The Swan in Pilates

Video Transcript

"So our next stretch is the swan. It's a good stretch for the upper body. From here you're going to have your hands next to your chest just like Alex has. He's going to press his hips into the floor as he pulls his navel in towards his spine. He's going to use his arms to press all the way up, keeping his hips flat onto that mat. Relaxing the neck back. Take a deep inhale and start to bend the elbows and come all the way back down. You can also keep your legs hip distance apart or you can close them like one leg, like a cobra. So close your legs, right there, thank you. So take a deep inhale and press the hips in, lift the belly button off and press the arms back. Keeping the elbows all the way back towards the hips. Opening up the chest towards the ceiling. Take a deep inhale here and slowly lower all the way down. A variation on this exercise is to stay down and just rotate your elbows towards your hips as you lift your chest up a little bit, so you're on your forearms here. Press and then lower right back down. So you don't have the straight arch in your back, you can do this as well. Again, press all the way up and lower all the way down. That was the swan, our next stretch will be rocker."