Make The Most Of Your Pilates Practice

I’ve been talking a lot about the principles of Pilates over the past several weeks. While there are six different principles, they really all work together. And by keeping them in mind, you’ll keep gaining from Pilates. We all want to do Pilates well and keep improving, but there is a lot to learn! So give yourself time, practice, and keep the following in mind to make the most out of your Pilates. 

In The Beginning

There is a lot to learn in Pilates, including just getting into the studio on your first visit! Then there is getting acquainted with the apparatuses and learning the first exercises. You may be dying to jump onto a reformer and get going, but at b.Pilates & Fitness we want to set you up for success. 

As Pilates teachers, we’ve dedicated a lot of time, education, and practice to gain a depth of understanding of the Pilates method so we can help clients get the most out of their practice. That means teaching you control, proper body position, and moving safely from the start. Pilates is tricky, in the way that it doesn’t often look hard. It takes a good teacher to help you engage, lengthen, and strengthen all the muscles you need to lift your body up off the mat or move the reformer carriage with precision. If you’re being taught to do big, showy movements or you’re “riding the springs”, you aren’t doing Pilates (and could actually hurt yourself). 

Building On The Foundations

Once you know where you’re going and have learned the basics, it’s time to truly begin your Pilates journey. I say “journey” because there really is no end to learning and progressing in this method. It starts with the pre-Pilates exercises and foundational exercises. These look the simplest, but they are also what all the other Pilates exercises are built on. They can also be deceptively difficult!

One of the most common complaints I hear in the beginning months from many students is that their neck hurts or feels strained. There are a lot of exercises in Pilates that involve curling up through the upper spine off the mat. It can take time to learn how to find a uniform curl and use your abs more than your neck. There is also the complaint of not being able to hold the legs out long, and that the hip flexors or back hurt in this position. 

In this case, we can use pre-Pilates exercises that help to teach you how to lift the legs by lengthening, as well as using the glutes, lower abs, and hip flexors. Curling up and lifting your legs might seem like super simple exercises, but you’ll find that as you get better, you can do them with more control and awareness. 

Last year I started doing foundational exercises in every one of my workouts and sometimes just the foundations. I also started to re-teach them to clients and low and behold, all of our Pilates got better! I’m so impressed with how much more control students have and what they can do now when we try out a more advanced exercise. They are drawing on the skills they gained in the foundations.

Applaud Your Progress

One way to get bored with your Pilates practice (or any type of fitness) is to keep an eye on your progress. This could be so many different things! You may have started Pilates due to back pain, and then one day you notice it’s gone completely. Or maybe you have moved on from the beginner exercises and are working on intermediate or even advanced exercises. Looking back to see how far you’ve come in Pilates is one way to track your progress, but you may notice benefits in other areas of your life as well. Perhaps you’re more aware of your posture, have better balance, or are less stiff when rotating your body or getting out of bed. I love hearing the unexpected little wins like this that clients never thought would come of Pilates. 

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Pilates is a corrective exercise that helps even out imbalances by improving your strength, flexibility, and mobility. With 15+ apparatuses and over 500 exercises in the classical Pilates system, there is always more to learn.