If you read the wording on my logo, you will see that I have used, what is referred to as the Principles of Pilates, which are the foundation of our practice. It is generally agreed that there are 6 principles, although there are a few other principles which often get included. I choose to incorporate 3 other principles, that for me also encapsulate the essence of Pilates and its integration of mind-body and spirit.
The Principles of Pilates weren’t actually written by Joseph Pilates himself. His pupils created them by taking his theories and condensing them into a simple concept that would then be a guide for future students of his method for generations to come. And Pilates instructors the world over, use them.
Throughout our Pilates practice, these are the 6 principles that I love to work with.
BREATH, CONCENTRATION, CENTRING, CONTROL, PRECISION AND FLOW, in addition with BALANCE, FLEXIBILITY and MIND-BODY CONNECTION, which for me seem to create a fully integrated Pilates, mindfulness and wellness experience.
Below I have given a short summary of each of the Pilates principles that form the basis of our practice together.
Breath
I talk a lot about the importance of breath in Pilates and how the breath can be used not only to energise our movements but also to relax our muscles and help improve our flexibility.
We create energy and power into a movement by breathing into the thoracic spine so the abdominals can stay contracted and provide support and stability for our backs and our trunk.
The Pilates breath increases our lung efficiency and nourishes the nervous system. Calming down the fight or flight response of the sympathetic nervous system and strengthening the parasympathetic nervous system for calmness and relaxation. Using your breath correctly will help you to move more easily, improve your focus, encourage correct activation of specific muscles, reduce blood pressure and improve respiration and circulation. Breathing properly will also reduce stress and tension and profoundly enhance your mind-body connection.
In Pilates we use 3 different types of breath practice, Lateral or Thoracic breathing, Active breath and also Set breath patterns. In all 3, we breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Breathing laterally when exercising emphasises the expansion of the rib-cage on the in-breath and the relaxing of the rib-cage on the out-breath, allowing for a deep abdominal activation. We use this type of breathing during Pilates to help maintain stability in our centre and to provide support and protection for the back during exercise.
The inhale promotes the increased intake of oxygen and the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to our muscles and organs. The exhale eliminates toxins from the body more efficiently.
Active breath can dramatically influence the dynamics of an exercise. In some traditional Pilates exercises like THE HUNDRED, the percussive breath actively contracts the external intercostals in stages on the inhale, and the abdominals and internal intercostals in stages on the exhale, usually to a count of 5 breaths in and 5 breaths out. However, it is important if practicing this type of breathing not to be too forceful and to avoid creating tension. I often encourage an even breath of perhaps 3 or 4 counts as a modification.
Set breath patterns can be used simply to remind us to breathe, to help us recruit our core muscles at the correct time and to enhance the sense of FLOW in our practice. There is such a wonderful feeling of harmony that can be achieved with the co-ordinated rhythm of movement and breath and set breath patterns can also help us to create energy through the movement.
In Pilates we typically inhale “to prepare” and then exhale into the effort. The out-breath can also assist in further relaxation of our muscles allowing us to move deeper into our stretches.
Using our breath flow properly can enhance not only our Pilates practice, but also our sense of well-being as we relax into our practice and begin to fully concentrate on ourselves.
CONTROL
Joseph Pilates called his method ‘Contrology’ or ‘The Art of Control’, rather than Pilates as we call it today. In his book Return to Life Through Contrology he says:
“When we perform Pilates exercises we are aiming to move with fluidity. Flowing the movements in synchronicity with our breath and improving our technique to the point where the control is invisible, rather than with obvious effort or tension that diminishes the mind /body connection. Every Pilates exercise is done with complete muscular control, producing effective results and minimising the risk of injury. The emphasis is on quality of movement over quantity. Attention to detail is crucial in achieving perfect control. No body part is left to is own devices.”
The Control principle is a physically and mentally healthy principle, and we can find the benefits of it, simply from the way in which we approach our Pilates practice.
We should be thinking not only about how we are moving our bodies, but why, and consciously developing our mind/body control. Developing control allows us to learn new and efficient movement patterns rather than persisting with old habitual patterns that continue to promote poor posture and muscular imbalances. Control through our Pilates allows us to find new ways to move and breathe and think.
Being in control of every movement means being in control of your mind and mind control equals concentration and again enhances the mind/body relationship to create exact movements in the body. This is particularly important for those of us who feel out of control, perhaps through injury, illness and inactivity, or perhaps because of weight or nutrition issues.
Concentration
Pilates is undeniably a discipline and Concentration is a key component.
I often talk about ‘staying in the room’, staying focused or making sure you’re not in the Sainsbury’s aisle in your head when you’re practicing your Pilates! I encourage and support you to leave your daily stresses and worries outside of the studio door or off your mat, and, with any luck, by the end of the class you won’t feel the need to revisit them.
Concentrating on our Pilates helps us to focus, again, intensifying our mind/body connection by being present, being in the moment and helping us to gain optimal value from each exercise. Concentration brings our attention to each movement, increasing our body awareness and conscious control. This ensures for example, that you can keep a stable pelvis while moving your arms or legs, helps you to keep your shoulders relaxed while activating your centre and reminds you to breathe as you move.
Concentration is not only physically, but mentally valuable. Focusing inwardly, you become more aware of how your body feels, moving more somatically, instinctively and intuitively. Concentration allows us to intentionally and deliberately recognise when to relax and when to contract, when to soften and when to engage.
If we lose concentration, our mind-body relationship is diminished.
How many times have you been given an instruction and then completely forgotten what it was by the time you have come to perform it? How often do you drift off, forget your Pilates principles, your technique slips or your mind wonders? It is SO important to maintain concentration and that, in turn, will evolve into feeling mentally and emotionally centered. Centering your body together with concentrating the mind further develops the mind-body connection.
Centre
Joseph Pilates referred to the centre of our body as the powerhouse, the place where all Pilates movements originate and where the energy for every exercise is sourced. This area covers the rectangle from your shoulders to below your hips at the front of your body and your shoulders to below your bottom in your back body. Nowadays we put less emphasis on every movement initiating from the core, even avoiding using the word core as a cue. This encourages more natural and free flowing movement, bringing the awareness to the entire trunk or centre of the body.
Just focusing on the core can have a negative impact on the body and is not always effective, as over engaging our abdominals inhibits the movement of the diaphragm. We have learned that an exercise is more effective if we relax and contract our muscles, rather than keeping them permanently engaged. Avoiding bracing is vital for recovery from injury, especially as bracing is a form of protection, where we may hold ourselves in very fixed and rigid positions rather than allowing our bodies to give, releasing tension, tightness and stress.
Our Pilates practice begins by finding our centre through the feet and feeling a connection to the earth as well as to the centre of our body. We endeavor to centre our mind into our body, guiding us to focus inwardly, to heighten our self-awareness, to improve our concentration and to strengthen our mind-body connection.
Precision
Many Pilates exercises require you to move your body in a precise way, creating certain shapes with your body and using specific muscles and specific joint actions. This again encourages breaking down bad habits and helping us to learn to move in a better way. Re-educating the body through movement, listening to our bodies and understanding our limitations and using adaptations and modifications, will improve our body awareness and confidence, improve our posture, and alignment and free us physically, mentally and emotionally more than we can ever imagine.
To enable us to do the most precise execution of each exercise to the best of our ability, we should embrace using props to assist us, learn to initiate movement from the correct part of the body and use the appropriate amount of effort. Envisage effortless effort and how repetition of a movement allows that movement pattern to become second nature. Practicing in this way you will also experience valuable elements of mindfulness as again it encourages intense focus and concentration.
Flow
Before the Pilates method emerged into the fitness world it was originally used by dancers to help them recover from injury, prevent further injury and enhance beautiful and graceful movement.
Our bodies should also move with ease, flowing effortlessly from one movement to another. In our Pilates practice, we are aiming to take what we are learning on our mat into our daily lives so that even functionally we move with more fluidity and grace.
We think also about how our movements flow around the mat, the transitions between each exercise and how the sequence of movements flow seamlessly from one to the other. Practicing in this way promotes calmness in the mind, enhances our mind/body connection and connects us more deeply to the part of our nervous system that elevates relaxation and nurtures our sense of well-being.
Balance
Balance is sometimes an underrated principle of Pilates and of everyday function. But, it keeps you upright, allowing you to walk without assistance, helps to prevent injury and controls your body position when you are either stationary, such as holding a static Pilates posture, or moving, such as walking, cycling, running, or skiing. Balance is a key component of fitness along with strength, flexibility, endurance, and mobility. It helps you to recognise the position of your body in space and proprioceptive awareness to control your movements in space.
Increased proprioception produces smoother, fluid, controlled movements which not only lowers the risk of injury but helps us to improve our coordination.
If muscles are imbalanced, our joints are used incorrectly causing wear and tear, damage or pain. Muscular balance improves posture and again reduces the risk of injury. Balance training also improves the stability of our ankles, knees, hips, pelvis and shoulders.
Pilates exercise improves our mental and emotional balance, by balancing our Qi energy. This impacts our thoughts and our behavior. When we are emotionally balanced we are able to have a healthier relationship with ourselves as well as with others, adapt to changes in life and manage stress more easily.
Known as emotional self-control, this promotes feeling optimistic and positive and promotes higher self-esteem.
Flexibility
We need to be flexible in order to be strong and mobile. If we are rigid and restricted in our movements it will limit us and promote injury. Flexibility exercises and stretching will help bring our muscles to an optimum length, improve our strength and physical performance, reduce pain and reduce stress in our joints, improve muscular balance and therefore improve our posture.
Being flexible in our bodies helps us to be more flexible in our mind. Nowadays we are much more aware of our mind/body connection. How you feel in your body affects how you think and vice versa. There is an undeniable link between a person’s attitudes, behaviors and thoughts and their physical health. A rigid mindset manifests itself into a rigid and inflexible body.
Mind/Body
The integration of all of our Pilates Principles can’t help but profoundly strengthen our mind/body relationship as it demands intense focus. As we improve our body awareness, we move more somatically, intuitively and instinctively, with precision and control. We will feel the benefit of our movement and breath practice on our nervous systems and as our concentration improves, being “in the moment” will enhance mindfulness-based stress reduction. When we release mental and physical tension, our minds, as well as our muscles, relax and we are able to flow into our movements more freely, tune into our internal environment and become more receptive to different sensations within the body which promote peace and calmness within us.
I think breaking down and exploring these Pilates Principles individually, highlights how much depth and value there is to our Pilates Practice. It’s not just an exercise regime, but is fully integrated and beautiful, physically, mentally and emotionally balancing and a journey of self-love and self-care.
Thank you for being on YOUR journey with me.
