Merrithew® Lead Instructor Jenny Carr often uses Total Barre® programming to train her athlete clients— everyone from dancers to pro football players.
“The programming in Total Barre is the perfect conditioning and mobility workout for athletes. They all love what it does for their strength and agility,” says Jenny, the owner of Merrithew Licensed Training Center, Intermountain Pilates Training Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In this Exercise of the Month video, she guides STOTT PILATES® Certified Instructor Kris Brown through a standing lunge and squat sequence using the large Stability Cushion™ and a side-lying lift with the Toning Balls™.
“These are high tempo Total Barre exercises that involve transferring the load in different planes of motion. These exercises challenge stability, balance and strength throughout the body,” she explains.
Tips
For the lunge and squat exercise:
- Make sure your pelvis is in neutral and your shoulders, ribs and hips are stacked as you move through the motions
- Keep thinking about applying pressure down through your stable leg into the Stability Cushion to maintain your balance
- Once you’ve mastered the form, start alternating between lunging backwards and squatting sideways, working in the sagittal and coronal planes
For the side-lying oblique lift:
- With the Toning Ball in the upper arm, this exercise works the whole lateral line of the body, including the obliques and lats. It also encourages mobility through the thoracic spine in lateral flexion
- To add on to this exercise, you can lift the upper leg, activating the glutes; to regress this exercise, do it without the Toning Ball