ABS: ACTion, Balance and Strength

Principles of Pilates 6: Isolation

With isolation of muscles, you can focus on

• making weaker muscles strong
• lengthening tight muscles, and
• improving your balance.

In addition, your movements will be focused on the target muscles, as opposed to other, overused muscles, such as your neck and shoulder muscles.

When you learn isolation, you will no longer use your neck and shoulder muscles to do the exercises.

 

Exercise

1. Sit tall on a mat, chair, or ball, sitting tall on your sitting bones.
2. Find the muscles on either side of your spine in between your shoulder blades and glide those muscles down toward your buttocks.
3. Notice if one side is stronger than the other and relax the stronger side. Focus on pulling the weaker side down a little more.
4. Add the stronger side and notice over time how they become more balanced.