How to Do Pilates Side Kick Kneeling Exercise - Women's Fitness

  • 13 years ago
How to Do Pilates Side Kick Kneeling Exercise - part of the women's fitness video series by GeoBeats.

Hi, we're Kimberly and Katherine Corp. We own Pilates on Fifth here in Manhattan, and we're going to show you Side Kick Kneeling. A great Pilates exercise for toning the muscles of the legs and of course strengthening the core as all Pilates exercises do. So Katherine will start standing up on her knees. Now this is an advanced exercise so it shouldn't be the first one you try probably. Reaching her arms up to the side, take a nice inhale. On the exhale she'll carefully fall on to that right hand and reach her left leg out, and the left arm bends right in front of the forehead. We don't recommend it at the back of the head because you end up pulling on your head even if you don't mean to. Now we want one straight line. So if I were a bird looking down on her, I see one straight line. Contract your glutes, contract your abdominals, and here we go. Inhale kicking your leg forward twice, inhale-inhale, exhale reach. So the foot flexes as it goes forward, and points to go back. And this is 3 inhale-inhale, exhale reach. And again inhale-inhale. That was 4, now we moved on to 5. What you don't want is the leg to dip and sway as you go, like she just did. No dipping, no swaying, you don't want to lift or lower. It's like you have a little surface of water that you're skimming. Yes! And this is 8 I believe, and this is inhale-inhale, exhale reach. Now we'll show you the transition, reach the leg out. Now you'll press of this hand. Come up to your knees. Then you get to do your little, well you walk over, and then you go to the other side, so you stay on your mat. And that is Side Kick Kneeling.