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  Pilates exercise:   The Diamond Press Pilates Information
Pilates Alexander Technique
Free pilates Exercises Online
The Diamond Press:- Start Position
  1. Lie on your stomach with your feet hip width apart.
  2. Make a diamond shape with your arms by touching your finger tips together just under your forehead.
  3. Flare your shoulder blades outward toward your armpits.
The Diamond Press:- Action
  1. Exhale to lift your navel up toward your spine (like "melting upwards"
  2. Inhale to lift the head and upper chest 5 cm off the floor and gently tuck the chin while lenghtening the sides of the neck - (from head to chest is the barrel of a canon pointing to the sky!)
  3. Exhale to lower you head back into your hands
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The Diamond Press:
Start Position DiamondPressStrt
Action
DiamondPressFin
What it does
  • "Flare your shoulder blades" works the Serratus anterior, which is one of the "scapular anchor" muscles, that is often weak.
  • Correction of Humeral Anterior Glide: The Diamond press may cause your shoulder to click or "graunch". Which is a good sign! - The head of the humerus bone is moving backward in the shoulder joint to sit in its correct location. If you have shoulder impingement pain, this exercise helps.
  • Unrounds the upper spine - corrects kyphosis!
Comments
  • Perfect antidote to staring into a computer screen!
  • The scapular anchor is being worked with the arms above the head and hands pushing "forward", which is a movement not commonly used in every day life.
Watch Points
  • Melt the navbel upward (10% effort) and grow yourself long!
  • Keep looking down to your fingers!
Reference
  1. Shirley A Sahrmann: Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes; Publ. Mosby 2002
  2. The Official Body Control Pilates Manual Available from: http://www.bodycontrol.co.uk/

© Bruce Thomson, EasyVigour Project
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