Pilates Matwork teacher training (week 10): planning ahead

This week, for the class I’m teaching, I decided to focus on mobilizing the Hip in all directions. I included variations of lunges, upwards and sideways pulses of the Hip in my warmup. We did Hip-related pieces such as One Leg Circle and Tick Tock.

As I would like the class to do Rolling like a Ball and Rollover afterwards, I got them to warm up their abs with the Stomach Series that also have Hip movements such as Criss-Cross and One Leg Stretch.

To get them ready for Rollover, I combined Rolling like a Ball with straightening of legs upon rolling to the shoulder girdle, before bending the knees towards the face to roll back to starting position. Since it was not our first time doing this, the class was quite familiar with it and I could challenge them to hold their legs over their heads for few breaths before rolling down.

After doing a few Rollovers with feet lowering and lifting off the ground, I gave them a few Spine Extension pieces. We did a variation of the Shoulder Bridge by having their hands beside them on the Mats instead of the back of their pelvis. Without the hands’ assistance to lift their pelvis, I thought this would help them focus on arching their thoracic and lumbar extension more.

Written by Jasmine Lee