HOLISTIC – BODY – FOCUS
What it says on the tin..
Every single muscle group is taken into account and addressed during a session with the aim to provide a balanced total body workout.
Balance…
Well of course we are not all balanced bodies, in fact if I’m honest with you, I am yet to meet a perfectly balanced body! We are all wonky! We simply do not lead balanced lives; we are usually more dominant through one side of the body and develop habitual patterns in our posture. (Can you spot my scoliosis on the ‘About’ section of the website?!) But Pilates strives to help correct these patterns and a very good start is just by educating and increasing awareness of our own individual bodies.
As a result of us not being truly ‘balanced’ I often develop client’s programmes with more reps on one side – building up strength on the weaker side, spending more time in a stretch on the tighter side for example.
One of the beauties about this movement form; you can tailor a session to meet the exact needs of an individual body.
An unbalanced, unilateral session to help balance and even out your body! Simple.
FLEXIBLE STRONG BODIES
As well as the key focus being the ‘balance’ between the 2 sides of the body there is also the need for ‘balance’ within an individual muscle; matching the strength with the flexibility. A tight strong muscle may be the goal for the hard core gym goers out there but in reality what is really important is a flexible (long) strong muscle! This is what will make the body more resilient and resistant to injury.
It is pointless to just shorten.. shorten.. shorten muscle fibres…
Everytime you work a muscle, stretch afterwards, strengthen.. stretch.. strengthen.. stretch…. maintaining the length of the muscle – even increasing it (where appropriate).
Secret to success!
Vanity!
It is all very well focusing on the aesthetics of strong superficial muscles (no more gross gym selfies please!!) but if the deeper postural stabilisers (i.e. your ‘core’ muscles) are weak, you are setting yourself up to fail. Injury will just be around the corner.
ARGHHH!!!!
Answer =
Strip back; lengthen tight overactive muscles first and then get the deeper, weaker muscles stronger… only then we can start to work on that 6 pack if you really insist!
Find deep strength from within
Makes sense right?!