Athletes can be prone to tight calf muscles, especially in runners, bicyclists, and any other fitness enthusiast that use cardiovascular machines. The calf muscle group consists of the gastrocnemius muscle and the soleus muscle. The symptoms are a gradual tightening in the calf muscles that can get worse when repeating a movement over and over again. One of the ways Pilates instructors do to lengthen the muscles of the calves is to do an exercise called running, also known as tendon stretch.
Running on the reformer is not exactly what new clients think it is when they first hear about it. The main purpose of it is to stretch the aforementioned muscles of the calves as well as the Achilles tendon. It should be done slowly because if there?s bouncing during the movement, the client can pull his/her muscle.
To set up the reformer for this exercise, the springs must be adjusted to a lighter setting that was used for footwork. If a client used all the springs during their footwork movements, then the ?weight? will be decreased by a full two springs. This leaves three springs on which is more than sufficient. I?m not shy about going to only two springs either if the client is really tight.
The client will be laying down in supine position, with their head on the headrest and feet against the foot bar. They should be on the balls of their feet, with their legs hip width distance apart. The client will extend the carriage all the way out so that both legs are extended long, and I like for them to drop their heels under the foot bar. I do this to acquaint them with stretching out their calves. Then to start the exercise, they will flex the calves of one leg while keeping the heel of the other leg down. Then they will point both feet, effectively doing a double calf raise. Once both feet are pointed, I they will then drop the heel of the opposite foot to stretch out that calf. This is done in an alternating fashion for roughly about a minute time. For a newer client, I will have them stop shorter than that.
There are certain things to watch out for when doing this exercise. The first thing I look for is that my client doesn?t hyperextend their legs when it comes time to straighten out their leg for the calf stretch. I also make sure that they don?t supinate their foot. I will see this when the ball of the big toe starts to lift. The other thing to look for is a pronated foot, which is bad for the knees. The hips are of particular interest as well since hip hiking is common with someone with muscle imbalances. Body awareness is of utmost importance when asking someone to work on hip differentiation.
Raymond Villon is a Los Angeles Pilates instructor who runs a business that brings a reformer apparatus to his client?s home sessions.
He can be found at http://www.easthollywoodpilatescompany.com/ and http://www.reformerroadshow.com/
jimmy fallon nick collins marco rubio marco rubio wwdc dave matthews ambien
No comments:
Post a Comment