Just What Is Pilates?Click here for TopNotch Pilates HomepageI get asked this question and several others when I say I teach pilates: Just what is pilates – is it like yoga? Does it really flatten your stomach? Isn’t it supposed to be a mind~body exercise? Do you have to be really flexible? Isn’t pilates just for women or dancers? What machines? Pilates uses machines? You mean there are different types of pilates? The first thing that needs to be clarified with pilates is anyone can ‘say’ they are teaching pilates with little or no training. The pilates (REAL pilates) that I will be referring to requires hours and hours (200 to 600) of training – including many hours of workshops, observations, personal practices and private sessions with a senior trainer. It is highly unlikely that anyone that teaches REAL pilates with this type of intensive training, will be found teaching it as group exercise in a gym. Pilates was invented by a man named Joseph Pilates. Pilates was German-born and migrated to the states in the early 1920’s. The original name of pilates was “The Pilates Method of Contrology” and named rightly so as pilates is complete and utter control of your body. Ironically, before pilates came to the US, the method was used mostly to rehab soldiers (MEN) that were incarcerated in the war, not on dancers. Pilates was created by a man and used on men, not designed for just women and dancers as many think. The pilates apparatus (machines) were fashioned from hospital beds, wheel chairs, and traction devices. Yes, pilates uses “machines” or equipment – it is NOT just the abdominal matwork DVDs sold on QVC. Ideally one should be doing both the apparatus and the matwork as they complement each other. A fully equipped studio will have all the apparatus: e.g. reformer, cadillac, ladder barrel, chair, spine corrector, magic circle and may include foot corrector, pedi-pull and smaller barrels. The focus of pilates is working from “the inside out” meaning pilates trains the deeper, more stabilizing muscles of the spine and abdominal wall (transversus abdominus, pelvic floor, multifidus). For this reason pilates is referred to as mind~body exercise. The larger, more superficial muscles of the body are secondary to the POWERHOUSE (stabilizing muscles of the torso). Some of the movements resemble yoga postures, however, pilates is a MOVEMENT SYSTEM – it is not static and postures are not held. Pilates and yoga are actually NOTHING ALIKE. What pilates more closely resembles is physical therapy. Pilates is about de-compressing, stabilizing, mobilizing, and articulating the spine and joints. It is a movement system meant to create a more healthy body in addition to strengthening and stretching muscles, improving/correcting posture, while creating a longer, leaner look without the bulk of weight training. Pilates is not about bulk strength, it’s about ease of movement. Regarding types of pilates: classical pilates is based directly on the works of Joseph Pilates. Classical pilates flows from one movement into the next and the transitions are taught as part of the system. It is challenging, as are all types of pilates, and you do sweat. All classical pilates studios should be teaching the same system. Classical Pilates is meant to restore the natural curves of the spine and is not training specifically (as some other types of pilates state) with a “flatback.” Another technique for pilates is Stott Pilates ® which is derived from classical pilates but is a technique all its own and is Canadian-based. Stott’s largest training center is in the northeast so it is a very popular technique used in this area. The flow of classical is missing but Stott Pilates ® offers several modifications and variations and is also an excellent training system. My first training was through a classical system, then I engaged in the Stott Pilates training. It was not until I came full circle back to “real” pilates meaning the original system designed by Joseph himself ~ Classical Pilates ~ that I started seeing, feeling, and living the almost unbelievable results that Joseph Pilates stated regarding classical pilates: Pilates training, done at least twice a week using a combination of mat exercises and apparatus, will do all it is stated to do: help flatten your tummy, streamline your body, improve your posture, decrease or eliminate back pain, create body awareness, improve flexibility, restructure neurological firing patterns to give you more ease of your every day movements and improve athletic ability. I must say in my 20+ years of experience in movement, fitness, weight training, martial arts, and more, I have never seen a more complete system that absolutely makes sense for just about any body. It is truly intelligent exercise. Joseph Pilates was WAY ahead of his time.
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