Lose a dress size in thirty seconds

Written by Susie Cleland

Oh all the outrageous claims to make this has to take the cake.(with cream thank you very much!)

Can we REALLY make you lose a dress size in thirty seconds? Well the weight on the scales won’t move a gram, but it will look like you’ve lost a dress size almost instantaneously.

Knowing how to carry yourself can make all the difference to how you appear to others. Use Suna Pilate’s key tips, inline with the six principles of pilates for posture, and you’ll look better in an instant.
 

Stand Better, Look Better

To teach yourself to stand correctly, you need to start from the feet up. If your feet aren’t set right, everything else will become unbalanced. Until you get used to how feels when you stand correctly, set yourself up in front of a mirror. If your posture is completely out of whack it will feel a little odd at first, but it will become more natural

Keep the six principles in mind as you go through the day. The more you practice, the easier it becomes.

FIRST: Tattoos Out

Place your feet so they are hip distance apart (About a length of your foot ) and parallel.

Bend your knees a little and check if they are pointing straight out over your second toes. Most people end up with them coming towards each other.

Imagine you have tattoos on your inner thighs. As you bend try to turn them out away from each other. Your feet need to stay still. This also works your bottom and leg muscles.

SECOND: Belly Button to Spine

This is your neutral pelvic position. Your hip bones and public bone at the front of the pelvis need to be parallel to the surface of your torso.

Most people’s pelvis is tilted forward from too much sitting, so the hip bones tilt forward. This causes the lower back to work more than the abdomen and bottom muscles.

Imagine you are pulling your pubic bone up towards the belly button or think ‘pull belly button into spine’.

When you sit down, sit upon the boney bones of your bottom. This stops you slouching.

THIRD: Ribs off Hips

Think of a rib cage like a spring – ideally it needs to be kept loose. The more relaxed your rib cage the more relaxed your breathing. Imagine your rib cage is lifting gently off the pelvis, extending the lower spine.  

FOURTH: Breathe like an accordion

If you’ve every seen an accordion play, you’ll know they expand sideways rather than out front. Breath in through your nose which is natural built in air filter. As you inhale your ribs should expand to the sides, and as you exhale, the ribs and tummy should deflate.

FIFTH: Pits to Hips

Imagine sliding your arm pits gently down to your hips. This should open up the shoulders, and keep your chest open.  

SIXTH: Puppet on a string

Pretend you have a thread attached to the crown of your head. Imagine you are being pulled up by that thread. This extends your neck and keeps it strong and straight. It will feel like your head is being lifted by the tips of its ears.

Once everything is aligned, your clothes will sit better too. Following these principles merely gets our bodies to stand, move and sit they way they were created to do. Looking better is just a very happy by product.

By NZ Health and Fitness expert Susie Cleland