Pilates Body Awareness Exercises

• Pilates classes and DVDs, especially those aimed at restoring postural alignment and balance, can help eliminate pelvic obliquity. Pilates will first help you learn to engage your core muscles and then eventually increase your awareness of the position of your pelvis and how to further fix the instability. A way to begin building awareness of the pelvic instability is to lie on the ground, face up, and see if you are laying on each side of your body equally. Ask yourself if you feel one side of your buttock or shoulder pressing more into the floor than the other. Sit in a chair as you normally would, and see if you feel more weight on one side of the buttocks of the "sit bones" than the other. Place your hands on your hips, and see if one hand is farther forward than the other. This will begin to help you identify what it feels like when your hips are out of alignment.
  
  

The Single-Leg Circles Exercises

• Single-leg circles are an easy exercise to do to correct pelvic obliquity. It is effective because it trains each side of the pelvis and glutes separately, thereby strengthening and stretching both sides without one compensating for the other. Your core will learn to stabilize each side fully. Do this exercise by lying on your back and extending your left leg straight up the ceiling. Check that your right hip, knee and ankle form a straight line perpendicular to the floor. You can bend your knee at first, if you cannot straighten your leg. Circle your leg five times in a clockwise direction as large as you can with keeping both sides of your buttocks on the floor. Reverse the direction for five more circles. Repeat with the right leg.
  
  

Roll Up

• The roll-up exercise will build strength in your core and stretch your lower back, glutes and hamstrings. Begin by lying on your back with your legs straight and your arms extended over your head on the floor. Squeeze your abs, and curl yourself slowly off the floor. Allow your lower back to round. Continue past a seated position as you reach for your toes. Allow your neck to fall forward as you reach your legs. Roll back down to the floor slowly. It is important to note if you are rolling evenly on each side of your body. The left and right sides of your buttocks and shoulders should hit the mat at the same time.