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Standing Pilates exercises help with toning your legs and strengthening your lower body while simultaneously moving your upper body. It’s a type of movement you should try to accommodate into your workout routine to improve your physical fitness.
Standing Pilates exercises you must do
One of the reasons standing Pilates exercises are recommended is because these movements are great for warm-ups. The exercises will raise your heart rate and get your blood and oxygen flowing, which is exactly what you want before moving into the strength training part of the workout.
1) Outer thigh squeeze
In this workout, you stand in the squat position with your feet hip-width apart. Next, use a resistance band to wrap around your knees and begin pushing the knees to the sides and coming back into position. Do this for both legs, with at least 10 reps on each side.
2) Leg lifts
Stand with your legs hip-width apart and place your hands on your hips. Next, pick up your right leg, and make a right angle with your calves and quads. Ideally, your quads are parallel to the floor. Slowly return to the neutral position and repeat with your left leg. This will be 1 rep. Do at least 10 reps.
3) Pulse leg lifts
This exercise requires you to add pulses to each leg lift. However, it’s ideal if you do one leg first before moving to the second leg.
Stand with your legs at hip-width. Place both hands on your hips and begin pulsing. In pulsing, you move to a slight squat position and move back to the neutral position. However, it’s done at an accelerated pace.
Now, add leg lifts to the pulse. Therefore, you lift your right leg, move it back to the neural position, add a pulse, and repeat the leg lift. Do at least 10 reps per leg for 1 set.
4) Side leg lifts
Another one of the excellent warm-ups in standing Pilates exercises is the side leg lifts. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and place both hands on your hips. Next, raise your right leg towards the right while it’s extended and bring it back to the neutral position. Do this motion 10 times before moving to the left leg. Do this exercise as a warm-up for at least 4 sets.
5) Standing wide knee bends
Stand with your legs slightly more than hip-width apart. Place both hands on the hips. Next, rotate your toes 45 degrees and proceed to bend. Ensure that your knees are outwards when you bend and return to the neutral position. Repeat this motion at least 8 to 10 times.
6) Standing lunges
Stand straight and hold your hands close to your chest. Step forward with your right leg and bend your knee to move to a lunge position. Next, move back to the neutral position by pushing back with your right heel. Repeat the same with your left leg.
7) Crunches
This is one of the standing Pilates exercises that work on your upper body. Begin by standing straight with your hands behind your head. Flare your elbows outwards and pull up your right leg towards your torso, while your knee faces outwards. At the same time, bend towards your knees. You’ll feel a stretch in your core muscles. Hold the position for two seconds before moving back to the neutral position.
Bottom line
You must incorporate standing Pilates exercises into your daily routine. Neither of the above-mentioned exercises will exhaust you. All of this will help in raising your heart rate, which will ultimately help you in moving to the intense part of your workout with more energy and lesser chances of any injury.
