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Chris:
“Where talking about 100% quality verses agonizing quantity.”
Rael:
“Absolutely, this is the premises and the foundation of the
method. Now certainly this is my approach to the method. It is
what I believe Joseph Pilates achieved and wanted to continue
achieving.”
Chris:
“Can you explain how the pelvic curl isolates the abdominals?”
Rael:
“Well, I call it an interesting concept of maximum integration
leads to maximum isolation. It’s only because you integrate the
rest of the body so well or to use another term, “stabilize” so
well that you are abele to isolate so well, so in order for that
isolation of that area to occur you need very well integrated
movement, you need to have immaculate stabilization, immaculate
focus, and the body needs to work together as a well oiled
machine, well tuned mechanism in order to isolate on a very high
level, and that isolation, that journey to isolation, never
ends. And that’s why I can do that exercise 100,000 times
25-years everyday and there will still be a tomorrow where I’ll
do it by myself or in front of a class and I’ll say today I got
deeper than I’ve ever got before. Just in a basic exercise like
that. Because the journey never ends, if it was just a matter
of today you achieved it and that’s it, you’ll go no further,
then why continue doing it, that is the beauty of the journey is
that it never ends.”
Chris:
“So in a sense, it’s a quest for the perfect curl?”
Rael:
“Absolutely! The quest for the perfect pelvic curl that is what
life’s about.”
Chris:
“I think that a lot of people can relate to that.
Would you
consider the pelvic curl to be a muscle strengthening exercise,
a fat burning exercise, because I’m sure people are reading this
wondering will this burn fat? Will this flatten their stomach?
Will this better their posture? Will this help their back?” TOP
Rael:
“Will it strengthen and tone the muscles? Yes. Will it flatten
the abdomen? Yes. Will it help posture? Yes.
All of these things if taught and done correctly underlie all of
these. Will it burn fat? Minimally.
I
think ultimately this method is about a way of life a change of
lifestyle and I’ve seen more people drop weight in this method
then in any of the gyms I’ve worked in and in any of the
environments where people are coming specifically for weight
loss. When people come to me specifically for weight loss I say
that ultimately it may be a byproduct but I’m looking at giving
you total way of being not just dropping weight, and I think
people drop weight because they feel differently about
themselves, they’re holding themselves differently. Sometimes
it’s not just the weight it’s how they hold themselves so they
look completely different, though they may not have dropped
weight on the scale. So it can have immense effected, now the
pelvic curl is just one of the many, and we’re introducing it as
the building blocks to an entire program, so I’m not being as
presumptuous as if to say if someone does the pelvic curl 10
times 3 times a week that their whole being is going to change
I’m saying this is the first exercise, the first movement of an
entire series, it starts from the source that one seed is where
it begins.”
TOP
Chris:
“This is the seed of Pilates?”
Rael:
“Yes it is the beginnings it doesn’t have to be this exercise
certain people may start with a different exercise, I think that
it does begin from this because you’re working on breath, the
breath cannot be ignored, you’re working the coordination of
breath and movement, you’re working on you’re recruitment of the
abdominals, you’re working on the introduction of the concept of
the powerhouse, you’re working on the release of the hip flexors
and the extensors of the hip joint very important concept,
people are bound in their hip flexors. So for the teacher it
offers enormous feedback it I see someone doing the pelvic curl
for me it’s one of my ultimate tool of analysis, is the pelvic
curl. I look at a person doing the pelvic curl; it offers me
volumes of information about their body, about their movement,
about tailoring a program for them.”
Chris:
“While the average person is doing this exercise, what ideally
should be going through his head? What should he be
concentrating on: form or breathing?”
TOP
Rael:
“All those things and the operative word here is concentration.
What you want to do is take your mind away from the outside and
bring it inside. You notice that when you are working out at
our gym, I’m not judging. I’m saying, ‘This is different’.
Everything is done to separate the mind and the body. Loud
music, video screens, lights whatever it may be. Here we are
doing everything to make it conducive to concentration and
focus. You want to focus on the muscle groups. You want to
focus on form. You want to focus on breathing and you want to
focus on relaxing as much as you’re focusing on working. If
both happen together, you relax certain areas and work certain
areas and that’s very important. This is effortless work. Less
is more. This is what we want to look for.”
Chris:
“Do you have a final comment that you could leave for our
readers with?”
Rael:
“Now my final comment is that in every exercise should be
imbedded the entire philosophy of this work an exercise should
never just be done for the sake of the exercise again my
opinion. Every exercise should embed the entire philosophy and
all the concepts of this work because you can find that same
precision and much more in every movement, and as they get more
complex and intricate so the explanations become more and more
complex and intricate.”
TOP
Chris:
“What your saying is, every movement is an exercise, so this
will affect how you stand and that a basic thing like sitting in
a chair and rising from that chair can be an exercise.”
Rael:
“Absolutely everything is. I loath to call them exercise. There
is movement and everything in life is movement. What we’ve done
is compile these movements into a series so that you can repeat
them comfortably, efficiently and absolutely. The most basic
movements that we call “gait” is walking and running. The “gait
cycle” is one of the most intricate to analyze and from the gait
cycle we receive myriads of points and mountains of information
about the movements compensations, idiosyncrasies of movements,
movement correction all from the gait analyzes.”
Chris:
“Just from a basic walk.”
Rael:
“Absolutely. Just from a basic step either it be from walking or
running.” <END>
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Pelvic Curl Exercise |
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