Primary muscles: Back
Secondary muscles: Core
Equipment: No equipment
PILATES SWIMMING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Lie on your belly with your arms and legs fully extended.
2. Raise both arms and legs off the mat and lift your head and chest.
3. Flutter your arms and legs and keep alternating sides for the entire duration of the set.
PROPER FORM AND BREATHING PATTERN
Keep your arms and legs fully extended, maintain a neutral spine and elongate your body. Breathe slowly, pull your abs in, keep your core muscles tight and maintain your hips and upper body stable.
EXERCISE BENEFITS
The pilates swimming strengthens your back muscles and improves your posture, mobility, and stability. This exercise challenges the core and engages the deep abdominal muscles helping you improve body alignment.
DEMONSTRATION
SETS AND REPS
Start with 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 16 repetitions and increase the speed as you become more comfortable with the movement. To further challenge and strengthen your back muscles, alternate this exercise with bird dogs and back extensions.
CALORIES BURNED
To calculate the number of calories burned doing the pilates swimming, enter your weight and the duration of the exercise:
RELATED CORE EXERCISES
Try these other core exercises to tighten, sculpt and strengthen your abs, obliques, lats and lower back:
Rope climb crunches
Oblique V crunch
Downward dog crunch
Bent leg jackknife
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