Portable Pilates goes everywhere you do

Trying to master a challenging exercise discipline such as Pilates is one thing. But concentrating on body alignment maybe one hour a day -- while slumping and slouching your way through the other waking 16 or 17 -- can feel irrational.

The answer, for Pilates instructor and author Brooke Siler, is the “invisible workout.” What it amounts to is applying Pilates principles -- and a little imagination -- to the most mundane daily activities such as hoisting your squirming toddler or standing at the office photocopier.

If you can, at the same time, envision yourself balancing on a teeter board or being pulled upward by puppet strings or preparing to execute a ballet move in a tutu and toe shoes, that might help your posture.

Siler demonstrates several applications of the concept in her new book, “Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge” (Broadway, $19.95).

For all the activities, the common principle is activating the core abdominal muscles that Pilates devotees refer to as “the powerhouse.”

Your stomach should be pulled in and up, your chest lifted, your spine straight and your weight evenly distributed.

Increase your awareness of how you sit, stand, lift and carry throughout the day, Siler says, and you’ll start to think of fitness not as a once-a-day chore but a way to move through the world.

While watching TV:

* Do move around, do floor exercises, sit on a stability ball. When you have to sit, sit erect -- stomach pulled in, chest high, thighs parallel to the floor -- on the edge of your seat. * Don’t forget yourself and become too friendly with the seat cushion, or let your spine become rounded.

At the photocopy machine:

* Do draw up and elongate your waist until it feels higher than the top of the copier. Lift your neck. Tuck in your tailbone and tighten your buttocks.

* Don’t lean on the machine, slouch on one foot or let your head’s weight pull you over the copier.

While lifting baby:

* Do squat face to face with baby, buttocks out and weight centered on your heels, before you lift. Imagine there’s a coiled spring behind you, helping you to bounce back up.

* Don’t do a one-arm scoop or lift while your torso is twisted or your weight is on one leg.