{"id":939,"date":"2013-08-25T19:39:02","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=939"},"modified":"2013-08-25T19:39:02","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T19:39:02","slug":"top-tips-on-maintaining-neutral-spine-and-pelvis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=939","title":{"rendered":"Top Tips on Maintaining Neutral Spine and Pelvis"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><\/h4>\n<p>Neutral pelvis is a funny concept where we aim to keep the pelvis neither tilted up or under but in &#8220;neutral alignment&#8221;. The idea is to have a straight line from hip bone to hip bone and to be flat from that hip bone area all the way through to the pubic bone. With Neutral spine it can be simpler to think of the spine being straight, however this isn&#8217;t actually true! When lying down there will be a slight natural curve in the lower back, for some this will be bigger than others. Think about being able to pass an envelope underneath your lower back and get your instructor to check if you are not sure.<br \/>\nMost people find getting into neutral is relatively easy to achieve at the start of an exercise but maintaining it is the tricky bit. My top tips are to:<\/p>\n<p>1. Think about the lower back being heavy and almost sinking into the back (we don&#8217;t actually want it to do this but the imagery can help)<br \/>\n2. Think about there being a heavy weight on the ribcage holding you down to the mat.<br \/>\n3. Keep the sides of the body long and strong to hold you still.<br \/>\n4. Think about the core being weighty as this is what is keeping you in neutral.<\/p>\n<p>If you feel yourself coming out of neutral, stop the exercise, check your core is drawn in and then try again. You may need to make the movement smaller until your body is a bit stronger.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: #ffffff;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neutral pelvis is a funny concept where we aim to keep the pelvis neither tilted up or under but in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[259,5,6,9,10],"tags":[14,35,36,37,300,301,298,297,73,175,153,118,82,223,299],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bump-to-birth","category-classes","category-exercises","category-postnatal","category-studio-news","tag-alignment","tag-core","tag-core-stability","tag-core-strength","tag-neutral-alignment","tag-neutral-pelvis","tag-neutral-pilates","tag-neutral-spine","tag-pelvis","tag-pilates-hampshire","tag-pilates-southampton","tag-pilates-with-priya","tag-posture","tag-priya-tew","tag-ribcage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3FIsx-f9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1072,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1072","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":0},"title":"Perfect your Posture","author":"Priya Tew","date":"12 October, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Think about it, however often in your day do you pay attention to your posture? If you don't do Pilates then I am guessing the answer is not often if at all. Yet our posture plays a large role in how we look, walk, sit and feel on a day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Back pain&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Back pain","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"posture picture","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/posture-picture-249x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1159,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1159","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":1},"title":"5 mistakes you could be making in Pilates","author":"Priya Tew","date":"6 January, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"1. Not using your breathing: The breathing is often the tricky part for people as it feels back to front! However it really is crucial to breath correctly to get your core really activated. When you breathe in, the diaphragm contracts downward drawing in air. When you exhale, the diaphragm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exercises&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exercises","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pilates with Priya: Neutral Spine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCF9797-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1163,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=1163","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":2},"title":"Perfect that knee fold","author":"Priya Tew","date":"13 January, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This week in my classes I\u2019ve been focusing on pelvis weight and neutral pelvis. It can be all so easy to forget the basics of Pilates and getting away from these makes the exercises easier so you get less benefits. When lifting your legs (for example knee folds) you want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Classes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Classes","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pilates with Priya: single knee fold","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCF9796-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2267,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=2267","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":3},"title":"Are my hip flexors tight or weak?","author":"Priya Tew","date":"13 July, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The hip flexors are a complex group of muscles that play a huge role in posture, pilates and day to day life. They are also a muscle that I often see people struggling with when undertaking curl up, roll ups, sitting up and any exercises with the legs in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Alignment&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Alignment","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=616"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Anterior_Hip_Muscles_2.PNG-By-Beth-ohara-Own-work-CC-BY-SA-3.0-httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid545389-200x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":768,"url":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?p=768","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":4},"title":"Pilates makes you taller!","author":"Priya Tew","date":"5 August, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had a couple of people mention to me lately that since starting Pilates they have grown from 1cm to 1.5 inches taller. 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If you sit for hours at a desk or feed and carry a baby then spend time hunched over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Exercises&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Exercises","link":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/DSC_2043.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/DSC_2043.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/DSC_2043.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/DSC_2043.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/DSC_2043.jpg?fit=1200%2C795&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/1032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilateswithpriya.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}