... is a mind-body based movement system created in the early 1900’s by Joseph Pilates to restore the function and health that diminishes due to daily patterns that include:

• Sedentary lifestyles, which lead to disease and result in imbalances throughout the musculoskeletal system
• Injuries that affect the entire body balance leading to faulty movement patterns
• Depression and stress which pull down posture and negatively affect our movement
• Routine and habit lead to the over-recruitment of some of the muscles in our bodies, while others are under utilized
• Improper training programs that may lead to muscle imbalance
• 80% of the industrialized world will suffer from low back pain at some time in their life

The result of these factors is that our bodies forget how to move correctly. The ability to perceive movement properly is lost and then dysfunction occurs. The brain recognizes movement patterns, not muscles or muscle groups and these basic patterns of movement build sequentially, beginning in infancy and developing throughout childhood. Unfortunately, along the way to adulthood, things go wrong and inefficient movement patterns replace healthy patterns. Pilates is a wonderful anecdote providing a workout that will strengthen and stretch muscles, restore muscle balance, movement efficiency, and build endurance.

How does this transformation happen?

The answer lies in words often repeated in the Pilates world: “Change happens through movement and correct movement heals.” The body learns by doing. A beginner starts Pilates exercise unaware of what they do not know. A new student will make many mistakes, but as their instructor guides them, one-step at a time toward improved technique, their body-mind connection grows stronger and their neuromuscular system adapts. As the student continues, they progress and their mistakes become less gross and their errors fewer, while their strength, flexibility, stamina, and control improve.

Indeed, putting a body in motion is the very road to functional, purposeful movement. The act of movement relies on the synchronization of the muscles throughout the entire kinematic chain and this synchronization results in the nervous system’s ability to initiate and control all movement patterns. Pilates is one way of training the body for improvements in stability and movement efficiency and this is many consider Classical Pilates a movement system. Traditionally, all movement systems share common characteristics including:

• Improved ability of the deep muscles to guide and control movement
• A goal of improving motor control
• A focus on quality of movement over quantity of movement
• Teaches people how to produce and control movements within their functional range

Pilates emphasizes all of the above elements, underscoring them with the Pilates Principles.

Core Training

Today everyone knows the importance of both core work and functional training. It is helpful as you begin your Pilates exploration to understand how both types of training are present within a Pilates workout.

Simply defined, core training is specific training methods with the purpose to improve stabilization of lower back/pelvis and the spine. There are many terms used to define the core musculature and some of the more common terms include the inner unit and postural muscles. Included in the core muscle group are these muscles:

• Transverse abdominals
• Diaphragm
• Mulitifidus
• Muscles of the pelvic diaphragm
• Deep fibers of the Psoas
• Medial fibers of the QuadratusLumborum

All approaches in core training aim to teach these muscles to work together rather than independently to create a stabilizing effect. When people practice Pilates, they learn to stabilize their bodies through a wide range of movements with different relationships to gravity, and overtime this stabilizing action becomes an automatic response, a strengthened reflex in the body. Pilates exercises challenge core stability with changes in lever length, support, and rhythmic timing while demanding that the body adapts and improves its ability to execute,
coordinate, and control a huge variety of movements.

Functional Movement

Functional training refers to the specific instruction of the body to perform everyday movements consistently involving acceleration, deceleration, and stabilization with biomechanical efficiency. Functional movement requires core stability and control but moves beyond the core focus to encompass real life movement. It is our goal in practicing Pilates to utilize a progressive approach in teaching the body to enhance movement performance so in the tasks of daily living as well as sports performance.

There are various ways of categorizing human movement. Juan Carlos Santana identifies these basic categories as the “four pillars of movement.” They include:

• Standing and locomotion
• Lowering and raising the body center of mass
• Pushing and Pulling
• Rotation

All of these movements are prevalent within the Pilates System. They are challenged on a variety of apparatus, with different “shapes in space”, or movement patterns that repeat with different relationships to the equipment and gravity. The repetition of these patterns promotes re-educating the body through the rewiring of the mind-body connection. Over time, students progress from positions assisted by gravity to positions challenged by gravity.