Exercise #1424

Hundred

2 min - Exercise
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Description



Muscle Focus: Abdominals and muscles of respiration.

Objective: Strengthen abdominals, stabilize Powerhouse, and increase breath control.

Start Position: Lie flat on the Mat with legs together. Exhale as you curl your head and shoulders up, lift and hover arms off the Mat, and float both legs off the Mat to desired height.

Movement: Begin to pump your arms. Inhale for five arm pumps and exhale for five arm pumps.

Precautions: The abdominals stay drawn into the Mat, keeping the back flat and stable on the Mat. The neck stays in line with the spine as one unit.
What You'll Need: Mat

About This Video

Transcript

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Today we're looking at the Hundred. This is one of the first exercises you do in Pilates mat work. It's one of the signature exercises of Pilates, and you'll almost always find some version of it in class. Why do we do it? It's to work the abdominals.

It's to strengthen your core. It's one of the first places we go. It's also for breathing, so you can see that main principle come through throughout the exercise. Showing you the ultimate form of the exercise is Amy Havens. She's lying flat-- this is the set-up for you.

She's lying flat. Her feet are together. You can choose-- and your instructors will change this. So just listen to them. You can choose with your feet apart, heels together.

Or keep them parallel. From there, take your inhale. On the exhale curl your head, neck, and shoulders up. Reach the arms to about hip height, maybe a little higher, and float the legs up. The way that Amy is holding this is deep, deep, deep in the center.

If this is too much, you can take the legs higher or even bend them. So just know that. You want to make sure that your body is still, and it feels OK in the low back. From there she starts to pump her arms, inhaling for five counts. And exhaling for five counts.

She's going to do that 10 cycles. She inhales and exhale two, three, four, five. And inhale-- she does that 10 cycles and that becomes the Hundred. That's the name. How's it feeling so far?

So far, so good. So this is that one. It heats you up. You get to focus on expanding the lungs and filling the lungs. And really centering your body and your mind as you go through the rest of your workout.

Let's do one more cycle inhaling and exhaling. And then just release yourself to the floor. That's the Hundred.

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Comments

The longer I stay on Pilates Anytime the more tools I find. For years with my students I would use flash cards to help those that are visual learners re enforce the work as they learn, now I have these ! Thank you Kristi ~ :)
1 person likes this.
Thank You for these tutorials ~ time to peruse the remaining from a list I saw :)
So happy you are enjoying our exercise tutorials. Be sure to check out Benjamin Degenhardt's in depth tutorial too!

The Hundred Up Close
1 person likes this.
Thanks so much for sharing and teaching. I am an instructor and appreciate all the knowledge to be found on Pilates Anytime. I love getting to be a student as well and enjoying the videos.
But you are not explaining the most important, for me, I wanted to hear exactly how to concentrate on the powerhouse.
Well Debora, I guess that would be different for everyone. What I mean when I say concentrate on the powerhouse is to put your attention in the area of the so called "box" of your body. shoulder to shoulder. hip to hip, shoulder to hip. Your legs are in the air and your arms are pumping, but if you keep your attention on the center area of your body, your arms and legs can be strong, but they won't dominate. I think you would enjoy the more detailed explanation that Benjamin Degenhardt offers in his Hundred tutorial.
The Hundred Tutorial
1 person likes this.
Thank you very much, Kristi! That link was exactly what I needed.
1 person likes this.
Hi Kristi - Great idea to parse out the fundamentals. I have two questions. 1 - what is the effect of pumping your arms? 2 - Do you have tips to avoid neck strain?

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