The Swan - it's not a pushup

Video Blog: The Swan – it’s not a pushup!

This week’s video blog will focus on the very first Swan you’ll do on the Mat.

No fancy diving for now.

Today we will look for the connection reaching from the sides of the low back all the way to where you’ll place your hands. We will focus on strengthening the back and resisting (!) the urge to push up with the arms.

The Swan is not a pushup.

Oh yes, and length!

Length!

(Lest we forget dear our old friend…)

Thank you to the lovely JoJo, my partner in crime, who is steadily becoming a Pilates Nerd. Yay!

Please note, Joe has been working on the Swan exercise for some time. As you will see in the video, he can now lift all the way up until his arms are fully extended.

If you are just beginning to work on this exercise, or it presents a particular challenge to your body, you might only lengthen and lift up partway.

Perfectly. Okay.

You’ll keep the connection to the back, you’ll avoid pushing with the arms and shoulders and you’ll continue to build lift and strength in your back. Over time you’ll be able to lift all the way up just like JoJo 🙂

I appreciate all of you. You are awesome!

Thanks for watching.

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3 Responses

  1. Thanks Andrea! I found that really useful as i always struggle with my Swan and therefore find it difficult to convey to my clients. You’ve made it really simple for me and it felt good too so many thanks yet again!!

  2. So glad this video could help Lucy…that back connection reaching all the way to the hands keeps showing up all over the place in Pilates – but I find it so challenging in the positions on the stomach like the Swan. Excellent to know it felt so good too 🙂 That was my observation as well.

    Hope you have a magnificent weekend and thank you so much for watching!

  3. The email about this post has been in my inbox for quite a while and today I found myself telling my client that the swan dive isn’t a push up over and over again – so it was clearly time to watch and find out exactly what you meant with that catch phrase. I think that one of the hallmarks of good teaching is to have many different ways of saying the same thing because every person hears and analyzes words differently. Thanks for sharing some new ones with me, I will definitely put them to use soon. (My clients are all getting to know my friend in cyber space, now you’ve given me some other opportunities for in-studio mentions 🙂 ).

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