Summer Series – Pilates. Week Three!

Welcome to week three of our Summer Series! This Monday, Flex Pilates instructor extraordinaire, Cheng-Fang Wu, shows you how to continue strengthening the lengthening over the holidays, so you can keep moving intelligently when travelling.

In this video, Fang demonstrates a series of moves in roughly five minutes, providing a natural addition to the exercises our co-founder, Heather Thomas Shalabi, performed in week one and two (also available on this blog):

These are all total body exercises, during which your ‘core’ will be engaged throughout. If you are a beginner, please modify to your abilities.

1. Spine Stretch Forward – targets abs, hamstrings and in particular, the back
2. Open Leg Rocker – for trunk stablization and spine articulation.
3. Corkscrew – challenges shoulder stability as the goal is to keep upper body calm and still.
4. Saw – targets spine muscles, stretches hamstrings, hips and deep abs.
5. Swan – opens the front-body, expands the chest and stretches abs, hip flexorsand quadriceps.
6. Single Leg Kick – great for hamstrings and back of thighs. Ideal for stabilizing muscles involved in walking and running in daily life.
7. Double Leg Kick – an intermediate move for a powerful back extension exercise. If you are a beginner, stick with single leg kick until you progress.

Enjoy and safe travels from the Flex Team.