Free Pilates Online Exercise: The Saw!

The Saw is a complex and favorite free Pilates online exercise for me and my clients as it combines the flexibility of the Spine Stretch Forward and the upper body core strength involved in the Spine Twist.

I also love the oppositional strength you get and the rotational stretch between the ribs and pelvis.

This free Pilates online exercise can be done sitting or standing.

For demonstration here I will show you the Saw done as a classic Pilates mat exercise.

Begin by sitting tall on your Pilates exercise mat with your legs open about shoulder width or wider than your mat.

Feel like you are lifted up off your sitz (sitting bones) at the base of your pelvis.

In this position you should feel your collar bone right up over your sitz bones, ears over shoulders, and length up through the back top of the head. In other words, your posture is very good.

If you have very tight hamstrings or cannot sit comfortably this way, prop yourself up on a rolled Pilates exercise mat or towel to lift you up and take some pressure off your hamstrings and lower back.

Find this free pilates exercise along with many more pictures and descriptions in my newly revised Pilates Ebook.

Now, let's begin to do this free Pilates online move:

-Inhale as you let your arms reach out to the sides from your chest, exhale staying tall and feeling the abdominal muscles contract and deepen around your spine.

-Inhale again as you turn at your waist with the left arm reaching toward your right foot and then exhale as you reach down the leg trying to saw off your pinky toe reaching your right arm behind you.

-Hollow your pelvis as you reach so you are getting that deeper spine stretch forward feeling.

-Look towards your back hand as you keeping sawing forward a little more with two or three breath cycles.

-Then, inhale as you feel your spine untwisting coming back up tall to starting position.

-Exhale as you turn and reach towards the left foot and repeat the exercise to the other side.

-Repeat the Pilates Saw turning to each side 3-6 times, reaching maybe a little farther on each twist.

Check out more of my free Pilates online exercise of the month at this page.

Some things to think about as you do this Pilates exercise:

*As you turn and reach to the opposite side make sure to keep the opposite sitz bone anchored to the mat, it will want to lift off so only turn and reach as far as you can keep it down.

*Bend your knees a bit as you reach down the leg to help keep the pelvis still and the sitz bones down evenly.

*Feel your back arm start to lift and unwind you back to the center.

Find more free Pilates online exercises here on my site with 100's of pages of exercises and information for you.

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