The Principals of Pilates

Pilates Core Principals 

 

These eight core principles are what you need to keep in mind while practicing your exercises.  Think of them as a check list.  Inevitably some will come up more than others in your mind that’s why I give out this list. It is vital to build from 1-8 to help your fully understand and integrate the method for your mind and body.

1) Concentration “Concentrate of the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value.”  J. Pilates

This seems simple but is often difficult.  To concentrate on the entire body while it performs a complex set of movements is challenging and takes time.  Keep in mind that to focus the muscles as they move is not an easy task. Often the body doesn’t follow what the mind wants, but after concerted practice the simple movements become more focused and what once was just a simple movement turns into something complex.

 

2) Centering 

The abdominal area is often described as the second spine.  It is your powerhouse of your anatomy.  Your center is a pivotal point of the body.  All strength movements emanate from this area.  Abdominal control is different from abdominal strength this is important! The former does not rely on the latter. In my opinion it is preferable to have control.

 

3) Breathing “To breathe correctly you must completely exhale and inhale, always trying very hard to “squeeze” every atom of pure air from your lungs in much the same manner that you would wring every drop of water from a wet cloth.” J. Pilates

Correct breathing should be performed with the following in mind:

-   Keep the neck and shoulder relaxed; hunching causes neck tension

-   Allow the breath to flow: don’t hold your breath at any point

-   Breath in through the nose (into the chest) for a five second count, without allowing the shoulders to lift at all ( it helps to do this in front of a mirror)

-  Without stopping breath out of the mouth with a sigh for a five second count (it is important to not purse the lips into any shape this can create tension in the jaw and you wont get all the air out)

- If you find it difficult to breathe into the chest, breathe into your back or shoulder blades as if you where filling up sails on a boat.  There is a whole section of space in the back of our chest cavity for extra breath intake!

 

4) Control “Ideally, our muscles should obey our will. Reasonably, our will should not be dominated by the reflex actions of our muscles.” J. Pilates

Once you master the previous three concepts control is more easily accessible.  In essence control gives you the ability to practice without injury, or putting yourself at risk for injury

 

5) Precision “Correctly executed and mastered to the point of subconscious reaction, these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities.” J. Pilates

Precision of movement leads to more overall grace throughout the body.  Precision requires controlled action, without which the movement becomes sloppy and aesthetically unappealing.  The space with which you move and preform various activities also determines, and is determined by precision.

 

6) Flowing Movement “Contrology is designed to give you suppleness, natural grace and skill that will be unmistakably reflected in all you do.” J. Pilates

Fluidity of movement while exercising leads to fluidity of movement when not exercising.  That’s a wonderful benefit! Conscious control of all muscular movement through all ranges of motion will help eliminate stiff, jerky movements.

 

7) Isolation “Each muscle may cooperatively and loyally aid in the uniform development of all our muscles.” J. Pilates

As you gain more control over the weaker muscles and you are more able to integrate them into your movements the greater isolation you’ll be able to achieve.

 

8) Routine “Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.” J. Pilates

Ok this is so important and really does develop as you build on the pervious principals.  Simply put an established Pilates routine will improve mental and physical conditioning in all individuals.  The more you do, the better the results.  So use your videos, they are designed to assist you in achieving your personal goals.

Good luck and I am always here to answer any questions you may have.

Inner thighs our doorway to a strong balanced seat

Our inner thighs are immensely important in our seat and how effective we are as riders.  It is extremely important to have to proper leg position no matter what discipline you practice.  Without this correct positioning we are unable to give the specific aids we need and to effectively communicate to our horses.  This can take a while to attain in of itself, every horse is a little different and reacts a little differently to our aids. I see a lot of times with my rider clients that although they have developed "strong" inner thigh muscles they often don't know how to effectively use them.  Most times most riders are griping with them instead of using them and releasing them. They are unaware of how they are effecting their core connection and from there their stability in their seat.

The inner thigh group is a massive amount of muscles and ligaments that when weak and imbalanced through off our pelvic stability, and from there our spinal alignment.  Conversely when they are to tight and short they do the same thing.  So what do we do about this? 

Specifically for riders it is often more about lengthening and teaching the muscles to be as effective in their length as they are when they are contracted.  Most horses tend to lean on one leg more than another.  So over time as riders when get one leg that gets a little more work than the other.  The more horses you ride the more balanced you become because you experience among many things involves more diversity between both sides of the body.  We also have a dominate leg just like we have a dominate hand.  So this leg tends to be a bit stronger, with the effect that the muscles tend to be slightly tighter.

So this is a lot of background on what's going on.  What do we do about it?  I suggest a number of things to my clients based on the individual, but to start I am going to go over foam rolling of this region. 

Foam rolling on the cylinder.  HAAA everyone hates this because it hurts.  Ok yes it does a bit but the rewards so outweigh the short bit of pain.  This is a great way to get in touch with this region and how the blockages are effecting other parts of your body. Remember spend no more than 5 seconds on a blocked point, so one inhale and exhale. Pay close attention to these pain points and notice if the refer to another place in your body.  Also try to use different foot positions on the quads. Try Pilates stance, try pigeon toe as well this changes the angles and allows neglected areas to get some much needed attention.  

Here are some of the benefits:

Helps keep your knees healthy

Helps with imbalances in the pelvis.

Releases tension held in from stress

Instead of writing this all out I created a video here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCUulvWMlTQ

(From here I do the other side then the side of the other thigh, fun point often times the first side is much more uncomfortable.  The releases you get on the first side can sympathetically release the other so by the time you do the other side, it's not as intense and experience) 

Next week I will be continuing with the inner thigh and the exercises I do to help strengthen these muscles. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. 

 

 

The importance of Posture in and out of the saddle

Ok so we've all heard our parents, relatives, even teachers tell us since we were children to not slouch.  Then we start riding lessons and we hear it all over again.  Somehow in the saddle we take it more to heart and really do work on our posture.  We try so hard to sit straight, bring our elbows in, and lower which ever shoulder is offensively up.  As we know the list can go on, my favorite for a while was that my head tilted to the right.  No matter how much I was determined for it to stay on straight, it would tilt.  Drove me batty but once I was off my horse I never thought of it for long. So why aren't we paying more attention to it out of the saddle? 

The truth is that slouching is a habit caused by many factors, and we become comfortable with our habits. We defend them because leaving our comfort zone is uncomfortable. Well I am going to reveal a secret that I share with all my students.  Everyone who annoyingly corrected your posture was right.  Quite simply it's the easiest way for you to work continuously on building a strong core and connection to your body.  So learn your body's definition of straight and work toward that as much as you can throughout your day.  

Here's another point on posture, it has an effect on how we are perceived by the people we meet.  It's subtle and most of us don't realize we are making these assumptions but they happen.  Think about, it the first time you meet someone you usually see them before you speak with them.  In those few minutes your posture tells a story about you without you being aware of it.  Whether it's a potential boss or a potential trainer they are making inferences about you based on your posture. I am not saying that is good or bad it really just is what it is, as they say.  I will tell you that how you carry yourself in your daily life effects how you carry yourself in the saddle. This will always reflect on some level how your horse is relating to you as well.  Are they able to influence your posture and maybe avoid really working through? Or are you so stable and connected in your posture and seat that you are truly able to influence theirs?

Now we all slouch from time to time but here's the thing, you need to first determine if your slouch is because of lazy posture or because of actual pain or weakness/spinal issue in your body.  It's best done with a person well trained in posture analysis, but given that we don't always have access to these professionals, a good friend with a good eye to give you feedback, or in front of a mirror are options that will help you monitor your posture. I personally like to take video or a picture and then review it to see where I am at.  Now this is my opinion (but a lot of other people will agree with me on this) Pilates instructors are obsessed with posture.  We are trained to read your spine and your muscular imbalances, always with the eye to achieve the most balanced posture for our clients. With this in mind we work every session to help the posture imbalance we are dealing with that day along with the ones that are consistent.  There are many exercises in our method that are designed to help with posture, in fact all of them are, but which ones are right for you? 

I feel that the seated spine exercises are wonderful for an every day posture picker upper.  

These are:

Seated Spine stretch forward: I like to teach this to people using a wall.  I have my clients line their mats up against the wall and then sit, straight backed against the wall, feet no wider than the edges/corners of your mat, feet strongly flexed, and arms actively reaching straight out infant of you from your shoulders, palms facing each other.  (If you can't sit with legs straight you can sit up on a block, I feel blankets are to soft for this exercise, you need to feel your sits bones. If you don't have block you can bend you knees slightly keeping your heels on the ground to help with grounding.)  From here connect your spine to the wall, take a few breaths to do this.  Every time you inhale imagine your spine growing up the wall.  When you exhale try to keep you length and really ground into you sits bones.  From here on and inhale you start: grow tall ground through your sits bones and hamstrings, reach your heels to the opposite wall, toes pulling back towards you.  On your exhale, tuck chin to chest, chest to ribs, just your upper back should be off the wall and your lower back will be against the wall, as if your belly button is trying to make a mark on the wall. Take and inhale in this forward position. Then exhale and reverse slowly stacking your spine back onto the wall, with your head coming up last.

Seated Spine Twist: Sitting away form the wall, in the center of your mat, legs together toes pointed or flexed (I have found that for some people they are better able to ground flexed, traditionally you are in pilates stance/ballet first position for this exercise) Sitting with your straight back raise your arms out to the side.  Arms are long fingers are closed not open, and shoulder blades are down and flat on your back. It is very important that you only turn your torso not your hips.  (if you hips turn your heels will slide past each other this is not correct and you need to reset and then do less of a turn with your torso. It's quality of your form not your range of motion remember that.) From here it's a three count inhale turn for one, turn more two, turn all the way for three. Then exhale and untwist returning to your starting position. Repeat to the other side.  In this exercise it's helpful to visualize yourself growing taller as you wring out your spine.  As you untwist you should aim to keep the length.  I do three turns to each side.

Saw: So this exercise combines the Spine Stretch Forward and Spine Twist.  Return to the seated Spine stretch position with the only change that your arms remain in the Twist position.  Make sure you feel both sits bones and that you are as long as you can be through your spine, and hamstrings.  From here growing tall on your inhale twist to your left, on your exhale fold chin to chest, chest to ribs, ribs to thighs. Your pinkie finger is going to be sawing you pinkie toe.  Exhale reverse the forward bend and then untwist. Repeat to the other side.  I do three per side but feel free to do more. Again points to remember here: weight must stay the same in both sits bones throughout the exercise, especially in the forward fold over the leg.  This means you might not fold over that much and your pinkies may never meet.  That's not a big deal what is a big deal is that you stay equally grounded through both sits bones and that you go into and out of the exercise the same way.  

PS these seated exercises aren't only wonderful for your posture, the are great for you lungs and lymphatic system.  Not to mention that your core is working very hard to hold your posture and your hamstrings are getting work and a stretch. 

Please enjoy and if you have any questions please reach out I am always available:)

 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gz0oxkkws...