FOR BETTER POSTURE

“Posture is really about back strength,” says British physiotherapist and Pilates instructor Helen O’Leary. “The more the muscles in the back of your body work, the more they will hold you up against gravity.” Use these three movements in a circuit, doing each once.

Prone press

“Lie on your stomach with your hands by your chest and your nose hovering above the floor. Press your pubic bone into the floor to create a stable base. Press down into your hands and imagine you are pressing the floor away – this will start to send your upper chest off the floor. Pause with your lowest ribs on the floor, take a breath and then lower back down. As you improve, try lifting your hands at the top of the movement to see if you can hold yourself up.”

Pilates swimming

“Very much a progression of the prone press – this will test your endurance as well as your core control,” O’Leary says.

“Start as before, this time reaching your arms and legs away from each other as if you’re being pulled apart in a tug of war. You should end up with both feet and hands off the floor.

“Pause here, make sure you’re breathing, then start to ‘paddle’ your arms and legs from your shoulder and hip sockets (BELOW).

“Your body will rotate a little and this is fine. Ideally, build the length of time you are up to 60 seconds.”

Single leg kick

“This movement also includes strength work around your shoulders and will mobilise your spine,” O’Leary says. “Lie on your front and press yourself up onto your elbows to make a triangle shape with your forearms, with your hands still slightly apart. Press down into your pubic bone and extend and raise one leg away from you so it hovers off the floor from your lower thigh onwards. Now try to keep that leg off the floor as you start to draw a long arc upwards and outwards with your toes, bending the knee as you do. Again, keep the thigh off the floor and extend the leg out behind you before lowering it to the floor. Repeat five times with each leg.”