Pilates Intel Online Newsletter for the Pilates Teaching Community

I guess if I had to pick one universally effective, versatile Pilates exercise (which in my opinion, should be taught in every session and for nearly every person), it would be Chest Expansion. It includes all the essentials of total body posture, fantastic breath control, incredible opposition, and it can be done on various pieces of apparatus including the Reformer, Cadillac, Arm Chair, and (one of my favorite places) the Pedipole. Chest Expansion can be done kneeling or standing, with or without springs, so it can be given to students to do at home or at work as a simple yet powerful “do anywhere” exercise.

I really love seeing the old films of Joe doing this exercise! You can clearly see the strong drawing in and up of his abs, his chest lifting as the air goes in, the way he reaches down into the springs with his arms while lifting the top of his head upward … a truly remarkable full body exercise when all the elements come together so the person can feel the uplift of the front of the body connected with a strong sensation in the back of the body.

The fact that Joe Pilates created Chest Expansion on the Pedipole for opera singers is amazing to me and I see why, every day I teach it (see a video demonstration of opera singers below). The Pedipole is a fantastic place to teach this exercise, because if the right things in the body aren’t “turned on”, then whatever the issue is automatically shows up, especially as the arms return to start position. So, I go to the Pedipole to teach this to clients who are weak in their ribcage alignment, or who need work with the related alignment of their head and shoulders or general postural awareness. This invariably includes a whole lot of people.

I think what I love most about it is that it gives me an opportunity to work through a person’s postural weaknesses and help them see and feel things for themselves in order to become better at self-adjusting. I set up the exercise by first reviewing their postural alignment from the floor up, where I then address specifics of their foot placement, pelvic placement, ribcage placement and head/shoulder placement. And then I watch to see what happens when the dynamics of the exercise happen, plugging in all the various oppositional forces plus the breath dynamics. I only give simple instructions for the first 1 or 2 repetitions, no corrections or hands-on yet. It sounds like this: “Inhale, pull down. Hold your breath. Look right, look left, return with control.” Then after I see what’s happening, I make a single suggestion. If needed on the next rep, I offer another suggestion or apply a hands-on cue. There’s a whole lot there to work with! This exercise is a perfect example of when and how the exercise really is the teacher.

What I find interesting is that by the time Chest Expansion occurs in the exercise order, usually the issue(s) that are revealed have already exposed themselves earlier in the session, often within the first four exercises. I can take the earlier information and tie it back to the Chest Expansion to further the person’s awareness of how to strengthen what they are working on.

Here are a few issues I commonly see, along with a simple “fix” for each:

Thanks for taking the time to read this article! -Clare

Check out this video on Facebook showing Opera Singers on the Pedipole.