Get More Out Of Your Workout With These Pilates Principles

Flow: Quite possibly my favorite aspect of Pilates is the amount of flowing motion. Unlike certain forms of yoga where you are holding asanas (poses) isometrically, the Pilates method aims to keep a continuous flow in the body. The transitions between lets say a core exercise and a hamstring piece, are equally as important as the “main” exercises. This way the body never has a chance to stop, settle and then regroup. You constantly have what I like to call “a simmering of energy” going on.

How You Can Use It: When you find yourself hopping from machine to machine, to weights, to elliptical, to the mat, etc… at the gym become aware of what your body is doing between each “set.” Instead of collapsing on the bench after killing yourself with dead lifts, stand up with erect posture and clear focus on your next task at hand. Put exercises back to back or if that’s too much just add little movement segments in between that don’t use a ton of energy, but just keep you moving. This could be as simple as heel lifts! The point is to stay in your body, focused and aware of how the body is feeling and responding to what you are putting it through. You’ll waste a lot of energy stopping and starting which over time will really wear on the joints.

Opposition: This is the idea that in a given movement there are two lines of energy flowing. For example, if you are doing a typical bicycle abdominal exercise you are reaching out the extended leg while the opposing elbow is reaching in the opposite direction. When you reach out of both the foot and the opposing elbow you are creating that oppositional energy that creates length and more control and stability in all the muscle groups involved. This idea can be applied to all movements and helps integrate the entire body in even something as simple as a tricep press.

How You Can Use It: I personally love using opposition in relation to the spine and posture! In any given squat, or lunge action think about the opposing energy lines from the feet all the way to the crown of the head. If you are squatting imagine shooting beams of energy through your heels at the same time you are lengthening the back of the neck and the crown of the head to the ceiling as you press the legs straight. In a plank, feel the heels reach in opposition to the crown of the head, zip up your belly and drop your shoulders long down the sides. Use your internal energy to lengthen the body!

Precision: There is an appropriate placement, alignment relative to other body parts, and trajectory for each part of the body in any given Pilates movement. This gets back to the importance of sustained awareness of where the body is in space and how it feels from the inside out.

How You Can Use It: Check out your form in the mirror. If you don’t know what good form looks like ask for assistance or google it. It’s important that we work our bodies in ideal bony alignment. This means not letting knees twist and torque or the back sway and/or hunch. When you perfect your form and perform a given exercise to the best of your ability you’ll only need a few reps! Save your time, energy, and joints by focusing on quality.

My Expert Tip: Use dynamics! Instead of just slogging through several mindless bicep curls, go for a few slow reps using full range of motion, followed by some tiny pulses (small range of motion), followed by more vigorous full length reps, etc… Varying the dynamic of a movement (fast, slow, small and large) works both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers and hones in on tiny stabilizer groups.
Try some of these ideas out today and let me know what you feel, find and discover in your body. Keep moving, breathing and flowing!