What You Need to Know about the Side KicksIn the mat-work series, you just finished the Spine Stretch and the Saw (exercises that concentrate on spinal articulation, flexion, and rotation), and then the Swan, an exercise that extends the spine. In the Side Kick exercises, your focus will return to stabilizing your spine and pelvis with a body and mind more alert, capable, and resilient than it has been at any previous point in your workout. To balance on your side during this exercise, you must have greater whole-body awareness, and keener concentration and control of each individual movement of your spine, pelvis, and legs.

What Are the Side Kicks?
To perform the Side Kicks, you lie on one side of your body and extend your straight legs together and in front of you at a 45-degree angle from your hips. Your bottom hand supports your head, and your other hand presses into the mat in front of your chest. You stabilize your spine with your Powerhouse as you lift your top leg and sweep it forward and backward (with an additional pulse at either end) eight to ten times. Then you rotate your top leg outward and kick it up toward the ceiling and then down, eight to ten times.

Step by Step Through the Basic Side Kick I
To transition from the Swan’s rest position to the Side Kick I exercise, lie on the mat on your left side, with your legs slightly turned out, stacked on top of each other, stretching straight out and together at a 45-degree angle from the front of your body (If you have an official Pilates mat, your feet will move forward on top of a foot box.)
Keep your toes softly pointed. Your left arm is bent and supporting your head, forming a straight line from your elbow to your tailbone. Your eyes are looking straight out in front of you with a relaxed, aligned neck. Your right arm is bent, palm pressing the mat in front of your chest. Now, follow these steps to perform the basic intermediate Side Kick I:

1. Lift your right leg a few inches to be hip height, and reach it long and away from you. Inhale, scooping to increase the length between your ribs and your hips, and sweep your right leg forward, parallel to the mat, until you feel a gentle stretch in your hamstring.
2. Continue to inhale as you deepen your scoop and pulse your leg by reaching it several inches farther at the end of your sweeping motion; keep the rest of your body stable and still.

3. Exhale to cinch the laces of your corset and stabilize your body as you sweep your right leg backward, parallel to the mat; continue back until you feel a gentle stretch in the front of your abdomen, hip, and thigh.

4. Again, continue to exhale as you pulse your leg by reaching it 2 or 3 inches farther at the end of your sweep. Keep your belly scooped in and up the front of your spine.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4, for a total of eight to ten times, then finish by stacking your right leg back on top of your left.
6.Transition to Side Kick II (described in the section that follows) or turn over and repeat steps 1 through 5 of this version, using the left leg.