Pilates series 7# – squats and lunges

Wendy Davies suggests three exercises to improve your stability and alignment when land training

If you’re doing a lot more land work and weights, this will be putting different demands on your body. Poor technique can lead to injuries, so we are going to focus on increasing stability of the upper body, and promoting good knee and hip alignment for squatting and lunging. These exercises will help you stay injury free and get the most out of your land training.

Exercises

1 – Plank with shoulder tap tips

Don’t let your chest or hips drop, and don’t push your bottom up.

Increasing the challenge

Perform press-ups, touching the opposite shoulder after each one.

These exercises will help you stay injury free and get the most out of your land training

2 – Standing single leg squat tips

Try not to let your knee wobble, and don’t snap it back into a straight position at the end of the movement.

Increasing the challenge

• Hold a pair of dumbbells or a kettlebell.
• Perform the squat while pulling on a cable cord from the side of your body.

3 – Forward lunge

Tip

Keep your hips facing forwards.

Increasing the challenge

• Hold a dumbbell in each hand.
• When in the lunge position, pass a kettlebell under the thigh before returning to the start position.