towards each other and chest lifted.

            45 Hold

• Interlace the hands behind the head, lift the chest, shoulders off the floor and keep them up.

• Do not tuck the chin to the chest.

• Keep your belly button pulled in towards your spine.

• Inhale extend legs straight out at 45 degree angle.

• Exhale pulls knees back in at 90 degree angle.

• Do not let the knees pass the line of the hips.

• Keep inner thighs squeezing and active at all times.

Key point to remember: maintain control of your pelvis and move throughout each move.  When your chest is lifted do you’re very best to keep it up, as the legs move around the torso will want to drop.  Avoid this as much as possible because if you do drop your lower back and hip flexors will kick in and work when they are not to be engaged.

Looks super easy but it’s a challenge, it’s all about strong controlled body and it was super fun having Shawna do these moves.  It’s sort of a Love – Hate kinda thing, she loves the controlled moves but hates the intense burn. (Note from me: I hate it all 😉 it’s so different from anything else I do, I’m learning to love it and I know the benefits are well worth it!)

For more fun and effective Pilates Follow Along Video Workouts that you can easily plug into your daily workout routine or do you’re off days to keep you limber, head over to….

== > Pilates Follow Along Workouts

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