Tired of rolling around on the ground to get flatter abs?
This exercise done with the Pilates MINIMAX is a good one for flattening your midsection and toning your arms. The exercise is called Round It with Chest Pull.
Sit toward the front of a chair and place the Pilates MINIMAX on the floor so that while sitting your thighs are parallel to the floor. The arches of your feet are pressed into the rounded end of the Pilates MINIMAX or if you have flexible ankles you can press your feet into the slope side, as shown.
Take the bands with the handles into your hands. Lift your arms to shoulder height and create a circle with your arms.
Inhale through your nose, taking the air deeply into your ribcage.
Exhale, through tight lips. Tighten your core, by pulling the pit of your stomach in and up toward your heart. As you scoop your core in, pull the handles toward your chest, keeping your elbows pointing away from your breastbone. Simultaneously, also rolling back onto the back of your buttocks, rounding your spine toward the chair. If your back touches the chair do not rest on it, stay active in your core.
Inhale and return to your start position and repeat 10-30 times.
Keep in mind that if you have osteoporosis or a disc herniation, rounding of your spine is not healthy for you. However, you could still do this exercise but you would need to keep your spine straight and hinge back toward the chair, instead of rounding your spine toward the chair.
The pictures below demonstrate the start position and the mid point position of the exercise.
