Wednesday, July 11, 2018

No, it isn't the jokes about my dungeon equipment...



The single thing I like most about Pilates is the way it develops proprioception, which is a fancy word for how we figure out where our bodies are in space.

The Pilates exercises encourage us to tune in to the nuances of our movements, focusing on the details and the qualities as well as the quantities of particular gestures.  Some of us discover that we like to tilt our heads one direction or the other, or that we believe the center line of our bodies lies two inches to the left of actual center.  We may find that mirroring an exercise with our hands helps our feet do the right thing, or that a small shift in the pelvis makes all the difference in balance or low back pain.

The lessons of Pilates apply in our other workouts and in our lives.  We get to approach how we move with curiosity, comparing how we think we are doing with how we are actually doing, making little adjustments that shape the whole.

It is one way to map our bodies and that comes in handy.

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