Pilates and sports BOTH require:

• Core strength
• Proper body alignment
• Natural flowing movement
• Efficient breathing
• A body-mind connection

Use the Pilates principles for your Tri/Duathlon sports

Swimming

• Use your core (abdominal and back muscles) each stroke so you are not relying on the arms and shoulder joints alone
• A strong core helps in aligning your body so legs do not drop below the hips
• Use appropriate breathing to help you stay focused and calm
• Strengthen your core to help you stay aligned and balanced in the water
• Improve rotary flexibility in hips which is important for proper breathing
• Improve flexibility in shoulder, hips and feet to improve kicking and strokes

Biking

• Create a rhythm of breathing to establish pace, cadence and focus
• Center your muscle engagement in the core and minimize torso movement
• Be precise; quiet in the torso, relaxed in the shoulders, elbows and jaw
• Avoid gripping the handlebars and stay centered over your bike

Running

• Pilates emphasizes proper body alignment, breathing and relaxed shoulders – important for fluid, more effortless running
• Pilates promotes flexibility in the legs, hips, torso and shoulders improving range of motion, and forward lean from the ankles, not the waist
• Pilates improves posture, balance, & core strength to support the low back
• Running recruits the hamstrings, hips, calves, buttocks and IT band
• Pilates exercises work to correct the resulting tightness and muscle imbalance of the strength of the hamstrings to the quadriceps

Pilates core strength and stretching will be incorporated into Lisa Hesse’s Tri Training program Thursday evenings beginning April 12/12.