ShareToday is a travel day for good ol’ KV – I’m taking off on a quick weekend trip to Bermuda.
Island + Sun = Total Awesomeness
Earlier this month, I met an awesome Cali chick, Sylvia Favela. While hanging out and watching the sunset on the rooftop of the HardRock Hotel, we got to chatting about Pilates.
I had never officially tried Pilates before, so I was intrigued. To be completely honest, I thought it was a bit soft. You know, a girly workout. So when I got back to New York, I decided to give one of Sylvia’s follow along workouts a shot.
I was bloody surprised when I woke up feeling sore.
Pilates 1 – KV 0
Sylvia kindly sent over a Pilates workout you can try today. Lesson of the day: don’t judge a workout before you try it.
It’s not as easy as it looks…
——-
The Truth About Pilates
By Sylvia Favela
Pilates has often been misinterpreted as just a “stretching” exercise. Let me be the first to tell you. Yes. But not really. 
There’s a fair amount of flexibility required and some of the movements do involve stretching but that’s only the tipping point of how dynamic this technique is.
Another common misconception about Pilates is that it’s only for gymnasts, dancers or girls. Again none of that is true either.
Pilates is the GO-TO exercise when it a tight strong core is desired.
Below are a few questions commonly asked and the benefits you can expect with these Pilates moves:
Q: Does Pilates only work your core or can you use it to work your whole body?
A: Pilates works the body as one whole unit. What I mean by that is when you doing a move you have multiple muscles firing at the same time to work the core, the legs, and torso.
Pilates requires full body awareness and control.
Unlike other exercises when you are lifting a dumbbell to do biceps you aren’t aware or thinking about your spine, your shoulders your hips, etc.
By using the body’s own gravity to create resistance, these moves can be adjusted by changing angles or position to increase challenges at any fitness level.
Bottom line, yes, it’s a full body exercise.
Q: How and why are Pilates exercises more effective than traditional ab exercises like crunches and sit-ups?
A: If I were to ask you how many crunches and sit-ups would you need to do to really start feeling the burn? This can be upwards in the 30, 50 maybe even 100 reps.
The lack of proper deep abdominal muscle engagement is the main culprit when doing hundreds of crunches.
I often see people doing these traditional moves and mindlessly thrashing their body around with no control of what’s happening. I see heads being yanked down to the chest and hips thrusting up.
It’s painful for me to watch because I know what the long-term result is…Neck pain, tight low back, tight hip flexors and lots of wasted time doing hundreds of these moves.
In the video below I demonstrate a Pilates Ab Workout that you can start to practice right away. Please pay careful attention to my key points as I explain each move.
Do 30 seconds of each move, 10 second rest between each set, for a total of 4 rounds.
A few things to keep in mind when doing the Ab Cincher and Ab Pull:
**As you progress through each move, keep your belly button pulled in towards and towards your spine.
**Do not thrust your ribs forward, yes it sounds weird but it is possible.
**Control your breath, by pulling your ribs in towards each other. Don’t take short quick breaths, full inhales and exhales as you move.
Let me explain a further on placement of the ribs:
**Inhale, take a deep breath in, exhale melt your ribs down to the floor, your ribs will seem to have disappeared and melt into your body.
**Control and body awareness keeps you in the proper position and ultimate muscle activation and lean muscle development.
With a fair amount of practice, the idea of melting the ribs towards the back of the body will begin to make sense and you’ll be amazed with the tapered cinched in waistline you’ll be flaunting.
Not to mention with the correct body control and muscle activation your endurance and strength will increase and take your performance to the next level.
For more fun and effective Pilates Workouts CLICK HERE.
———
It’s KV again, thanks Sylvia for the awesome Pilates workout!
If you want to get a strong core and challenge yourself with some intense body weight workouts, then you’ll want to tap into the exact secrets Sylvia knows.
Get started now and save 50% OFF <– Sale Ends Tomorrow night
Have an awesome day,
KV
