Adding balance to your life

It is a no-brainer, that maintaining a healthy life balance is not only essential for your productivity and career success; it can tremendously boost your happiness and mental and physical wellbeing. Striving for this balance within our lives whether it is mind, body or soul is something we all try to achieve in some way or another. However, when coming into a BASI Pilates class our Block System ensures that you have a mindful full-body workout. As Pilates instructors, we aim to lengthen and strengthen your musculature in all planes and directions and challenge your mind to be present within each and every exercise and between movement patterns.

We recognise that each client is regarded as an individual so for a healthy body here is a quick little full-body workout that you can do to add balance into your life.

Explore the world
 Rising on your toes - physically challenging your balance and stability. Work into your feet, calves, hamstrings, glutes and abdominals. Grow through the crown of your head.

Live with purpose
 Pelvic Curl - Lying on your back with a neutral alignment through your spine and pelvis, tilt your pelvis and articulate it all the way up, and then slowly curl all the way back down. You should feel your abdominals, hamstrings and gluteus muscles working.

Relationships matter
 Spine Twist Supine - Lying on your back with your arms out to a T with your palms facing up and your legs bent 90 degrees. Inhale take your legs over to one side squeezing your inner thighs together and exhale and bring them back using your obliques.

Honour “me time”
 Chest Liftover roller for extension - Lying on your back with the roller at your shoulder blades. Take your head, neck and chest into the extension to enjoy the stretch before working your abdominals in flexion of the spine.

Add and subtract
 Saw - Sitting upright, with your legs ideally straight and shoulder-width apart, feet flexed and arms in a T position. Rotate the torso, reach forward as your back arm internally rotates and the front hand goes past the small toe, extend the spine and come back up and then return to the starting position. You should be able to feel a good stretch through the spine, and hamstrings as well as working your back extensors, obliques and hamstrings.

Manage yourself not your time
 Side Plank (with variations to make it easier with shorter leavers and more challenging with longer leavers) - sitting sideways, weight on one pelvis and the supporting arm, lift the pelvis off the floor. You should be able to feel the supporting oblique and shoulder working and the top oblique may get a stretch.

Treat yourself
 Cat Stretch - Kneeling in a quadruped position with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Your spine (including your neck) is in a long neutral line. Lengthen up through the upper back into upper back extension, then return to neutral and then round just the lumbar spine into deep flexon and return to neutral. In extension, focus on the upper back, the lower back will naturally move. In lumbar flexion, focus on the lower back and the upper back will naturally move. You should be able to feel your abdominals and upper back extensors working.

Shine your heart to the world
 Back extension - Lying prone, arms long and palms down to hips and off the floor, shoulders wide, nose hovering off the floor and abdominals engaged. Lift the head, neck and chest up in one unit working your back extensors and keeping your abdominals engaged and the lower back to starting position.

Life, in many ways, is a balancing act. Enjoy this workout and find the balance from within.