Chest Lift

The chest lift. This is an abdominal exercise can be very intense, but it's often used as a warm up or one of the fundamental exercises to get us going. So Marta is going to start with our fingers fully laced together. You can also teach it, but holding a couple of fingers or hand over hand. I'm going to have her do it all the way together. By the way, when you do lace your fingers together, if you're going to do that, they should be fully laced. You don't want to hang out on the joints, rather put them fully together and it has a little to do with where our elbows end up in the long run. So here we go. She's going to take her hands behind her head and she's supporting her heads and so her hands have now become her pillow up. Allow your elbows up, Marta to come just off the floor. That's great. I we do that just to so that we don't create excess tension.

If you can take your arms directly to the side, that's fine, but I think this is the best example to start with. Her shoulders are down. Abdominals. Just lightly engaged in that. She knows that's what she's going to work, and her pelvis is neutral. She inhales to prepare. She'll start exhaling, feeling the abdominals engaged in. That's what brings her head, neck and shoulders up. Good folding right here across that chest line, maintaining her neutral. Inhale, prepare or hold, and then exhale. She's going to take herself back down. Inhaling at the bottom, notice how the breath comes. A split second first.

She's exhaling now and then the muscle tension comes in and pulls her into position. She inhales to hold and Xcel. She's continuing to work on the way down, so don't be fooled that that's just a slow way home. It's meant to work both ways. Just one more for the chest lift. Ideally, you curl up high enough that your low back releases to the floor. If that doesn't happen, it might be worth a small tuck of the pelvis.

Inhale and exhale down the chest. Lift.