How can pilates help me?
Brief background on pilates:
Pilates was created by a bloke called Joseph Pilates back in the late 1940’s early 1950’s and was originally called Contrology.
His idea was similar to a lot mechanists at that time in the belief that there was a perfect posture and that with a lot of control of the body one could achieve it.
Over the ensuing decade, pilates was ensconced within the ballet and dance world but was largely ignored by the broader medical community.
That was until 2001 when a Queensland researcher called Professor Paul Hodges and his team published an article outlining the importance of ‘core muscle control’ in people with low back pain.
The pilates community rejoiced,and validation had been achieved. Short courses were established, physiotherapists, osteopaths and more enrolled and pilates was reborn.
4 Professional tips to improve your Pilates practice
1. Pilates posture is NOT important!!
Jo Pilates based his idea of health and posture in being perfectly aligned, similar to the ballet dancers he worked with.
But as we now know this is both unrealistic and unimportant.
How do we know that?
Paralympians are a great example of the implausibility of posture being important.
There are incredible athletes at the Paralympics, they run, jump, sprint, swim and they have postures as wide and varied as is humanly possible.
And…. they are not all in pain.
Humans evolve individually and they adapt to the positions they are used to and have spent time in.
Most of us have a leg shorter than the other, a slightly twisted spine, a muscle that is bigger on one side when compared to the other.
The important thing with exercise, whether it is pilates or anything else, is that you challenge your body with a mixture of load, stamina and flexibility.
And that if something is sore you do not push it too much.