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Lower Back Pain Causes & Solutions Up an Down with a Tennis Ball

Pilates Information
Pilates Alexander Technique
Free pilates Exercises Online
Up an Down with a Tennis Ball:- Start Position
  1. Stand sideways to a wall, and place a tennis ball between your ankles just below the ankle bone.
  2. Form your foot arches, and keep the insides of your feet parallel.
  3. Find and maintain pelvic neutral.
  4. Clench your buttock muscles.
  5. Long spine.
  6. Anchor the scapulas.
  7. Long back of neck, tuck the chin.
Up an Down with a Tennis Ball:- Action
(You will need to look down to check knee alignment)
  1. Breathe in, and zip and hollow.
  2. (Breathing out): Rise up onto your toes.
  3. Breathe in.
  4. (Breathing out): Slowly lower back down. Once your heels are on the ground, continue down by bending your knees slightly.
  5. Repeat five to ten times. Do not hurry



© Bruce Thomson, EasyVigour Project
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Up an Down with a Tennis Ball:
Start Position
UpDownTBallStrt 		Action
UpDownTBallMid UpDownTBallFin
Comments
  1. The person in the diagrams has failed to clench the buttocks, and demonstrates the result: He is in swayed back alignment, with the back of the shoulder blades behind a vertical line drawn through the back of the buttocks. This is a potentially harmful defect in body positioning(2,3). If possible, do this exercise watching yourself in the mirror. This will help you to check for sway back and ankle and knee alignment.
  2. This is a great exercise to do if you have been desk bound for a long period.
What it does
  • Aids alignment of the legs. What it especially does is prevent the knees from looking inward toward each other (hip medial rotation).(1)
  • Teaches the foot arches and buttock muscles to work together as nature designed them to do(3)!
  • Prevents sway back (but see point [1] under comments).
  • Teaches some of the movement patterns associates with healthy walking(3).
Watch Points
  • Keep lengthening upward throughout.
  • Remember to clench the buttocks to help prevent "sway back".
Reference
  1. Shirley A Sahrmann: Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes; Publ. Mosby 2002
  2. The Official Body Control Pilates Manual Available from: http://www.bodycontrol.co.uk/
  3. Bruce Thomson: Engage Gluteus maximus!

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