Often fitness focuses on muscle. Exercises isolate a muscle to “tone” and strengthen. This is a bit backwards as the purpose of muscles are movement! Pilates teaches movement and muscles learn to stabilize, mobilize, strengthen and stretch through movement. Movement patterns matter more than muscle “tone”. This is because our bodies are made to move. Having a strong deltoid doesn’t mean you have a healthy shoulder. The movement of the arm in the socket, the shoulder blade on the back and even the small rotation of the collarbone are all vital for healthy shoulders.
If you have some hip issues and you might get an exercise to strengthen your glutes. Doing this exercise might be helpful, but only if the movement mechanics you use have everything to do with the results you will have. Maybe the glutes are not strong because of some imbalance in the spine and doing the glut exercise winds up hurting your lower back. You might think “when my glutes are stronger my back will get better” so you keep doing the exercise and your back gets worse. What to do?
When I give exercises I listen to what you feel and watch how your body moves. Maybe your hip isn’t able to extend and your back is compensating. We can either make the movement smaller or choose a more appropriate exercise that will help teach your hip to extend without causing your lower back being compromised. Once the movement patterns are working better then we can make an exercise more challenging. This applies to any exercises, for any part of the body.
Pilates can break down movements into small parts and then integrate them into bigger movements over time. Building strength shouldn’t cause pain. And “toned” muscles won’t give you healthy joints and a pain free spine. Learning to move will transform your life, not only your looks. And nothing looks better than feeling better.
Solara Pilates 