Importance of Pilates Stretching Exercises
Do you need a Pilates warm up for your Pilates workout? Today, we’re actually going to talk about the importance of a warm-up and how could be built into your workout already.
Hi, I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of onlinepilatesclasses.com and I have been teaching Pilates since 2008. I’ve been doing Pilates since 2005. And before I did Pilates, I was a runner. I was a basketball player for a couple of years. I did track and field, and a lot of different sports, some of them I was not great at, but one of the things that I’ve noticed from every type of workout regimen is that there is an importance to warming up your body, to preparing it for what you’re about to do. So let’s get into it.
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Why Warming Up Matters in Pilates
Alright, so let’s talk about why warming up is important for your body. The first one I want to talk about is blood flow. Here is the deal. Depending on what you were doing before you started to do a workout, could mean that you are going from sitting at a desk for hours to putting your body into work. We want to actually get that blood flow going, get that heart rate going, prepare our whole body for we’re about to do so we are not going from like sitting to just zero to 60 right away. Alright, the second point that I want to make is that it reduces injuries. This is actually really great for injury prevention, right? If you warm up the different parts of your body, you’re about to take into action. You are not taking a cold muscle and making it be super active right away. So we want to actually prepare those joints, prepare your muscle groups for what we’re about to do. Third, it actually is going to improve your performance. And the word “performance” in Pilates bothers me, but if we’re talking about sports activities and other kinds of fitness you understand what I mean, right? Like, you never watch a football team go out for Sunday afternoon football game without warming up. They’re all going to prepare different ways that their body is going to move before they go into a game. The same thing happens in the Olympics. The same thing is going to happen in any fitness regimen you’re about to do, including Pilates. And we’ll get into how those moves actually help warm each other up. Four is that warming up helps prepare your mental focus, aka, connecting your mind to your body. We all have these crazy days, and it’s really important that when we go into our pilates workout that we’re not bringing that chaotic day with us. So having that warm-up, having that space between what you were doing before and your Pilates practice is going to be important for helping you settle on in.
Essential Warm-Up Techniques for Pilates
Before we get into the exercises, we need to talk about some effective warm-up techniques. Now, these techniques are great if you are new to Pilates, if you are a little bit tighter, need a bit more time getting connected to your mind and body, if you are doing any other type of fitness regimen other than Pilates, and if you’re not doing an OPC class, because we actually put the warm up from Joseph Pilates’ intentions and his orders in all of our classes. So you want to make sure you’re doing some gentle movements. Think about the activity you’re about to do, and then you want to gently move your spine in the shapes you’re about to do, move your arms and your legs and your legs in the movements you’re about to do. So you’re kind of doing some of the same things you’ll be doing in the workout. But for example, if you know you’re gonna take your arms overhead, take them behind your back, doing some arm circles, slowly, gently and with control, is going to be really key.
Which brings us into joint mobilization. This is going to be super important. So thinking about all the different joints that you’re used to using in that movement routine you’re about to do, the Pilates class, you’re about to go to, and kind of actually moving through those joints, making sure, because, again, it’s been sitting all day, and you’re about to make your hips and knees move and extend and flex. They haven’t been doing that all day. You’re going to want to make sure you do some of that. Alright, and lastly, you want to actually include some stretching. So gentle, not trying to overdo it, not that dynamic stuff. So if you’ve looked at our stretching video, the importance of stretching and flexibility, I want you to check that out. You’re actually going to do more of that static stretching. So you’re actually pulling a knee into your chest. Give it a nice stretch. Or you’re leaning over your legs stretching that way again, warming things up. Not the dynamic pulses, nothing like that.
Key Pilates Warm Up Exercises
Pilates Mat Exercises
Alright, finally, let’s get into those exercises. So again, if you are doing Pilates the way that Joseph Pilates had created his order, you’re gonna recognize some of these names, and you’re gonna see “oh my gosh. Look at all that gentle movement, that stretching, that joint mobility that he created as we did it.” So we’re gonna talk about Mat, and we’re gonna talk about the Reformer. So first up on the Mat, we have the Hundred, we have the Roll Up. For those of you doing overhead exercises, the Roll Over. We have Single Leg Circles, Rolling Like a Ball. Alright, so the Hundred. Why is that important? So it helps you get your breath into your body. It’s asking you to focus on things. It’s actually this really lovely way, it feels kind of hard, it feels like a big deal. But you can leave your legs down. You can leave your head and chest down, or you can slow down your pumps, slow down your breathing. There are a lot of different ways you can control this exercise, but it really helps you get your mind and your body activated right away and connected to the movement.
Then we have the Roll Up exercise. The Roll Up is going to help you with spine mobility, right? You’re going up and over your legs, you’re stretching your hamstrings, you’re stretching your back, you’re warming up that spine shape, right? Then if you do the Roll Over, you might be like, “Oh my god, I’m going overhead in a warm up”. But the truth is, is that it’s actually a great way to stretch your back, and especially your upper back. So we’re just going through all those different joint mobilization that we’re going to need for the rest of our practice. It’s getting your legs move inside those hips. Really lovely way to, kind of like, warm up the joint, and also allow you to have the rest of your body opening up, opening the front of your hips, activating the back side of your body. Rolling Like a Ball, a nice massage of the spine. It’s bringing everything in deeply, deep hip flexion, knee flexion, working your arms to your back.
There’s also a couple others I like to consider. Single Leg Stretch, or stretching one leg, one hip at a time, and then Double Leg Stretch a really good way to kind of seal off this warm up. It’s taking your Hundred and you’re Rolling Like a Ball and kind of combining them together. And after that, you’ll start to see how every exercise is really a warm up for the exercises that come at the end, and that’s how we do our OPC classes. We love to have that warm up that’s built in nicely for you. Alright, if you want to feel this warm up in action, go to our free challenge. The first class is going to actually have all these Pilates warm up moves, and then excluding the overhead one, you can add that in if you want to. So go to opc.me/challenge.
Pilates Reformer Exercises
Alright, for our Reformer lovers, this is how cool Joseph Pilates was. Listen to this warm-up. I mean, we could have gone deeper, but I’m going to stop it where I’m going to stop, and you’ll see why. So we have Footwork. We work all the points of our feet. You work at the balls of your feet, you work your arches, you work your heels, and you stretch the tendons to connect your feet to your seat. What an incredible way to connect your mind to your body, feel your body connect in that carriage and work the joints through your entire lower body. Then you get the Hundred, it’s back. Now we’re connecting our upper body into our practice. You can always leave your legs on the foot bar if you’re not able to lift them up just yet, but it’s, again, a really great way to connect your breath to what you’re doing. I love the Hundred always, on the Reformers, all nicer when they’re on the mat. Then if you are going Overhead, you have the Overhead exercise. That’s an upside down exercise. You might be like “Lesley, it’s the third exercise”. Technically, it’s like the sixth, because you have four in the footwork, then you have your Hundred, then you’ve got this Overhead. But I understand it sounds like it’s the third. And again, you’re there to stretch your body and start to roll through some of the shapes you’re going to be doing in this practice. That’s why it’s still a warm-up.
After overhead, we actually go into Coordination. So again, if you skipped Overhead, you’re going right into Coordination. This one I love, because if you are a little more on the fun size, you might not get that dip, deep hip knee flexion on Footwork, but on Coordination, you’re going to get it. Plus, before we get into our rowing series, we’re going to actually connect a little bit more of that arm back connection, working through the joint mobilization of your elbows and your shoulders. Isn’t it so cool? How in those exercises, you can see how, like Joe is thinking about all the different spine shapes we need to really make sure we’ve got warmed up, because what comes next is Swan. So you’ll be facing the floor, facing gravity. He wanted you to have your arms connected to your back, your legs connected to your center, and your entire center ready to go against gravity. If you are curious and you want to feel these exercises in your own warm-up. Go to our free challenge for the reformer at opc.me/challenge.
How Long Should You Warm Up?
Well, as you can see with the exercises that Joseph Pilates gave us are about five to ten minutes, and that’s pretty typical, even in other type of fitness regimens, it’s about five to ten minutes. Now, you also want to be listening to your body, because maybe you’re ready to go a little bit deeper, a little more zestier, earlier on in your practice. By all means, if your body is ready, you should go for it. Also, I don’t want you tiring yourself out before you get into this stuff. So also, be making sure that your warm-ups are not actually disconnecting you or taking away some of your strength. A lot of people like to do a lot of cardio warm-ups, and if you’re strength training, which Pilates is, you actually may want to consider switching that to doing as a cool down or something to do at the end, so you’re not taking away the muscular strength you need to do your practice.
A Good Warm-Up Ensures Safe Pilates
If you are wanting to learn about other ways to avoid any type of mistakes you can be making in your first Pilates class or in a Pilates class, check out our video about mistakes to avoid in your Pilates class. Thanks for warming up with me. I would love to hear how this warm up feels in your body in the comments below. Feel free to share it. If you have questions about anything, you can ask them below, I go live on Sundays at 9am Pacific Time, answering your questions. And lastly, if you want to feel what it’s like to have a warm up built into all of your workouts in Pilates, come join us at onlinepilatesclasses.com/youtube. Have an amazing day.
