Exercise Spotlight, Course Spotlight
Introduction to the Wunda Chair Exercises
The Wunda Chair is a classical piece of Pilates equipment invented by Joseph Pilates himself! As it sounds, the Wunda Chair is a chair with a spring resisted footbar or pedal. It operates in a similar way to the Reformer, but has the benefit of being smaller and more portable!
When it comes to the Wunda Chair exercises, we’re working the muscle groups in completely different positions and in different planes of movement than many of our other courses. Let’s take a look at some of the exercises and series which are included in the Studio Pilates Wunda Chair Course and why they are fantastic additions for your clients.
Pikes
Great for: post-natal women, tight hip flexors/quads, lordosis, back pain
There’s some great new Pike abdominal exercises in the Wunda Chair training which clients love! These exercises are fantastic for your post-natal women, for anyone who struggles with tabletop position, anyone with overactive hip flexors, quads, or anyone with back pain or a lordosis!
These Pike exercises can be great because they put the body in a rounded position where it’s actually easier for clients to activate their muscles. Clients really enjoy the Pike exercises because they are not only really effective at targeting the abdominals, but it’s also refreshing to work the abdominals in different ways – not just in a supine position.
Prone Series
Great for: disc injuries, office workers, developing upper and mid back strength
We have a great prone series in the Wunda Chair training which is always a crowd favourite with clients because they feel really good to perform! This prone series is perfect for any office workers with neck pain, who may need to open up through their chest and become stronger in their upper and mid back muscles. The exercises in this series are also great for people with disc injuries because they are working through extension.
Footwork Series
Great for: enhancing VMO strength, rehabbing knee injuries, athletes, dancers, cyclists, swimmers
The footwork series on the Wunda Chair is also a game changer when it comes to rehabbing knee pain and strengthening your clients’ vastus medialis oblique (VMO) muscles. We all want strong VMOs to help stabilise our knees and help track the Patella correctly in our knee socket and Footwork on the Wunda Chair is actually even more effective than Footwork on the Reformer because the range of movement on the chair is smaller and more like pulses (and pulses work the VMO muscles more!). In addition to this, Footwork on the Wunda Chair also works the abdominal muscles even more because you need to stabilise your body more in a sitting position. There’s also the added benefit of no pressure through the neck or shoulders at all!
Ankle Strengthener
Great for: rehabbing lower limb problems + shin splints
There’s also some exercises on the Studio Pilates Wunda Chair Course which are great for shin splints or lower limb problems (so for any injuries such as unstable ankles, achilles tendon injuries, plantarfacia issues or just for anyone who tends to trip over and roll their ankles a lot!). Normally it’s quite hard to strengthen this part of the body, but the Wunda Chair gives us some really great exercises to strengthen the deep ankle and calf muscles! Normally when we work calves, the larger Gastrocnemius muscle can take over, but with some of the Wunda Chair exercises, we can really target the smaller stabilising muscles like the Tibialis Posterior, the Peroneals and the Soleus which are so great for your clients’ rehab and hopefully for preventing people from rolling their ankles in the future as well!