Pilates Chin Tuck Form

Video Transcript

"Any given day, depending on what we've been doing, whether it's gardening or working at the office or doing house cleaning, your head is going to be in a different position. So you want to make sure when you're on the mat that your head is in the same chin tuck position that it would be if you are sitting up. So, I'm going to come down and show you that when I lay die, I've got a huge C-curve in my spine. And what I want is for my head to be like that. So I'm going to start stacking things up. So that's better, you can see that my chin is still up and there's still a bit of a C. So I'm going to take another piece of this mat that I have and bring it up. Now that's pretty good. So my starting position now is, and I could probably use about another half inch, my starting position now is in the chin tuck position. So that when I come up, I don't have to do anything with my muscles in my neck. I don't have to strain them. I won't be hurting them. If I came up with my head down like this, I have to strain my muscles in my neck to bring the head all the way forward. And that is why a lot of people doing abdominal work end up say, "oh, my neck hurt after that." So some people might need as much as something like this, which is an airplane pillow to support their head. Other people might just need a little puff ball that gives them a little bit of lift in their head. So it really just depends. So before you begin any exercise program, find out what you need under your head before you begin to do the abdominal work."