Head, Shoulders (knees and toes.)
Shoulder and neck. This is a messy subject in my opinion; the neck and shoulders are very sensitive areas, made of a lot of muscles and somehow all connected. But yet, we work these muscle groups a lot in Pilates, you know, the “tiny, little” muscles that your instructors are always referring to in class. I think that I could write a whole dissertation on the neck and shoulders, but there are plenty of experts out there. Here we go some neck and shoulder 101 and little dit bits that I have learned through my years of teaching. (Just note that I am not a PhD student in biology/ anatomy!) Thanks to Bonnie Benesh for a lot of these ideas and tips especially with the neck.
Let’s start with the neck. It is a muscle that we all forget to work. We complain about it being tight and sore a lot. If we think about it, the neck holds an 8-11 lb. weight called the head, so we need to strengthen it. How can we do this? Flexion and extension! The neck is connected to the spine so all those spine exercises only make sense to help strengthen the neck. An easy exercise is to lay on your back and float your head off the ground enough so a piece of paper could slide underneath it. You will feel how heavy your head is. After the head float, nod your chin towards your chest and continue with your ab curl. Crown of your head should be facing the ceiling and arms are low by your hips. Wallow! This is your flexion. Let’s practice some extension. Lay on your stomach with hands underneath your forehead, and from there, lift your head off your hands and look towards the wall or whatever is in front of you, bring your gaze back towards your hands, and drop your head back down. These exercises can even be done standing up. It is going to look a lot like a Pilates roll down.
Onward to our shoulders. We have heard it for years, keep your shoulders down and back! We hear it, but simply pulling the shoulders down just may not even be an option. In Pilates, there are a lot of great exercises to help pre and post surgery or just to keep you healthy so you can hit that pickleball and lift those weights. Your shoulders protract, retract, depress, elevate, rotate, flex, extend, abduct and adduct; plus, we need to train the upper body in stability and mobility. There is a lot going on in the upper body! Who knew? On the reformer there are a handful of exercises that are beneficial to stability and mobility in all the directions such as rowing back and front, long stretch series and side kneeling arms. Some simple exercises that you can do at home to promote mobility are alternating arm raises and arm raises together while lying on your back or standing. Feel free to add some protraction/ retraction, elevation and depression with 2 lb. dumb bells. You will feel the burn! And, to help promote stability, bird dog, sternum drop and plank (full, on forearms, on your knees).
Shoulder and neck are the areas that we probably most grumble about to our P.T.s and massage therapist. Let’s face it, that is where most of us carry our stress too. On top of some great exercises, there are amazing stretches to help relieve pain before your next appointment. A few of my favorites are side bends aka mermaid in Pilates, laying on the foam roller (aim for 3-5 minutes) and deep diaphragm breathing. Your ribs are connected to your shoulders! This is another rabbit hole and a song for another time; however, if you can get your lats to open up, your shoulders are going to relax and work so much better. Come see us at The Studio on Third to work your shoulders and strengthen your neck.