00:00:06.295 --> 00:00:11.135

All right, this is it, ladies and gentlemen. We're finally, finally at that

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very, very special episode. You've been waiting for it.

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We're not going to talk about shoulder bridge or long stretch today.

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Today, very special day. We've got a treat for you. We're going to talk about

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flamingo and hands in straps. If we get there.

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All right. So, firstly, what has Flamingo got to do with hands in straps?

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Or, indeed, reverse knee stretches. I'm all a gog.

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Well...

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The relationship, there's lots of things that they have to do with each other.

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If flamingo is our end point, where a flamingo... Firstly, just give us a real

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quick version of what flamingo is.

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Okay, so you're facing the foot bar, you've got one foot on the floor,

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your hands are on the foot bar, and your other foot is on the shoulder pad.

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So you could say it's almost like a scooter or a lunge setup where you put your hands on the foot bar.

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And you push the carriage out and then as the carriage comes in

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your front foot floats and you bring your

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knee to your armpit and your heel to your butt so you can hide the leg like

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a flamingo can i just bring my knee like halfway up

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to my belly button instead that'd be fine that's totally

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fine yeah it's all about the effort not the

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outcome and so then the foot goes back down and the

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bed goes out so it's kind of got a reciprocal rhythm to

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it um and yeah so if you

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know flying splits it's a a leg

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inside version of flying splits it's a variation on

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the same skill right and arms in straps lying on your back hands

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in straps head on the headrest stretch down

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head up one or two legs long call it a hundred variation right yeah head head

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head up straps down reverse knee stretches the other part of our conversation

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is knees against the shoulder pads hands on the rails and one way or another

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facing the pulleys um in a quadruped head position and one way or another,

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which we'll discuss, the bed comes towards your wrists.

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So you pull your knees to your wrists or your wrists to your knees or a bit of both.

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All right, great. So what do these things have in common? So dear listener,

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what do you think they have in common?

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Why are they the same? How are they the same? All right, Heath, enlighten us.

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Well, the easy thing to say, the quick answer to how they're the same is that

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they're using the same muscle grip.

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It's the same fundamental system of muscles that create the movements,

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armpits, abs, hip flexors.

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All right. So if we think, because I'm not sure how obvious that's going to

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be, probably people are on the spectrum of most things.

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So for some people, that'll be like, yeah, do tell me something I don't know.

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And other people will be like, what the, what? I haven't thought about it.

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So when you're, think about flamingo, okay, hands are on the foot bar,

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back foot's on the shoulder block, front foot's on the floor next to the carriage.

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Okay. As the carriage comes in, the front foot comes up, knee comes to your armpit.

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Okay. you're pushing down with your arms so

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you're essentially you're pushing down with your arms and you're

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pulling forward with your back leg now we're assuming that the there's a relatively

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light spring on the carriage here like if you've got you know half spring one

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spring something off that ilk right so you're pulling the carriage forward with

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your back leg and you're pushing the foot bar downwards with your arms.

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Whereas, if we think about legs and straps, lying and back, hands and straps,

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you're pulling the straps down with your arms, you're pulling your legs up with

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your hip flexors, right? So it's basically the same muscles.

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Reverse knee stretches, you're kneeling on the carriage, knees against the shoulder

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blocks, facing the pulleys, hands are on the rails, you've got a couple of springs

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on, you're pulling your knees towards your hands, pulling your hands towards your knees.

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It's the same basic movement pattern okay so

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shoulder extension hip flexion spinal

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flexion in all three movements same movements and also same muscles working

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because sometimes when you flex it's not always the flexors working so for instance

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in a roll down when you're standing it's actually your back muscles that are

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working but in this case all these three exercises,

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it's the same muscles it's the same basic

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movement pattern hip flexion spinal flexion shoulder extension bam so there's

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these three exercises are basically the same in that way so why is it why is

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it in your view useful to even think about that apart from just like nerd factor 99.

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Well, in, in our other multiple takes to get the podcast on the road today.

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This is take 80 fucking three people. Like, oh my God.

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Do you think this sounds like so natural and so it's like we don't need it?

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No, look, we, we're laborious. This takes ages.

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This is like a Coen Brothers film. Every word. We don't get it right. We'll start again.

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Um, the, well, we launched into Flamingo because I got excited because in the last conversation,

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the last podcast we were touching on

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dissociation and then and i

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i actively rebel against how much dissociation i was taught in pilates school

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and that sometimes translates to people thinking i don't teach or i think dissociation's

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bad and i absolutely think dissociation's not bad it's fucking amazing because

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that's our ability to do different things with our body consciously as a skill.

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What I've reacted against is the sort

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of dogmatic infusion to Pilates that dissociation is A, by definition,

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better than an integrated movement, like an intuitive movement,

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and B, that it's associated with efficiency and or safety.

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And we could probably park the safety one because we've done a lot on that.

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But in terms of efficiency...

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When I've said to people, why do you teach reverse knee stretches as a dissociated movement?

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And that would mean that you lock the shape of your spine, hip,

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knee and move only from the shoulder or vice versa.

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Or lock the shoulder, spine and pelvis and move only at the hip and a little

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bit of the knee. At the hip. Yep. Right.

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So sorry, just to back up a step, hold on to that thought, right?

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So people, you know, you, you love dissociation, but you think we get sort of a monomania for it.

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So hold on to that thought. But just thinking about, you know,

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how you could teach each of these three movements.

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So we said that the, the, the flamingo, the arms in straps, the reverse knee

00:07:23.308 --> 00:07:29.148

stretches, they're all shoulder extension, hip flexion, spine flexion, right?

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So that's what you would describe as an integrated movement because you're moving

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all of those body parts into an integrated shape, right? that we're sort of

00:07:35.968 --> 00:07:37.528

curling in towards a tuck shape.

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Whereas there's a different way, neither better nor worse, inherently just different,

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to teach all of those movements, which is a more dissociated one,

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where you move the shoulders or the hips but not the spine.

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So you might do your flamingo in a neutral spine. You might do your arms in

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straps, keeping your lower back neutral and keeping your hips bent 90 degrees.

00:08:01.028 --> 00:08:04.508

You might do your reverse knee stretches, keeping your spine neutral and just

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flexing your hips. So why not just do that?

00:08:08.108 --> 00:08:14.728

Yeah. Well, the reason to not do that, that I would argue, before we even get

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into whether it's safe or more efficient, is I'm a group reformer teacher.

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And I'm, so if I'm teaching 15 people and I want to get them moving because

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it's a movement session, I want to get them moving so they understand the fundamentals

00:08:31.259 --> 00:08:32.539

of the thing that we're doing.

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And then if there is refinement that is necessary, it's going to be exponentially

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more efficient, play on words, and effective to refine a movement once people

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have the understanding of the basics.

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And said another way, if I want to teach knee stretches to a group,

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reverse knee stretches to a group, kneeling on the carriage,

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kneeling on the bed, knees against the shoulder pads, hands on the rails.

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So there's my start position.

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Hands under your shoulders, knees under your hips if I really need to double check.

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Pull the bed to touch your wrists and release.

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Now that's going to get me 80% of the people in the room doing 80% the movement

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that I want in three statements, four or five statements maximum.

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So then the whole room is moving.

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And then I can make sure, if I care, that everyone's got their elbows locked,

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that their hands are far enough forward that it's challenging to get to bed to the wrists.

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Because I'm interested in, are they getting an appropriate load that there's

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something happening in their body at a kind of load slash strength input?

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And, or I can then refine the movement and decide, well, if I wanted to teach

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dissociation, I could stop everyone and go, okay, now you've got the idea.

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What I want you to do is, and adding that refinement towards the dissociation

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is easier because they've got an understanding of the basic movement.

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They've got something to refine from.

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When I was taught Pilates, we were teaching refinements, the details before you did the basics.

00:10:05.510 --> 00:10:09.110

And so you spend five minutes explaining. it's really important that you keep

00:10:09.110 --> 00:10:11.750

your armpit, you know, well, I wouldn't have said armpit.

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I would have said your glenohumeral joint needs to be stabilized while you pull

00:10:16.390 --> 00:10:19.010

the bed with your hip flexors to bring the knees underneath you.

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That's really important. Try and keep your neutral spine while you do it as well.

00:10:21.910 --> 00:10:24.910

Right. And I just want to- I've been talking for three minutes and no one's moving.

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I just want to say there that, you know, we've had this conversation off air

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and on here about the, I would say the conflation,

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basically the confusion between or the smushing together of different concepts

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into the same, collapsing into the same concept,

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the conflation of stabilize and keep still and dissociate.

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And so, you know, I think typically in Pilates when we say stabilize,

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you don't say it, I don't say it, but we, the royal we, say stabilize,

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other Pilates instructors.

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What they actually mean is keep this body part still like keep your hips still

00:11:04.750 --> 00:11:07.550

you know they say stabilize your hips or stabilize your pelvis whatever they

00:11:07.550 --> 00:11:12.910

mean don't move it that's not actually what stabilize means biomechanically

00:11:12.910 --> 00:11:14.310

but let's not go there today.

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But you know when we say stabilize by and

00:11:18.604 --> 00:11:21.644

large i think we we actually confuse the term and we

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we actually mean just like keep your freaking arms still but

00:11:25.964 --> 00:11:30.484

why don't we just say that you know keep your arms still and move your leg um

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so but why i mean all right well let me put on the other hat why even bother

00:11:35.744 --> 00:11:40.784

do you know i mean what the fuck's the problem with rounding your spine in reverse

00:11:40.784 --> 00:11:43.344

knee stretches or flamingos or arms in straps Peace.

00:11:45.807 --> 00:11:49.327

Why even bother i mean what what's what's the point of stabilizing what's

00:11:49.327 --> 00:11:52.067

it for well in all three of the

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movements i would i would

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argue vehemently that they are you would

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flex your spine that you wouldn't try and stabilize neutral like neutral i don't

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care for it like it's not pilates it's it's you know you're i'm being a little

00:12:10.307 --> 00:12:16.387

bit up the spectrum on saying that but Like, I wouldn't bother stabilizing.

00:12:16.767 --> 00:12:20.687

I think there's a pretty fucking strong case for saying neutral is not Pilates.

00:12:21.007 --> 00:12:24.667

I mean, dear listener, read Joseph's Pilates books.

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Find the word neutral in any book anywhere. It ain't there.

00:12:31.007 --> 00:12:33.167

It's not a thing in Pilates. And then when someone says to you,

00:12:33.347 --> 00:12:38.327

but Joseph didn't have science, because in the 90s, blah, blah,

00:12:38.407 --> 00:12:43.567

blah, then our subsequent answer would be, nor do you, if you still think that.

00:12:43.567 --> 00:12:47.767

Right. Well, the 1990s science didn't have 2025 science, which we do now,

00:12:47.887 --> 00:12:48.747

and we've moved on from neutral.

00:12:48.947 --> 00:12:52.687

So good. We all agree that science is important. So none of us like neutral anymore.

00:12:53.667 --> 00:12:56.167

There's nothing wrong with neutral. Neutral's fine. Neutral's great.

00:12:56.247 --> 00:12:58.007

It's just a place. It's just a, yeah.

00:12:58.847 --> 00:13:05.607

So, so. So we were talking, you said, why wouldn't you flex the spine?

00:13:05.767 --> 00:13:09.127

Why wouldn't you stabilize in neutral and just dissociate your hips and your

00:13:09.127 --> 00:13:11.407

shoulders in those movements? What's wrong with that? Yeah.

00:13:12.447 --> 00:13:16.207

Well, when I would dissociate,

00:13:16.387 --> 00:13:24.147

when I would teach dissociation, it's going to be about making the movement

00:13:24.147 --> 00:13:30.687

that I'm trying to teach more efficient for the people doing it.

00:13:30.687 --> 00:13:37.187

And this would be the difference between bent leg bed pull, aka reverse knee

00:13:37.187 --> 00:13:40.507

stretches where we're not teaching dissociation slash stabilization,

00:13:42.047 --> 00:13:44.987

and the flamingo. And in a flamingo.

00:13:46.987 --> 00:13:51.407

If you keep your back legs straight, like quite literally lock your knee,

00:13:52.807 --> 00:13:56.047

whatever spring tension you create by pushing the bed out,

00:13:57.646 --> 00:14:01.926

is increased and makes it easier to float your body.

00:14:02.746 --> 00:14:06.366

If you bend your back knee and let it come back in, which a lot of people do

00:14:06.366 --> 00:14:11.706

when they're learning the movement, the spring tension reduces and so you get

00:14:11.706 --> 00:14:14.706

less assistance and actually you're sort of trying to lift your body up from

00:14:14.706 --> 00:14:15.806

your armpits and your abs.

00:14:15.886 --> 00:14:19.506

You don't get the advantage of a long lever applied to the hip flexors.

00:14:19.606 --> 00:14:23.846

So if I'm teaching you flamingo, the back leg needs to be locked.

00:14:24.246 --> 00:14:27.686

That way the movement becomes more accessible.

00:14:27.966 --> 00:14:31.046

You become more efficient. You can do more of it. You can take more challenges

00:14:31.046 --> 00:14:33.666

within it. That's the skill of flamingo.

00:14:34.126 --> 00:14:40.506

But you're not getting better at that by learning to dissociate the armpit and

00:14:40.506 --> 00:14:43.966

the shoulder in bent leg in a reverse knee stretch.

00:14:44.466 --> 00:14:50.366

And in a reverse knee stretch, the movement is get the bed to your wrists and release.

00:14:50.526 --> 00:14:55.066

And for me, it's a stage before a straight leg bed pull where you would lift your knees to straight.

00:14:55.146 --> 00:14:58.566

And I'm always surprised at how many people have never taught

00:14:58.566 --> 00:15:01.346

or found this movement and you go like let's

00:15:01.346 --> 00:15:04.606

call it a down face dog front plank pull the

00:15:04.606 --> 00:15:07.646

bed out with straight legs it's just exactly the same movement pull

00:15:07.646 --> 00:15:11.326

the bed towards your wrists with straight legs it's a straight leg version of

00:15:11.326 --> 00:15:17.966

the bent leg and it's a that is a movement where it's you can do that with bent

00:15:17.966 --> 00:15:22.386

legs like that one's not like the flamingo because you're not using the back

00:15:22.386 --> 00:15:26.586

leg to get your body up you're using two legs punching down and if your knees

00:15:26.586 --> 00:15:27.526

bend, it doesn't really matter.

00:15:27.746 --> 00:15:32.166

But when you come to the flamingo, there's actually this skill dimension where

00:15:32.166 --> 00:15:36.466

you are better at flamingo if you understand the back leg being locked.

00:15:36.606 --> 00:15:37.886

And that is dissociation.

00:15:39.006 --> 00:15:43.526

One of the things that I, it took me a really long time to realize this,

00:15:43.786 --> 00:15:49.566

but if we assume that the equipment settings that we're asking for are safe,

00:15:49.686 --> 00:15:51.906

right? So you're not calling elephant on zero springs.

00:15:52.386 --> 00:15:57.926

So if we're calling a bent leg bed pull or a reverse knee stretch on one,

00:15:58.106 --> 00:16:00.266

maybe one and a half springs or even a half spring, whatever,

00:16:00.386 --> 00:16:02.106

just ballpark. Everyone can do a few.

00:16:03.659 --> 00:16:07.159

If you give me a simple game, just pull the bed to your wrists and release,

00:16:07.359 --> 00:16:08.659

pull the bed to your wrists and release.

00:16:10.579 --> 00:16:18.279

What people do, which might be considered wrong, is usually the sensible,

00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:21.219

intuitive human solution to the problem.

00:16:21.999 --> 00:16:26.239

They're doing the thing that makes it easier, because that's what humans are good at.

00:16:26.419 --> 00:16:29.779

We find the path of least resistance if all else is equal.

00:16:29.899 --> 00:16:34.019

People are fundamentally lazy. Well, if there are two ways to do the same job

00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:37.959

of work, pull the carriage four inches towards the pulleys, and one of them's

00:16:37.959 --> 00:16:41.339

easier, by definition, that is more efficient.

00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:45.159

Right. And people will find their way to that.

00:16:45.939 --> 00:16:49.839

And it took me, I was like, oh, cool. This is like fucking mind blowing, right?

00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:53.279

Like if I just set up the constraints and I know it's safe and I say,

00:16:53.459 --> 00:16:58.819

do that thing, people will show me the most intuitive, sensible, efficient way.

00:16:58.959 --> 00:17:02.399

It's so interesting. Like that reverse knee stretches movement is a really good

00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:07.319

one to, to sort of, to, to think about because like, okay, we, we,

00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:10.539

you know, and I teach, used to teach this dissociator putting foam rollers on

00:17:10.539 --> 00:17:14.259

people's backs and turning balls on people's backs and all, you know, all kinds of things.

00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:18.259

And. And ball between the knees. Yeah. Ball between.

00:17:19.019 --> 00:17:22.439

And one behind the knee at the same time. Yeah, that's right.

00:17:22.919 --> 00:17:26.879

And, um, you know, like, and there's nothing wrong with doing it dissociators.

00:17:26.879 --> 00:17:31.519

Like it's, it's a kind of a fun skill challenge, right?

00:17:32.159 --> 00:17:36.979

But if you think about it, like, all right, it's literally just a hip flexor

00:17:36.979 --> 00:17:41.719

pull on the carriage, right? If you, if you're moving the hip and not the pelvis

00:17:41.719 --> 00:17:44.419

or spine, it's like, well, why?

00:17:44.639 --> 00:17:49.839

I mean, if, I mean, we do teasers, we do roll-ups, we do all kinds of things

00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:54.359

involving spinal flexion and loading the hip flexors in a hip flexed,

00:17:54.419 --> 00:17:55.539

spine flexed position, like.

00:17:57.061 --> 00:18:02.121

It just doesn't make any sense to me why you would just all of a sudden go on a spine flexion bad,

00:18:02.681 --> 00:18:05.421

when we're kneeling facing the pulleys for some reason when it's

00:18:05.421 --> 00:18:11.761

like but in a teaser it's awesome you know um yeah that's just that i never

00:18:11.761 --> 00:18:17.061

really understood that and i think there is a you know i i think you know the

00:18:17.061 --> 00:18:22.901

people who say uh to you you know why don't you teach dissociation it's like

00:18:22.901 --> 00:18:24.821

well, you totally teach dissociation.

00:18:24.941 --> 00:18:29.301

I mean, I've done quite a few of your classes and we've talked a lot about biomechanics and stuff.

00:18:29.641 --> 00:18:35.141

And when we talk about, say, some of those conversations we had about lunges, for example, okay?

00:18:35.501 --> 00:18:39.981

If you're doing a lunge on, whether it's a scooter on a heavy spring or a lunge

00:18:39.981 --> 00:18:42.301

on a light spring, okay? Okay.

00:18:43.125 --> 00:18:48.785

Where your torso is relative to your standing foot really matters, right?

00:18:48.885 --> 00:18:53.605

Whether your torso is in front, above or behind, like makes a massive difference

00:18:53.605 --> 00:18:57.405

to the load on different parts of the lower body, right?

00:18:57.865 --> 00:19:06.065

So you and I are both very intentional about where we cue people's torso and

00:19:06.065 --> 00:19:08.645

where their grounded foot is relative to the foot bar.

00:19:09.265 --> 00:19:12.685

You know, those things are very important and that is

00:19:12.685 --> 00:19:15.625

dissociation you're moving your if you're doing a scooter you're

00:19:15.625 --> 00:19:18.405

moving your back leg keeping your pelvis and your

00:19:18.405 --> 00:19:21.245

spine and your front leg still you know or vice

00:19:21.245 --> 00:19:24.105

versa if you're doing a lunge right and so yeah

00:19:24.105 --> 00:19:28.365

that's totally dissociation and we we like we're you know i would say verging

00:19:28.365 --> 00:19:34.705

on draconian in the way that we you know cure that so yeah it's just but the

00:19:34.705 --> 00:19:38.985

point is like you said before the reason for that is it's more efficient now

00:19:38.985 --> 00:19:42.625

i just want to sort of parenthesize efficient here,

00:19:42.805 --> 00:19:47.205

because efficient can have two sort of meanings in this context.

00:19:47.445 --> 00:19:50.585

And so one is what we said before, like if you've got a job of work to do and

00:19:50.585 --> 00:19:53.525

there's two ways to do it and one of them's less effort, well,

00:19:53.625 --> 00:19:55.745

that way is more efficient, right?

00:19:55.865 --> 00:19:58.885

If you can pull a carriage four inches backwards with less sweat,

00:19:59.525 --> 00:20:01.285

you know, that's a more efficient way to do it.

00:20:02.005 --> 00:20:06.065

So that is one valid definition of the word. Another thing though is to think

00:20:06.065 --> 00:20:09.785

about it from the sense of like, okay, if we want to work your left glute.

00:20:10.924 --> 00:20:13.744

Right? What is the most efficient way to do that?

00:20:13.824 --> 00:20:18.344

Would it be to put as much of the load of the body onto the glute as possible,

00:20:18.344 --> 00:20:21.564

or would it be to spread the load across like 78 different muscles?

00:20:22.564 --> 00:20:26.044

Right? So if we want to target, you know, even if it's not the glute,

00:20:26.104 --> 00:20:28.664

if we just want to say we want to target the lower body,

00:20:28.884 --> 00:20:34.824

right, or the hip extensors of the standing leg, well, there is a more efficient

00:20:34.824 --> 00:20:37.264

way to do that, and that would be hinging the torso forwards,

00:20:37.424 --> 00:20:41.484

bringing the foot, you know, forwards, reducing the springs tension on the carriage, blah, blah, blah.

00:20:41.724 --> 00:20:44.524

There's a few things that we would do, which we've talked about at great length,

00:20:44.524 --> 00:20:49.344

and a lot of them would involve dissociating different body parts, right?

00:20:49.484 --> 00:20:53.844

So there's absolutely a time and a place for dissociation, okay,

00:20:53.984 --> 00:20:56.924

but just not every time and every place.

00:20:57.684 --> 00:21:01.924

You know, sometimes you need to associate or integrate things together because

00:21:01.924 --> 00:21:08.444

real movements, you know, in real life, mostly integrated movements. Yeah.

00:21:12.804 --> 00:21:21.484

Yeah. So let's just, going back to that idea, going back to bent leg bed pulls,

00:21:21.784 --> 00:21:22.864

reverse knee stretches,

00:21:23.744 --> 00:21:29.204

when I've talked about this with people, one of the things I've had,

00:21:29.404 --> 00:21:32.984

I can remember this question, someone said, yeah, but if I just say pull the

00:21:32.984 --> 00:21:37.284

bed to your wrists, what I often get is people bend their elbows. Yeah.

00:21:38.124 --> 00:21:42.124

True that. Right, right. And same in regular knee stretches.

00:21:42.264 --> 00:21:44.584

If you say pull the carriage forward with your knees, they're like,

00:21:44.684 --> 00:21:48.604

yeah, no worries. And they'll just do a push up on the foot bar. Right. And-

00:21:49.940 --> 00:21:54.660

you know, for a long time, I would have thought that was, they'd done the movement wrong.

00:21:54.840 --> 00:21:59.220

And what I was putting on as a way to think about things is if the equipment

00:21:59.220 --> 00:22:04.260

settings and the position is safe for people to solve the problem in their own way,

00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:09.660

in other words, you know, there's no falls risks involved, then what's wrong

00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:10.640

with bending your elbows?

00:22:10.760 --> 00:22:14.960

In fact, what that teaches you as the facilitator is that if someone doesn't

00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:19.880

know how to do Pilates, like if they haven't been taught to do a non-intuitive

00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:22.560

movement rather than an intuitive movement,

00:22:22.820 --> 00:22:25.740

of course they bend their elbows because it gives them access to more muscles

00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:27.900

to distribute the load through their system more efficiently.

00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:33.200

So then when I teach you to do it, inverted commas, right with a straight arm,

00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:35.420

I'm teaching you dissociation.

00:22:35.560 --> 00:22:38.260

And then for me, it's like, well, why would I bother?

00:22:39.220 --> 00:22:41.100

And that's what you said, what's wrong with it?

00:22:42.180 --> 00:22:46.560

Fundamentally, if the mission is get as much load to your wrists as possible.

00:22:46.840 --> 00:22:48.960

Yeah. Fuck it. Bend your elbows. If you want, I don't care. Like,

00:22:48.980 --> 00:22:53.360

in fact, when I do a pull off the crossbar, it's like, don't worry about straight arms.

00:22:53.540 --> 00:22:57.080

Just get your three springs. The bed is close to your wrists as possible.

00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.220

Cause I'm trying to fatigue you quickly through your whole system,

00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:07.700

but bent leg bed pulls with straight arms is the most, um, it's the safest way.

00:23:07.900 --> 00:23:11.880

And it also scales to flamingo to do the straight leg bed pull.

00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:16.300

So I'm going to teach you straight arms in the bent leg version because there's

00:23:16.300 --> 00:23:19.820

less consequence of failure you're not going to hurt yourself,

00:23:19.880 --> 00:23:23.120

you can't fall forwards your knees are on the ground, aka bed.

00:23:24.005 --> 00:23:27.405

And we learn the skill of straight arms. Because if I ask you to do a straight

00:23:27.405 --> 00:23:30.305

leg bed pull and you bend your arms, there's a good chance you're going to face

00:23:30.305 --> 00:23:31.365

plant between the rails.

00:23:31.605 --> 00:23:36.285

Right. I would also argue just from the same standpoint that I talked about

00:23:36.285 --> 00:23:41.505

lunges a moment ago, that actually if your goal in bent leg pulls,

00:23:42.085 --> 00:23:46.405

reverse knee stretches, is to work the hip flexors and the abs predominantly.

00:23:46.505 --> 00:23:50.305

Because in that system where you're working hip flexors and abs and shoulder

00:23:50.305 --> 00:23:55.805

extensors, It's like the shoulder extensors are like a bazillion times stronger than the abs.

00:23:56.545 --> 00:24:00.625

You know, I mean, how much can your lat pull down versus how much can your ab curl, you know?

00:24:00.765 --> 00:24:03.785

Right. So- Hence, people go look for their extensors, right?

00:24:03.785 --> 00:24:04.665

Look for their shoulder.

00:24:04.805 --> 00:24:09.585

And so if you say it's verboten to use your shoulders and you have to use your

00:24:09.585 --> 00:24:13.285

abs and hip flexors, all of a sudden it's harder, aka less efficient from a

00:24:13.285 --> 00:24:16.685

biomechanical standpoint, but more efficient from the standpoint of like we're

00:24:16.685 --> 00:24:19.585

actually targeting those abs and hip flexors, right?

00:24:19.585 --> 00:24:23.405

So if that's your goal, then it is better to keep the arms as still as possible.

00:24:24.005 --> 00:24:30.605

Right. And so what we're saying, or what between us we're kind of teasing out

00:24:30.605 --> 00:24:33.625

is, again, assuming the equipment settings are safe to play,

00:24:34.085 --> 00:24:36.465

give people the movement, the problem to solve.

00:24:36.765 --> 00:24:40.545

The way they solve it is the way that it works for them. And interestingly,

00:24:40.705 --> 00:24:41.905

they'll usually bend their elbows.

00:24:42.605 --> 00:24:48.165

But if we're doing this to target the abs and hip flexors and or scale to bigger

00:24:48.165 --> 00:24:50.085

movements, blah, blah, blah, like Flamingo,

00:24:50.205 --> 00:24:55.445

then we have to teach them to be inefficient in the overall movement in order

00:24:55.445 --> 00:24:58.125

to be more efficient in our outcome that we're trying to achieve.

00:24:58.365 --> 00:25:02.845

Right. All right. And this is where we segue into Pilates is a system where.

00:25:03.588 --> 00:25:09.648

And exercises, that's why we draw these parallels between these exercises like

00:25:09.648 --> 00:25:15.808

flamingo and arms in straps and reverse knee stretches, you know,

00:25:15.888 --> 00:25:18.328

call them whatever you want to call them, but those basic movements.

00:25:18.828 --> 00:25:30.748

Because all of them are, you know, one of the layers on the way to more advanced flexion moves.

00:25:30.748 --> 00:25:34.268

Right and we could think teaser you

00:25:34.268 --> 00:25:37.268

know we could think horseback you know

00:25:37.268 --> 00:25:40.408

we could think pilates push-ups you know

00:25:40.408 --> 00:25:46.788

there are lots of examples right if there's there's just cat there's flexion

00:25:46.788 --> 00:25:55.908

cat stretch right um and you know and so like if we think about pilates as a

00:25:55.908 --> 00:25:57.308

system And that, you know,

00:25:57.488 --> 00:26:01.468

in we're working up towards a teaser on the long box, for example,

00:26:01.988 --> 00:26:04.668

it's like, well, you, when you're doing your arms in straps,

00:26:04.868 --> 00:26:10.588

why would you keep your pelvis neutral when in order to do a teaser,

00:26:10.788 --> 00:26:14.668

you must posteriorly tilt your pelvis, right?

00:26:14.708 --> 00:26:18.208

So why would you practice doing it the way that's going to actually work against

00:26:18.208 --> 00:26:19.988

you when you get to the more challenging move?

00:26:20.428 --> 00:26:24.348

You know, why wouldn't you just actually practice the same skill in a more limited range?

00:26:27.741 --> 00:26:29.741

I don't have an answer for you. Oh, okay.

00:26:34.041 --> 00:26:37.701

Well, unless I missed your question. No, no, no. I don't think you did. Yeah.

00:26:39.501 --> 00:26:42.861

I mean, did we already have the conversation about the line of,

00:26:43.181 --> 00:26:45.601

we did, yes. So in fact, this is how we ended up here, right?

00:26:45.601 --> 00:26:47.461

This was talking about hands in straps. Yeah.

00:26:47.761 --> 00:26:49.661

Right. So if we're teaching hands, maybe that was your question.

00:26:49.841 --> 00:26:54.381

If we're doing hands in straps and you're pressing your hands to the bed with

00:26:54.381 --> 00:27:00.601

your spine in neutral, that is not going to take you very far in this system of movement.

00:27:00.801 --> 00:27:04.061

You don't get better at teaser by doing that. You don't get better at teaser.

00:27:04.221 --> 00:27:07.321

You don't get better at bentley bedpools. You don't get better at any of the

00:27:07.321 --> 00:27:11.641

flexor system flexion movements because you're just not doing them.

00:27:11.761 --> 00:27:16.441

You're not doing them. Whereas if you press your hands to roughly the height

00:27:16.441 --> 00:27:19.441

of the foot bar and you bring your knees to your eye sockets and try to get

00:27:19.441 --> 00:27:21.001

your lower back pushed through the bed,

00:27:21.141 --> 00:27:27.161

you're going to start developing the ability to lift your hips and your shoulders into that flexed shape.

00:27:27.321 --> 00:27:30.821

And then all of a sudden you can start to make those rounded shapes where the

00:27:30.821 --> 00:27:32.681

shape is held together by the flexors.

00:27:32.881 --> 00:27:35.501

And you might use some kind of abdominal muscle whilst you do that too,

00:27:35.561 --> 00:27:36.921

I think I've heard. Right.

00:27:37.941 --> 00:27:42.641

And yeah, so that's where hands in straps,

00:27:42.981 --> 00:27:48.401

if you don't treat it as a, you've got to press the hands into the bed and you've

00:27:48.401 --> 00:27:52.341

got to keep your knees in neutral, spine and neutral knees above the hips 90

00:27:52.341 --> 00:27:56.261

90 blah blah blah if you accept it as a tuck position.

00:27:58.121 --> 00:28:01.001

That's where it starts to become okay when i see you

00:28:01.001 --> 00:28:04.481

do that i'm also looking at you do teaser well

00:28:04.481 --> 00:28:08.601

if i mean you know here was the breakthrough for me and i think it was for you

00:28:08.601 --> 00:28:14.101

too that you know we started out our career thinking about these 500 different

00:28:14.101 --> 00:28:18.421

exercises that we'd each learned as completely separate exercises just like

00:28:18.421 --> 00:28:21.941

you know they're okay there's there's arms in straps and then you know there's

00:28:21.941 --> 00:28:23.981

this other random exercise called teaser and they've.

00:28:25.563 --> 00:28:28.263

Like saying there's goldfish and skyscrapers and they're

00:28:28.263 --> 00:28:31.763

just they've got nothing in common whatsoever uh but

00:28:31.763 --> 00:28:34.483

in reality that well what really flipped the

00:28:34.483 --> 00:28:37.123

switch for both of us i think was realizing that's like hold on

00:28:37.123 --> 00:28:40.783

now arms and straps just like is teaser

00:28:40.783 --> 00:28:43.703

just it's just an easier version of teaser

00:28:43.703 --> 00:28:47.523

it's like it literally a baby teaser like

00:28:47.523 --> 00:28:50.383

no box no straight legs you only

00:28:50.383 --> 00:28:53.143

curl up a bit rather than killing it all the way but apart from

00:28:53.143 --> 00:28:55.903

it's like it's it's teaser and so once you

00:28:55.903 --> 00:28:58.523

see that you can't unsee it and then you're like

00:28:58.523 --> 00:29:01.863

holy shit everything's teaser you know

00:29:01.863 --> 00:29:04.843

it's all teaser and you're like oh hold on no swan

00:29:04.843 --> 00:29:08.743

dive isn't teaser okay but then you're like okay but yeah but what about shoulder

00:29:08.743 --> 00:29:12.383

bridge shoulder bridge is just swan dive oh grass grass up the swan dive cat

00:29:12.383 --> 00:29:15.943

stretch is swan dive everything's swan dive or like there's only swan dive and

00:29:15.943 --> 00:29:19.363

teaser that's it and you're like oh hold on what about side bend you're like

00:29:19.363 --> 00:29:22.623

and eventually you get to this point where there's like there's like four or

00:29:22.623 --> 00:29:23.963

five moves in the whole world,

00:29:25.523 --> 00:29:28.863

and everything is just a baby version of

00:29:28.863 --> 00:29:33.523

one of those things you know just you know to a greater when i say baby version

00:29:33.523 --> 00:29:39.483

it's a layer on the way to that thing you know shoulder bridge is a layer oh

00:29:39.483 --> 00:29:44.223

shit i said we weren't going to talk about shoulder bridge all right all right

00:29:44.223 --> 00:29:48.183

we're going have to start this whole episode again now. Yeah, it's for the 84th take.

00:29:50.143 --> 00:29:53.203

So, all right, stay away from shoulder bridge. I will not say shoulder bridge.

00:29:53.283 --> 00:29:54.023

I will not say shoulder bridge.

00:29:54.883 --> 00:30:00.563

So, yeah, so the arms and straps just is a, it's one of the stepping stones on the way to teaser.

00:30:00.643 --> 00:30:03.723

And if you think about it, ladies and gentlemen, you know, out there in the

00:30:03.723 --> 00:30:07.863

Pilates stratosphere, it's like, you think about teaser on the long box and

00:30:07.863 --> 00:30:12.543

take the box away, bend your knees, bam, arms and straps, you know.

00:30:12.543 --> 00:30:17.703

So let's, let's, let's, and let's, so Raph's just done a great job of like pulling

00:30:17.703 --> 00:30:21.643

the camera right out and seeing that there's only two or three or four exercises in total.

00:30:22.043 --> 00:30:25.403

And then if we zoom in on what we've just said, and just quickly think about

00:30:25.403 --> 00:30:29.203

the difference there, because there are differences between hands and straps and teaser.

00:30:30.911 --> 00:30:34.371

And the teaser, and if you haven't tried it yet, folks,

00:30:34.571 --> 00:30:40.951

put one spring on and give it a fair crack, and you can probably roll to a pretty

00:30:40.951 --> 00:30:46.091

darn good teaser with a few efforts without the box, right? So you can do teaser off the carriage.

00:30:47.011 --> 00:30:49.731

And when you do what one of

00:30:49.731 --> 00:30:52.691

the differences between hands in straps where we're calling the hands above the

00:30:52.691 --> 00:30:55.531

shoulders and teaser will be usually the hand if

00:30:55.531 --> 00:31:00.051

especially in a classical teaser they're they're below the shoulders in a in

00:31:00.051 --> 00:31:04.431

a t position rather than above the shoulders in a you know pointing your fingers

00:31:04.431 --> 00:31:08.711

at the ceiling you put the t in teaser right and when you hit the t and teaser

00:31:08.711 --> 00:31:12.391

and when you if you especially if you well not especially but when you come

00:31:12.391 --> 00:31:14.051

and look for tees are off the carriage,

00:31:14.551 --> 00:31:17.231

very, very hard to do with your hands above your shoulders.

00:31:17.391 --> 00:31:20.591

But when your hands are lower, it gives you a better line of pull.

00:31:20.691 --> 00:31:22.091

You can pull your hips up more easily.

00:31:22.251 --> 00:31:27.011

So it looks different, but it's the same muscle systems working around a different

00:31:27.011 --> 00:31:28.231

distribution of challenge.

00:31:29.311 --> 00:31:33.751

And this, you know, this, this just before, like you, you,

00:31:34.351 --> 00:31:38.011

one of the things Raf's talked about in a couple of the recent podcasts that

00:31:38.011 --> 00:31:42.411

I think is really important for us to understand as Pilates instructors is this

00:31:42.411 --> 00:31:46.491

concept of general strength and how it then applies to specific skills.

00:31:47.011 --> 00:31:51.431

So if you make, and I've seen this play out over years, and when Raf said something

00:31:51.431 --> 00:31:54.851

about four, five, six months ago, it unlocked something I'd been trying to make sense of.

00:31:55.151 --> 00:31:59.031

For years and years, I've taught the same hands in straps sequence,

00:31:59.291 --> 00:32:01.471

let's say 60% of all my classes.

00:32:01.771 --> 00:32:04.911

And every time someone makes it look easy enough, I add more spring tension.

00:32:05.091 --> 00:32:10.211

And we just very, very similar, almost the same.

00:32:10.811 --> 00:32:13.951

Tuck, followed by single legs, followed by double legs, followed by straddles

00:32:13.951 --> 00:32:16.871

with some variations in to mix it up a little bit. And when you get stronger,

00:32:16.991 --> 00:32:17.871

add more spring tension.

00:32:19.163 --> 00:32:23.783

And what I realize now is that's built people's general strength.

00:32:23.943 --> 00:32:27.263

There's their armpits, their abs, and their hip flexors consistently over time.

00:32:27.883 --> 00:32:33.683

And then what that gives them is this pool of strength that they can then assimilate

00:32:33.683 --> 00:32:35.843

new skill challenges more easily.

00:32:35.983 --> 00:32:38.843

So then when I go and say, we're going to try this funky little thing,

00:32:39.203 --> 00:32:43.963

teaser off the carriage, put one spring on, those people are just like, what do you want me to do?

00:32:44.183 --> 00:32:47.963

It takes them like three reps, maybe six. They go, oh, arms in a T.

00:32:48.603 --> 00:32:51.903

Oh, and I leave my legs out to begin with. But then when I press,

00:32:51.983 --> 00:32:54.083

I pull my knees to, oh, and I popped up. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah,

00:32:54.083 --> 00:32:55.423

I don't even need to bend my knees now.

00:32:56.423 --> 00:33:03.083

But I built the general strength through the consistent repetitive programming where I add load.

00:33:03.263 --> 00:33:06.383

And then when I go and do something funky that requires a different skill,

00:33:06.563 --> 00:33:12.783

which might also be a dissociation skill, they've got this pool of strength.

00:33:12.923 --> 00:33:15.143

They're like, oh, cool. Yeah, I can do that. No problem. How many do you want?

00:33:18.484 --> 00:33:21.424

And that's what you see when you have someone come into your class who's

00:33:21.424 --> 00:33:24.404

never done Pilates before but they've done a lot of gymnastics or ballet

00:33:24.404 --> 00:33:27.024

or martial arts or yoga or whatever it might

00:33:27.024 --> 00:33:30.024

be and they're like oh fuck that was really easy on your first class you

00:33:30.024 --> 00:33:32.824

know and that's because they've built they've

00:33:32.824 --> 00:33:36.064

got a base level of strength and flexibility and body control

00:33:36.064 --> 00:33:41.904

from doing those similar but not identical movements and just to finish up uh

00:33:41.904 --> 00:33:49.384

here's a non-exhaustive list of the episodes where we have examined in detail

00:33:49.384 --> 00:33:53.464

the concept of stability. Episode 14, what the fuck is core stability?

00:33:53.764 --> 00:33:57.684

Episode 29, scapular stability? Episode 47, pelvic instability,

00:33:57.944 --> 00:33:59.184

what Pilates instructors need to know.

00:33:59.804 --> 00:34:03.684

Episode 169, why stability is not a useful word in Pilates.

00:34:04.224 --> 00:34:08.224

Episode 258, the case for retiring stability as a concept in Pilates.

00:34:09.244 --> 00:34:13.624

Anyway, you can check out some or all or none of those if you want to know my

00:34:13.624 --> 00:34:19.344

deeper thoughts and some of the literature around those concepts of stability.

00:34:19.884 --> 00:34:26.724

But for now, I'm sorry, I did break the taboo and mention the exercise that

00:34:26.724 --> 00:34:32.524

shall remain nameless that we talk about a lot on this podcast.

00:34:34.084 --> 00:34:37.204

But um that ladies and gentlemen is what

00:34:37.204 --> 00:34:39.924

flamingo arms in

00:34:39.924 --> 00:34:44.464

straps and reverse knee stretches have in common and why they are the same and

00:34:44.464 --> 00:34:49.124

it's in fact they're also the same as teaser elephant and a whole bunch of other

00:34:49.124 --> 00:34:55.944

exercises that involve hip flexion spinal flexion and shoulder extension can

00:34:55.944 --> 00:34:59.764

i just put a can i can i just put a an end note on it yeah,

00:35:00.604 --> 00:35:02.504

so of course um.

00:35:05.219 --> 00:35:07.539

Because this is something a lot of people have asked me about.

00:35:08.759 --> 00:35:15.479

In flamingo, the back leg being straight is, is the skill that makes you more efficient.

00:35:15.479 --> 00:35:21.079

So if I can get you to do that, you will unlock, that was the PTSD term,

00:35:21.159 --> 00:35:26.199

but you know, you'll unlock that skill more easily if you can keep your back leg straight.

00:35:26.399 --> 00:35:29.919

And then one of the things that's, uh, challenging in a, especially in a group

00:35:29.919 --> 00:35:34.799

class about teaching that is when people are doing flamingo, if you haven't,

00:35:35.719 --> 00:35:39.819

already established with them what a straight leg means, Flamingo is not a great

00:35:39.819 --> 00:35:42.359

place to teach them because they're solving lots of problems.

00:35:42.479 --> 00:35:44.759

The bed's moving, their body weight's in their hands.

00:35:44.959 --> 00:35:49.779

It's like learning to juggle chainsaws when you haven't juggled tennis balls, right?

00:35:49.879 --> 00:35:54.059

So because they can't see their back knee and there's a whole bunch of variables

00:35:54.059 --> 00:35:55.059

that can, you know, blah, blah, blah.

00:35:55.519 --> 00:36:00.859

So then when we teach footwork and we push the bed out and lock the knee,

00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:05.079

or when we teach feet and straps and you do straight legs and you keep your knees locked,

00:36:05.699 --> 00:36:09.419

if you draw people's attention to that when they're doing it,

00:36:09.499 --> 00:36:11.639

just say, okay, making sure the knee's locked, that's really good.

00:36:11.799 --> 00:36:13.139

Barbara, that's exactly what I mean.

00:36:14.149 --> 00:36:18.449

If you're going to teach Flamingo in that class and they've already experienced

00:36:18.449 --> 00:36:22.749

a locked knee, then you've got something you can refer back to.

00:36:23.029 --> 00:36:27.249

And sometimes that sounds kind of pedantic. Like people think,

00:36:27.309 --> 00:36:30.109

just teach it in the Flamingo. It's like, yeah, sure, you can.

00:36:30.449 --> 00:36:34.549

But if I've got 12 people who know it and four people who don't,

00:36:34.909 --> 00:36:39.289

I'm taking a risk thinking, yeah, I can definitely teach it in Flamingo.

00:36:39.289 --> 00:36:45.029

If I teach it earlier, I am reducing the chances of that person not succeeding

00:36:45.029 --> 00:36:46.369

at the more complicated movement.

00:36:46.649 --> 00:36:50.249

And, you know, my, one of my, my big thing is everyone rides together.

00:36:50.249 --> 00:36:53.549

So if I want to teach flamingo, I want to make sure everyone gets it.

00:36:53.849 --> 00:36:59.609

And so if I want to teach it and I don't know you, I will make a point of pointing

00:36:59.609 --> 00:37:03.789

out that your knee is locked here in footwork or here in feet and straps so

00:37:03.789 --> 00:37:05.689

that we've got a shared language.

00:37:05.869 --> 00:37:10.129

When I pull the flamingo out of the hat, which has got a whole bunch of other stuff going on as well.

00:37:10.429 --> 00:37:14.129

And again, that's essentially dissociation.

00:37:14.249 --> 00:37:17.049

It's like, push the bed out, bring the bed back. I want you to lock your knee.

00:37:17.189 --> 00:37:19.109

You know what you're doing with your body.

00:37:21.609 --> 00:37:26.789

But if there was an argument for teaching dissociated knee stretches,

00:37:28.715 --> 00:37:32.455

it would be, is that skill going to transfer to something later?

00:37:32.775 --> 00:37:36.055

And the problem with knee stretches where it was all dissociative,

00:37:36.135 --> 00:37:40.275

I couldn't see where those, keeping neutral doesn't transfer well to something else.

00:37:40.515 --> 00:37:43.275

But learning to lock your knees really does.

00:37:44.675 --> 00:37:51.455

And if you were really going to take that legs in straps kind of parallel to the next level,

00:37:51.455 --> 00:37:59.355

you would teach something like a short spine okay legs locked lift the legs

00:37:59.355 --> 00:38:03.975

roll the hips up roll up to a full shoulder bridge or shoulder stand should

00:38:03.975 --> 00:38:06.555

i should i said it it's obsessed um,

00:38:07.595 --> 00:38:13.955

roll up to a fully flexed kind of jackknife you know shoulder stand then bend

00:38:13.955 --> 00:38:19.115

your knees to your eyeballs and roll down and then push away.

00:38:19.275 --> 00:38:23.615

And so that is, now, a little bit different muscular emphasis depending on how

00:38:23.615 --> 00:38:26.395

many springs you got on and what your body weight is and so on and so forth.

00:38:26.495 --> 00:38:33.635

But basically the same movement as your flamingo, as your reverse knee stretch, as your arms in straps.

00:38:34.315 --> 00:38:39.775

Yep. Basically the same movement. So it's just another layer of the system.

00:38:39.875 --> 00:38:43.635

And once you've understood, like once you've got your client understanding that,

00:38:43.755 --> 00:38:47.915

or yourself, if you, I'm going to, about to go to Pilates hell,

00:38:48.075 --> 00:38:51.515

I'm going to suggest that you do your feet and straps on a variety of spring tensions.

00:38:51.775 --> 00:38:55.855

And as that spring tension comes all the way down to zero, when you start doing

00:38:55.855 --> 00:38:59.595

what I would call a naked short spine, which is short spine with no straps.

00:39:00.055 --> 00:39:03.495

Now you're going straight to Pilates hell, naked short spine.

00:39:04.175 --> 00:39:06.455

It's like, I can't unsee that now.

00:39:09.215 --> 00:39:11.235

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it gets people's attention.

00:39:13.395 --> 00:39:17.895

Just, could you warn me next time before we do that naked one in class?

00:39:18.995 --> 00:39:24.155

I just have to quickly, you know, go off camera to get my… Put your courtesy shorts on.

00:39:26.855 --> 00:39:28.035

Maybe a pair of sunglasses.

00:39:31.735 --> 00:39:34.615

Good talk. See you later.