Almost all of the Pilates
sessions I do myself or do with clients start with the same handful of
exercises. There are a few reasons for
this.
Possibly the most obvious
is that those exercises serve as a warm-up.
When I was younger, I was skeptical of the whole concept of warming
up. Reality has set in and I now
understand that we don’t go zero to sixty instantly. The later exercises really do go better when
we take the time to ease into them properly.
I tend to put the
straight core exercises in that early batch of exercises because then they
definitely get done. When they happen
first, they don’t get forgotten. Our
balance and posture and healthy backs thank us when we ensure that the core
work gets done.
A more subtle reason for
the routine is that it becomes almost a ritual.
When we perform the same motions in the same order, it helps to get our
mind in the right space for what comes next.
We get to arrive gradually, shedding the outside world and moving into
the Pilates space as we progress down the familiar path. Mind-body work requires both a mind and a
body (no kidding!) and ritual helps both get to the right place.
Let’s do what we need to
do to make our workouts go well!
