The criss cross is a Pilates exercise that attacks the abdominals, while maintaining an emphasis on breathing. Learn to perform the criss cross exercise from a Pilates instructor in this video.
Hands behind head
Pull knees in
Extend left leg
Twist your waist
Breathe correctly
Ashley Orlando has been a Pilates instructor since April 2007. Ashley currently instructs at Core Pilates NYC, Equinox Century City, My Pilates Body and Revolution Pilates.
So our next exercise is the crisscross. Mark is going to start laying all the way down. You may have been used to this when you work out in the gym sometimes or maybe you haven't, but this is a different way of doing it this way. So you're going to bring your hands behind your head. You want to make sure your elbows stay completely wide here, and we don't want to crunch up and crunch a muscle. We want to lengthen and get a longer muscle. So from here, you're going to bend those knees into your chest. Again, table-top those legs. You're going to extend that left leg straight out in front of you and bring that right knee into towards your chest. From here, you're going to lift that left armpit to the right knee. So when you're twisting, you want to bring the opposite armpit to the opposite kneecap. So you're going to bring that armpit to that knee, so draw that one straight line right here. Twist and draw it all the way up. So notice Mark's elbows aren't going; it's his armpits. So you're really going to twist in that waist. See you want to lift up and over. See how long Mark is. So you want him to keep lifting up and over. You want to come through the center, exhale and switch the sides, so lift up and longer. So you want to keep those shoulders open. The shoulder leg is down the back, come through the center, exhale and switch. So once you get that technique, again, you can challenge yourself with some flow. We're going to speed up a little bit faster. Inhale, exhale, switch and switch, and switch. Good. Keep twisting. Twist with your waist. Twist those obliques all the way up. The navel is scooping in, so you want to get those cuts on the sides. Three and two and one. Bend the knees back and lower the head, neck and shoulders down. That was the crisscross. And next is teaser prep and teaser.
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