Pilates Side Bend with Sarah Todd

Check out UHM Director and Pilates teacher Sarah Todd demonstrating one of APPI’s advanced movements Pilates Side Bend which forms part of the MW3 repertoire. Below,  APPI course Presenter and UHM education coordinator Sophie Contreras talks us through a few reasons to try the Pilates Side Bend! "An exercise such as APPI’s Pilates Side bend demonstrates how we can progress our clients beyond the early stages of rehabilitation to challenge strength and total body control and awareness. Pilates Side bend at both level 1 and 2 challenges the neck and shoulder significantly more than many of the the other movements in the repertoire as well as trunk control and abdominal strength. It’s imperative that clients have good deep neck flexor control to maintain the correct head alignment as well as high level scapular control to deal with  weight bearing through the upper limb. Look out for excessive tension and “work” through the neck and shoulders.  If people feel discomfort in their neck, it’s probably a sign that you need to regress their programme to focus on some more specific upper quadrant exercises to manage loading progressively and build them up to this advanced movement. If the client has appropriate awareness and control to try this exercises, it’s a fantastic way to improve global strength as pretty much all the slings we focus on in the repertoire are engaged. After a few sets of Pilates side bend you should definitely feel you have had a good shoulder and oblique workout with plenty of help from your adductors and lateral sling (especially level 1).  As well as the strength challenge to lift yourself away from the floor and maintain this position, we get the added benefit of trunk and shoulder mobility as the spine comes into lateral flexion with an overhead reach of the upper most limb, lengthening  out thorough the lats - often a much needed stretch! " Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/embed/y5veDuGcdB8 Learn this and the rest of our intermediate / advanced Pilates movements on our APPI Matwork Level 3 - Intermediate / Advanced Pilates course. The APPI intermediate and advanced exercises are all taught with clinical applications as the main focus. On the course you will  undertake movements requiring full body control and strength  and learn how to effectively teach them in order to progress your clients through their rehabilitation to high level function and fitness.