Pilates Principles You Should Use In Every Workout

Have you noticed how many more people are out and about jogging, cycling and simply being active? As I power walked along the Marina here in San Francisco over the weekend I couldn’t help but notice the thick enthusiasm in the air. Whether it’s an outdoor romp or a sweat session in your gym’s hip hop class, the message is settling in…. we must move!

Something most people don’t think about this time of year is the importance of the quality of our movement. They sign up with a personal trainer at a random gym, demand to be killed during their sessions and then quit a few weeks later. Burnt out, sore and back on the couch. Over doing it can and usually causes more harm then good. Not only psychically, but mentally. Our true challenge is to make exercise a life long habit and hone our self discipline for ultimate longevity. Enter the mind-body super power of Pilates…

As a pilates instructor my motto is quality over quantity. When working through a piece of movement, control, focus, and awareness of the entire body is essential. Throwing your body into sloppy positions even at a slow pace can lead to overuse injuries and too much wear and tear on vital tendons, ligaments and joints. Something you might not feel until years down the line. The mind must control and be aware of the entire body in order to achieve long lasting physical results and mental discipline.

The fantastic thing about the Pilates method is that it’s foundation movement principles can be applied to just about any workout. Here’s a run down of the first three Pilates principles and how you can use them everyday to sharpen and intensify your own workouts. I’ll go indepth with the other three in the next post.

Breathing: The mother of all Pilates principles! We must breath. Joseph Pilates stressed the importance of getting as much oxygen and blood flow to cells as possible. By properly inhaling and exhaling during a sequence of movement, you not only get much needed juice to fatigued muscles, but clear away toxins. “You must out the air to in the air” is a popular saying in the Pilates world. In order to get clean fresh air to the body, he believed you must get the stale, toxic air out. Each piece of movement in the repertoire has it’s own breath pattern. Ideally the breath would initiate the movement.

How you can use it: When lifting free weights, practicing lunges and squats or other forms of strength training draw your focus to your breathing. You can try something we call ribcage breathing, where you breath through the nose into the sides and back of the ribcage filling the lungs completely. The exhalation should be through the mouth and should wring out the lungs like a wet towel; squeezing every last drop of oxygen out. Once you have that rib motion and air flow going, try to engage your abdominals by zipping them up against the spine for the entire duration of the movement.

Centering: Focusing on the center of the body or what’s been coined “the powerhouse” or “the core”, basically the space between your low ribs and upper thigh. The back, abnominals, pelvic floor, and hips make up the core. The idea behind centering being that physical energy exerted from the center should coordinate movements of the extremities. A strong core is the foundation to optimal coordination and controlled execution.

How you can use it: Lets say you are in a high intensity aerobics class. During those Karate kicks and hops draw your attention to what you core is doing. Are you just letting your abs hang over your pants? Is your back swaying or arching? Challenge yourself to stay focused on keeping engaged and strong through your midsection. You should feel a lot more stable and controlled instantly.

Concentration: Focus and concentration as you can see from above are paramount. In class I strive to help clients build awareness of their body so they can focus on minute muscle activity. Perhaps having them engage their pelvic floor and inner thighs while performing a standing tricep sequence. Though the tricep might be working and physically moving in space, the rest of the body is awake, alive and engaged isometrically.

How to use it: Strive to pay careful attention to your body alignment, building on very small, delicate fundamental movements and controlled breathing. Aim to quiet the chatter going on in your head and pay strict attention to your muscles.

This is just a quicky introduction to the wonders of Pilates! My next post will cover the last three fundamental principles. Push your workout intensity by keeping these in mind.

I Want To Hear From You:
If you’ve never taken a pilates mat class and have always wondered what the hype is all about, this is it! If you have taken some pilates classes or privates before I would love to hear about your experience. Was it challenging? easy? in a gym setting?

I’d love to answer any questions you have about the method. I hear far too often from new clients that they went to their gyms mat class and didn’t feel a thing. This scares me! Pilates needs to be taught by a qualified instructor who can give you a lot of attention. The hard work, as you can see, is in the details, form and precision.

Also to those Pilates virgins…would you want to try a free session? I am putting together an free online pilates workshop very soon. Write me in the comments if that is something that interests you.