Criss Cross
– #pilates4life2020: #23 of 31 exercises
🌟 This is perhaps one of the exercises that I see many people doing but without taking full advantage of what it offers because of lack of awareness of form… practice slowly and with concentration and think of your practice as learning!
[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]
What’s it good for?
🌟 Your sides (internal and external obliques) and abdominals (Transversus abdominis and rectus abdominis).
🌟 Do you play any sport with rotation as a part of it? Think of a sport without any degree of rotation? Think of any activity without any rotation: baking, child minding, ironing, hang gliding!!!!
🌟 The rotation adds multiplane challenges for the stabilizers of the spine: transversus abdominis and obliques. These muscles are key for stabilising the spine before movement of the limbs of before impact such as lifting objects, running and / or jumping.
A Quick Guide to Criss Cross
💡 Try moving from side to side instead of rotating. Then try rotating around a single central axis. A common mistake when doing this exercise is to move from side to side. Learn the different sensations the two movements produce and focus on the rotational ones.
💡 Keep elbows just inside the periphery of your vision. No more and no less.
💡 Keep the opposite side of your pelvis back as the trunk rotates so that the pelvis doesn’t rock in the direction of your rotation.
💡 Use your abdominals to maintain a “C-curve” so the upper trunk stays lifted as you rotate.
💡 Maintaining stability, reach out one leg as far as you can. Straighten your knee and point your foot to get as much length as you possibly can!
Joe Pilates on …
💬 ‘The “science” of Contrology disproves that prevalent and all-too-trite saying you’re only as old as you feel.'” — Joe Pilates (1945)
💬 …To explain exercise, Joe Pilates liked to quote Schiller: ‘lt is the mind itself which builds the body’.
