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Tag: practice pilates

Introducing Paddleboard Pilates! – Summer 2017

June 9, 2017
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| Categories: Announcement, Fitness, Paddleboard, Uncategorized
Image of Valya and Bella on a paddleboard

Sign up now for Sunday Summer fun! Join us on the Rappahannock River for Pilates and Paddleboards! Prerequisite: No experience necessary - we're all beginners. Fee: $65 per class. Cost includes paddleboard, life vest and paddle rental. You bring: Water shoes are highly recommended. Don't forget your sunscreen! Location: We'll gather at River Rock Outfitters (915 Sophia St.) between 3:30 and 3:45 for paperwork and instructions, then walk to their launch site. Paddleboards will be in the river at 4:00 on the dot! Class...

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Fulfilling Each Movement

November 7, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Bella

Bella, the West Highland Terrier who works in my studio, inspired me to write today about fulfilling each movement. Bella has her own favorite Pilates exercises and I love watching how she milks every movement for all it’s worth. I can walk toward her treat jar or open the back door, but she will not move until she’s fulfilled each and every movement. First, she slowly extends her front legs and lowers her upper body into Shell Stretch. Then (and...

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Opening Your Inner and Outer Circles

October 25, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Woman on reformer equipment

In exercises where you roll back off your sits bones (like Half Roll Back on the mat or box) it’s easy to simply tuck the pelvis and follow the natural momentum of rocking back toward the sacrum and lower back. But I’ve often experienced a “sinking feeling” as I roll into that curve. My ribs and hips travel toward each other at warp speed and I end up looking like a squished Slinky. Not exactly the Pilates look I’m going...

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Let Your Breath Drive Your Movement

September 12, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Valya Karcher

The slower you go the faster you will see results. The best thing I’ve found that slows me down is my breath. Inhale slowly to a 4 or 5 count and exhale the same. Let your breath be the force that moves your body through your Pilates workout. Instead of arms and legs racing out of the starting gate first, think breath. Just like your car needs to fill up with gas before it can run, your lungs also need...

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A Daily Practice of Aligning Your Spine

July 3, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Valya Karcher

I tell new clients that the first thing they’ll need to adjust after their first Pilates workout is their rear view mirror. How can you sit all scrunched down after you have felt the relief of lengthening your muscles and re-aligning your spine? I have a daily practice of aligning my spine that I’m hardly ever aware of, except to say that it feels good! Since I started doing Pilates I’m more aware of tension surfacing in my body, especially...

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Downloading Strength to Your Core

April 2, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Men doing Pilates exercise

Shortly after I started doing Pilates I was writing a letter at the kitchen table and I noticed that my shoulders were up by my ears. As I slowly released them I felt the power of my shoulder blades sliding down my back, and, as it turns out, strengthening my core. I've since been in workshops where we have done exercises designed to increase awareness of where we carry our strength and where strength can “leak away” from the powerhouse....

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One Simple Step Engages Your Powerhouse

March 8, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Woman doing Pilates

Isn’t the human body an amazing creation? Everything is connected! The simple act of drawing your navel to your spine activates your back and abdominal muscles. Starting with the deepest supports of your spine all the way out to your 6-pack, every layer of muscle joins forces with the one before it to strengthen your back and firm your abdominals. And all because you pulled in your belly button! As you exhale and drop your navel to your spine, another...

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Pilates Rx: Breathe. Repeat Often.

January 30, 2013
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| Categories: Fitness, Uncategorized
Woman doing sit-ups

When I was told that practicing Pilates breathing would firm my “after-baby” tummy, I was a woman on a mission. I would lie in bed at night and inhale everything I needed for the next day and exhale everything that was not working in my life. I would take my inhale as deep as I could into the mattress and exhale dropping my belly button as deep as I could into the small of my back. It only took about...

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