https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BOTvaRaDjI
I love finding new exercises and Foundation Training is a new favorite. A client turned me on to these routines and I have been working on them for a couple of months now. I have been doing the advanced routine that is up on YouTube three or four days a week which includes the basic exercise that I filmed above. As I watch the video I realize that I work much harder when doing the full routine. My legs are reaching back way more with the hamstrings working much harder.
The advanced routine is not for the faint of heart. It is twelve minutes and by minute ten I am quaking and almost weeping in the best way possible. I really love it but I would definitely recommend getting used to the exercise above before moving on to the more advanced options.
My CoreWalking Program teaches that we are all too long in the front of the body and too short in the back. Particularly in the lower back because I think most people tuck the pelvis too much and lean habitually backwards creating very short and tight muscles in the lower back and spine.
The foundation training exercises address these issues specifically in a way that compliments changing your walking patterns beautifully. When teaching yoga I almost always start by standing students in the posture that I want them to be in to start class. I do this in the simplest way possible, taking the lower body backward and the upper body forward. While this is a simple shift in the body it isn’t always easy to hold the changes.
After doing a few of the foundation exercises students usually find that it is easier to take and hold this new postural pattern. The CoreWalking Program starts everyone off with the Core Four exercises that work to release and support the psoas. Â While toning the inner thighs, transverse abdominis and pelvic floor muscles are essential building blocks for changing the way you walk and stand I have definitely been incorporating these foundation exercises with clients as an excellent means of building muscles in the back of the body.
Foundation Training- The Founder
- Stand with your feet about 3 feet apart and parallel. Try to align your upper body with a small curve in the lower back and neck with the ears in line with the shoulders.
- Stick your butt out slightly taking your hips behind you. Keep the weight in your heels with the knees very slightly bent. The knees should stay back in line with the ankles.
- The upper body leans forward but you want to maintain the alignment of the trunk without over-arching the middle or lower back.
- When the hips come back bring the arms, with palms facing towards each other, out in front of you.
- Lift your arms as high as you can without lifting to the ribcage to accomplish this.
- Your lower back should be working like crazy and the higher you can get the arms separating them from the trunk the more work it will be in the back.
- The arms should be parallel and not too far apart.
- The weight stays in the heels the whole time.
- After about 10 to fifteen breaths hinge forward keeping the legs as they are and trying to move the pelvis with the rest of the trunk creating separation between the legs and the hips.
- You don’t have to lower all the way down. You can bring your hands to blocks or a chair depending on how much access you have to a forward bend.
- Come back to the exercise after a few breaths and hold again for ten to fifteen breaths. In yoga classes, I have been teaching three rounds.
- This exercise is all about turning on the muscles of the back, butt and hamstrings. Shaking and quaking is fine.
- Keeping the weight in the heels and the upper body solid is essential to the success of this pose.
Enjoy!