Pilates Printable Before Printing, Click on File, then Page Setup, & Select Landscape Orientation!
../pevigouralt.gif (5K) Pilates Exercise: Knee Drops Home | Free Pilates Exercises Online | Glossary of Terms
Knee Drops:- Start Position
  1. Lie on the floor in the Relaxation Position
  2. Pelvic Neutral
  3. Anchor your scapulas.
  4. Chin gently tucked.
Knee Drops, Action:-
  1. Zip and hollow and breathe in.
  2. (Breathing out): let your right knee open slowly to the side. (Perfectly still pelvis!)
  3. (Breathing in): let your knee return to the centre.
  4. Repeat five times each leg.
What this exercise does-
  • Teaches you to move your hip joints while not moving your lumbar spine.
Older folk in particular have weak abdominal muscles (torso becomes hyper-mobile), while the hip muscles become shortened (the hips become hypo-mobile). The result is increased movement and strain of the intervertebral joints.
(Scroll right>>>>....)
Knee Drops: Start Position-
RelaxPosi.gif (6K)

Watch Points for Knee Drops:-		 Knee Drops: Action-

KneeDrop.gif (6K)
  • Maintain scapular anchor.
  • The pelvic clock face looks straight up toward the ceiling and never deviates.
  • Keep all other muscles relaxed.
  • Don't rush! Concentrate on good technique!

Warning! - your physiotherapist may tell you to do one of these two exercises. Do not obey him! - but if you must, then make sure that you engage the gluteal muscles and maintain "zip and hollow"! pLowSpineTwist2
pLowSpineTwist
© Bruce Thomson, EasyVigour Project scroll up^^^^.....
Comment and Picture: "Where the Spine Moves".
Note that the lumbar spine does not twist! Only the very lowest spinal joint (the lumbo-sacral joint) twists - up to 5 degrees is normal - but it is prone to over twisting if the Transversus abdominis and Gluteus maximus and medius are not engaging as they should. Also, "the sacroiliac joint remains healthier if it is not stretched too much"(2). pSpineJointMovement
Reference
  1. Shirley A Sahrman: "Movement Impairment Syndromes" Publ. Mosby, 2002 ISBN 0-8016-7205-8
  2. Judith Lasater: Out of Joint - http://www.yogajournal.com/health/562_1.cfm