Pilates Bridge for Pelvic Stability!The Pilates bridge or pelvic lift is one of the best exercises you can do for pelvic back pain because it helps to strengthen those muscles that support and stabilize the pelvis and hip muscles. I use the Pilates bridge in my classes as a back warm-up exercise to help students stretch and open the vertebra in the spine as they articulate or roll the spine up and down the mat. This articulating motion helps the cerebral spinal fluids to move up and down the spine from the sacrum to the cortex of the skull. In effect you realize more energy, clearer thinking, and increased circulation throughout the body. Position for the Pilates Bridge or Pelvic Lift: Start: Lying on your back with your hands at your sides and knees bent with heels just under the knees or a little farther away. Feel your weight evenly through your feet.
2 VARIATIONS OF THE BRIDGE:1. Articulating Bridge: Inhale to prepare and as you exhale flatten your spine pressing evenly into your heels and curling the tailbone off the mat, then continue to peel the spine one vertebra at a time until the weight is evenly between your shoulder blades. Take a breath in at the top and then exhale again as you roll or peel the spine from the top to the bottom releasing the tailbone last so you come back to neutral position. If you have pelvic back pain this articulation of the spine may feel good for you to stretch and strengthen the back simultaneously. Caution! Do not peel the spine up so high that you have weight in your neck. See this Pilates exercise video online at youtube and on my home page here.
2. Neutral Pilates Bridging: Neutral spine means that the ribcage and tailbone are in contact with the mat with just a natural curve or small space in the lumbar spine. Take a breath in to prepare and feel the muscles tighten and support the spine, then exhale to lift the pelvis straight up. The ribs and hips come up at the same time pressing evenly into your heels as you rise. Inhale at the top then exhale to lower the pelvis and ribcage at the same time back to neutral position on the mat.
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