Uncle Joe Loves Us

I love Pilates for a lot of reasons, but today I’m going to talk about how it makes other things we do better.

 

One of the gifts that Pilates gives us, or, more accurately, one of the rewards we earn when we do Pilates, is core strength.  Core strength is not just doing eight million crunches in fifteen seconds.  The best core strength is the kind that does what it is intended to do while we are in motion:  stabilize our bodies.  The core musculature is not limited to the “six-pack.”  In fact, the rectus abdominis is a superficial part of the core.  Pilates gets to the deep stuff.  Also, we have core muscles in our backs as well as on our fronts.  Pilates strengthens them all.

 

Core strength leads directly into balance.  The ability to balance helps us deal with all the uneven, uncertain, wobbly terrain that we encounter in our active pursuits and in the course of our daily lives.  In sports, this skill contributes to our agility and quickness in changing direction.  As we age, balance practice becomes an important tool in preventing falls.

 

Proprioception is one of my favorite five-dollar words.  The five-cent definition is where our bodies are in space.  The Pilates repertoire, with its insistence on precision, helps us learn where we think our bodies are, where our bodies are really, and how to bring the two into agreement.  As we learn to perceive our bodies, we learn to align them, which makes our movements more efficient and helps us avoid injury no matter what we are doing.

 

Finally, Pilates helps us chill out.  Movement, in Pilates, is tied to the breath.  Tuning in to our breathing centers us in our bodies and helps us become mindful, which is something we can bring with us out of the studio and into the world.

 

Spend some time with Uncle Joe.  It’s worth it.