How to Do Pilates One Leg Kick Exercise - Women's Fitness

How to Do Pilates One Leg Kick Exercise - part of the women's fitness video series by GeoBeats. Hi we're Kimberly and Katherine Corp of Pilates on Fifth in New York City and we're going to show you the Pilates exercise, One Leg Kick. So Katherine will roll to her stomach and the first thing she'll do is prop herself up on her elbows. You want your elbows right under your shoulders. Now the key here is the position so we'll do it wrong first. Notice how she's collapsed, like she's lying on the beach watching the waves, relaxing. So we don't want that. You want to press into your elbows and really stabilize the shoulders. Then you want to scoop in your abs, contract your Gluteus Maximus, which is your butt muscles here. So notice her hip bones are off the mat but her pubic bone is on the mat. So with your hips, your hips are an extension, but your spine is pretty much in neutral, and that is where the work comes in is keeping your abdominals engaged here so you get the work in the glutes and the hamstrings. And from here we go, we're going to bend the right leg first and we kick-kick and then reach. And we exhale-exhale, inhale reach. Now notice she's pointing and flexing, exhale-exhale, inhale reach. So she points it, and flex, and reaches. And points and flexes and reach. Now you could eliminate the point and flex if that's too much coordination. So the key here is when you bend the knee, you don't let anything shift in the spine and the torso. And if your knees hurt when you do this, just modify the range of motion. I'm going to put my hand up, you can stop right there and that would be fine. And we'll just do the last one. And that is the Pilates exercise, One Leg Kick.