Blog - The Curious Mover
The Metaphor of Spring
In Pilates, we use springs as resistance rather than weights. That’s not really news to anyone, but let’s take this metaphor of spring a lot further, especially in this Spring season! Let’s apply the spring to muscles: pulling the spring open (lengthening) followed by closing it (contraction). Just like the two phases of muscle actions: the lengthening or load phase, and the contraction or shortening phase. I see more emphasis on the contraction phrase, but not enough on the lengthening, resulting in short and contracted muscles, which leads to pain and tightness.
The Mid Line- PART 2
In Part 2, we go into the importance of the inner thighs and their connection. You heard of the rotator cuff of the shoulder? It is made up of external and internal rotators to stabilize the shoulder joint. These five inner thigh muscles are considered the inward rotators of the hip, and with the six external rotators complete the “rotator cuff” of the hip, but have roles to stabilize and move the body. When I think inner thighs, it's hard not to think of the thigh master infomercial with Suzanne Somers. I am here to tell you, they are so much more muscle than to jam a contraction in and squeeze! We have the magic circle in Pilates, a somewhat similar contraption, but hopefully you also have a teacher that guides the connection of the inner thighs into the core cylinder.