Pilates was created a long time ago, but we still very much use the fundamentals and principals that Joseph Pilates created, even in our contemporary format at Club Pilates. There are two schools of thought when it comes to Pilates, there’s the classical approach, which was originally developed by Joseph, back in the early part of the 20th century, and then there’s a more contemporary approach. Basically the contemporary approach is taking the classical works of Joseph Pilates, and applying exercise science and current thought about the spine to the practice. In fact, in the state of Florida, physical therapists can take contemporary Pilates courses as continuing education for their license, because it’s scientifically based. We teach a contemporary approach to Pilates at Club Pilates, and the courses that we’re running are based on contemporary Pilates concepts. There are five basic fundamentals when it comes to contemporary Pilates, it’s breathing, pelvic placement, rib cage stability, shoulder stability and mobility, and head placement. And when these are all put together in a Pilates workout, it provides an exercise modality that is body-wide, focused on alignment, breathing and core strength. So it’s a profound method for all ages, all walks of life, from aspiring athletes to retired athletes. What I’d like to do is go through each of the fundamentals and talk about why it’s so important to your body.
The first fundamental of Pilates is breathing, because breath is life. And in Pilates we talk about three-dimensional breathing. So what it does when you take a full three-dimensional diaphragmatic breath, is it oxygenates the blood. So on the inhale, you are contracting your diaphragm outward and down, which puts a stretch on your torso. And on the exhale, whooshing the air out with a pursed lip, it stimulates the core muscles, and this creates contraction. Just by breathing correctly during your Pilates practice, you are creating a stronger core.
The second fundamental is pelvic placement, stability and mobility. It’s through the breath that we’re able to stimulate the abdominal muscles to stabilize the pelvis. In a particular position, we call it neutral position, which is just a small, distinct two-inch curve at the lower back. When you’re working in neutral and breathing with intention, stimulating the abdominal muscles in length and then shape and stretch, we stabilize the spine in a neutral position. So it’s extremely safe for everybody. Then the alternate position is called imprint in practice, which has a slight pelvic tilt, and there is a lot of technique on imprint. The point is to again, use the breath to recruit the right muscles, to create the pelvic tilt called imprint, so that we’re not over recruiting the large dominant muscles, which is what you find people do in a lot of other fitness modalities.
Our third Pilates fundamental is rib cage stability. So if we think of our torso, it’s a cylinder, and so is the rib cage. The diaphragm lives in the cylinder of the rib cage, and your external obliques are connected there, wrapped around that cylinder. With rib cage stability, we’re asking the pelvis to come into a more neutral position. Often, what happens as we breath in is the rib cage starts to lift. With your inhale there’s expansion of the diaphragm and the ribs, and then with your exhale, there’s an opportunity to connect into the external obliques and stabilize your ribcage. This is critical for people with lower back pain. It is also critical for people with shoulder and neck issues to learn how to recruit their external obliques and all their core muscles, really, but specifically for rib cage stability, to keep that dynamically connected.
The fourth principle is shoulder mobility and shoulder stability. The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body, it is a three-dimensional joint. It internally and externally rotates upwardly and downwardly. The scapula or shoulder blade moves along with the humerus and lies on top of the upper rib cage. Integrating the scapula, the humerus and the rib cage mobility is a huge part of Pilates. Dynamically moving the rib cage in all three planes of motion assists in mobility of the shoulder joint, and also gives more options for movement and stability at the shoulder joint. So it’s a really critical part of the Pilates workout and it really pairs with the rib cage stability.
The final fundamental is head placement. For me, this is a really, really important principle. When people walk into the Pilates studio, and I see these muscles are really contracted and super strong, that’s a clue to me that they are overusing their neck muscles and underusing their core. Head placement is so simple and so basic, and it’s the one that gets messed up the most. It is simply a head nod, that’s it! It’s cranial vertebral flexion on your spine’s C1 and C2 vertebrae. It’s a flex, and then a return to neutral, and then you execute whatever Pilates move you are working on to make sure your head placement is correct while you workout. That’s your final principal, your final fundamental.
