Pilates is Functional Movement

You’ve probably heard me say that Pilates is Functional Movement; but what the heck does that mean, anyway? Simply, your body is designed to move, and functional movement is a fitness modality that helps you do just that. 

What is Functional Movement?

The exercises in functional movement mimic everyday life movement patterns. That means things like reaching, bending, squatting, and twisting. If you’re reading this thinking, “I hate squats, why would I want to get better at them?”, I have two excellent answers for you: 

1. If you hate the exercise, it’s probably because your body finds it difficult… which is a big red flag that you need to work on it. I get it – I find the stomach series on the reformer really hard, and I used to actively avoid it. It was difficult for me because I was so tight through my upper spine, chest, and shoulders and also lacked ankle mobility. This was leading to hip and foot issues and even tighter traps caused by poor body mechanics when I ran. Lo and behold, as I worked on the stomach series, I started to see better mobility through my upper back and chest, and better movement during my runs. This led to fewer running injuries, except when I slacked off on Pilates for months while increasing running. Lesson learned!
2. You do squats all the time anyway, so why not support your body to do them better? You squat to pick things up off the floor, when you pick up your kids/grandkids, place the golf ball on the tee, or weed the garden. Sitting down into a chair is half a squat, while getting up again is the other half. 

Functional movement exercises keep your body strong, flexible, and mobile to do all the things it was designed to do. That means you can keep doing the things you love, and avoid injuries like that time you reached for the top shelf at the grocery store and tweaked your back.

How Pilates is Functional Movement

In Pilates, you focus on the movements of your whole body and how the different parts work together. A lot of attention is put on your spine and moving it in all ways: forward flexing or rounding of the spine, extension or backbending exercises, rotational movement, side bends, and focusing on keeping a tall, elongated spine. 

When it comes to your limbs, Pilates has a lot of exercises that involve folding deeply at the hips, knees, and ankle joints. You could compare this to a deep squat! There is also reaching, rotating, pushing, and pulling with the upper body. 

Put it all together, and you can see that Pilates is functional movement at its best. In a complete workout, you’ll have moved your body in all the ways it can, while building strength, mobility, and flexibility. 

Yes, You Can Do Pilates

This may all sound great, but what if you aren’t strong or flexible enough to do Pilates yet? That’s actually a trick question, since Pilates is designed for every body, no matter where they are starting from. 

There are regressions and progressions to meet you where you’re at; and the nice thing is that on the apparatuses with springs, you have support in exercises that are difficult at first. They can also offer resistance to help you build strength and awareness and control of your movements. I love how adaptable Pilates is, whether you’re training for a marathon or rehabilitating from hip surgery. 

Movement for Life

Even if you don’t think about it, you are moving your body all day in some form. You bend to get out of bed, balance to put your socks on, squat to use the bathroom, and rotate to shoulder check in the car. You do it all day, every day, until one day, you just can’t. You find yourself having to sit to put on your socks, or rely on your mirrors and backup cameras rather than trying to twist uncomfortably to check for traffic. 

If you don’t keep moving, working on those tight spots and imbalances, it just gets harder to move. Pilates and functional movement will keep you moving better through all you do. It’s gentle and easy, so it’s a great place to start your fitness journey; it’s also great for super-fit and flexible people who can do the harder, more advanced exercises. Also, as you get stronger and more capable, you’ll get better at those “simple” foundational exercises, which in turn makes them harder as you find deeper connections and control.