Pilates: 4 simple exercises suitable for beginners of any age

Putting a little movement into your weekly routine is a great gift to your body, but getting used to it after a long time of leading a sedentary life - or when you are busy with a thousand commitments between work, study and family - is always challenging.

For this reason, it is good to start with small steps, acclimatising the body to move again with basic exercises that can also be performed at home and without having to invest in special equipment. Some of these are simple pilates exercises and we show what they are in detail below:

Back stretching

• Sit with your back straight.
• Inhale slowly while extending your arms upward, as if you want to touch the ceiling. In this way you will relax the spine.
• Exhale as you slowly bend forward while lowering your arms as well, stopping when you form a sort of "C" with your body, arms straight and parallel to the legs.
• Stay in this position by breathing slowly and trying to stretch your back as much as possible. Breathe in.
• Exhale and return to the original position.

This is a movement that is good to do even when you are still in bed in the morning. Over time, you can get to bend the whole torso to the legs, touching the ankles with the hands.

Roll Up

• Begin by lying down with your arms stretched over your head.
• Slowly force your abs to rise, bringing your arms forward with your body. You can arch your back: the idea is to feel the vertebrae slowly rise one after the other from the mat.
• You can stop when you come to a standing position, or continue down as in the first exercise.
• Return slowly lying on the ground, always with slow movements.

You can make this exercise easier by keeping your arms at your sides, and as you lift, grab your thighs under your buttocks to help lift your torso. Your hands will slide slowly downward until they reach behind the knees.

Rolling back

• Sit with your back straight and your legs bent.
• You can lift your feet off the ground or keep them palced on the mat if it is more comfortable for you.
• Grab the back of your thighs with your hands and use the press to help you rock slowly onto your buttocks, as if you are starting to lie down.
• Get down as far as possible on the mat, with your back arched in order to feel the vertebrae that slowly "unroll" and come into contact with the ground.
• Return to a sitting position and then repeat. You need to swing continuously and fluidly, without straining your body too much.

Push ups

Push-ups are challenging, but you can get there slowly.

• Start by keeping your feet a little away from the wall (the further you move them, the more you intensify the exercise), place your hands on the wall, shoulder-width apart. And flex your elbows by bringing your whole body - which you will keep straight from head to toe - close to the wall. Depending on how you spread your elbows away from your body, you will feel more or less strain. Train yourself with at least 15 push-ups a day, progressively increasing in number as much as you can.
• When you can push yourself further, look for a chair, the edge of the bed / sofa, a coffee table at the right height to use that instead of the wall, and start a little more challenging pushups. Remember never to arch your back.
• The next step is to finally get to the push-ups on the floor, made easier if you keep your knees on the mat (your feet should stay in the air, crossed).
• Finally, the normal push-ups, begin in the plank position and lowering the whole body, always kept straight in a single line, to the floor, with the elbows not too far from the body itself.

Planking

• Start on the floor laying down like a plank, palms on the ground, body straight and feet pointed.
• Flex your arms so that your whole body is brought closer to the floor at the same time
• Return to straighten your arms to return to the plank.
• Also of these, we recommend a session of 20 per day.

Great job!