The pendulum is an abdominal exercises targeted at your oblique muscles in which you rotate your trunk side to side. Pilates offers an exercise that is similar. It is called the corkscrew. The corkscrew accomplishes the same toning that the pendulum does and more.
The corkscrew requires more full range of strength throughout the movement. However, both exercises however are useful for abdominal toning.
Pendulum
The pendulum exercise, sometimes called a tick tock or hip roll, begins lying on your back, hips and legs raised to a 90-degree angle. You inhale and rotate your legs and trunk over to one side. Exhale and compress your abdomen to set your hip down and rotate your trunk to the other side. You can also repeat the movement on one side. Do not to allow arching of your lumbar vertebrae. Make it more challenging by rotating over and straightening out the top leg or straightening both legs. Make it easier by placing your feet on the floor. This is not a classic Pilates movement included in the mat sequence. It is, however, sometimes included in a class to stretch or isolate specific muscles.
Planes of Movement and Muscle Involvement
The pendulum exercise moves primarily through the transverse plane of the body. That means the motion travels horizontally across your abdomen. The primary abdominal muscles engaged are your internal and external obliques. Your internal oblique muscle fibers run at an upward diagonal angle, and your external oblique fibers run at a downward angle. During the pendulum exercise, the internal oblique and external oblique on opposite sides work together. Therefore, the pendulum is sometimes included in a Pilates session for specific oblique toning.
Corkscrew
The corkscrew is a classic Pilates movement that has some similarities to the pendulum because your legs travel from one side to the other in both exercises. Begin the corkscrew by lying on your back with your arms by your sides and your legs straight up in the air. Compress your abdomen down toward your spine and rotate your thighs away from each other. Inhale and circle your legs down and around. Exhale, compress your stomach and continue to bring your legs up and around. Perform eight to 12 repetitions in one direction then switch directions. Keep both hips and your whole spine on the mat. Modify by making smaller circles or bending your knees. Make it more difficult by increasing the diameter of your circular motion and rolling your trunk up of of the mat as your legs circle over your face. Perform controlled and deliberate circles.
Planes of Movement and Muscle Involvement
The corkscrew movement travels through frontal, sagittal and transverse planes of the body. That means it travels across your abdomen horizontally, like the pendulum, uses muscle contraction up and down your midline and moves parallel to your side seems. Therefore, the corkscrew engages all of your abdominal muscle groups. Like the pendulum, it works your obliques and transverse abdominis. However, the corkscrew also engages your rectus abdominis. The corkscrew, unlike the pendulum, challenges both upper and lower abdominal muscle fibers and requires negative and positive muscle contractions through full range of motion. This is a thoroughly effective core exercise.
References
- "Pilates"; Patricia Lamond; 2002
- "The Pilates Body"; Brooke Siler; 2000
- "Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology"; John W. Hole Jr.; 1986
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