Is Pilates still relevant today?

The Pilates method was created by Joseph Pilates in the 1920’s for the purpose of rehabilitation. He designed a series of vigorous physical exercises to correct muscular imbalances which would improve posture, co-ordination, balance, strength and flexibility. Some of the first people treated by Pilates were soldiers returning from World War 1.

He started to teach these injured soldiers his comprehensive system of physical exercise, which he himself called “Contrology”.

Each client had a unique physical challenge and Pilates created aids or equipment from his surroundings to help achieve his desired outcome. The modern day “Magic Circle” started as the metal around a barrel. The “reformer” as we know it today started as a sliding bed board connected to bed springs.

Around 1925 Joseph Pilates immigrated to the US and met his wife, Clara on a ship on the way there. The two of them founded a dance studio in New York and reached great success with teaching their students according to the Contrology system. Due to their success, some of the leading dance schools in New York at that time regularly sent their injured athletes to Pilates’s studio for conditioning and rehabilitation. With these injured athletes he concentrated on building flexibility, strength and stamina. The Contrology system related to encouraging the use of the mind to control muscles, focusing attention on core postural muscles that help keep body balance and provide support for the spine. Pilates directed his focus towards awareness of breath, alignment of the spine and strengthening the deep torso and abdominal muscles.

Soon after it became known that elite ballerinas were attending the Pilates studio and benefitting physically, the society woman started to follow. Today Pilates has a huge following with an astonishing number of approximately 9.08 million people (aged 6 and above) in training (registered in 2018) in the United States alone.

Despite its global popularity over the last decade, research on the efficacy of Pilates as rehabilitation has been lacking. Pilates is certainly not Physical Therapy. The rehabilitation stage, patient limitations and qualification of the instructor are all variable factors for the success of rehabilitation with Pilates.

There are six original principles that Pilates was created around – Concentration, Centre, Control, Flow, Precision and Breathing.

• Concentration refers to the way that Pilates was intended to connect mind and body. Pilates believed that his method of exercise would activate brain cells to stimulate the mind and affect the body. The mind-body health movement has boomed during the past two decades and Pilates has reached a new height in popularity. On a more scientific level, research is showing us more and more how the brain develops new pathways as mindful movement is executed and repeated.

• Centering is the focal point of the Pilates method. Joseph Pilates is credited for labelling the core, or centre, “the powerhouse”. The core consists of the pelvic floor inferiorly to the diaphragm superiorly, the abdominal wall anteriorly and the lumbar fascia and spine posteriorly. Pilates, however, included the shoulder and hip girdles in total core strength, placing the core muscles in the centre of the body. The idea of core activation has radically shifted over time as research and knowledge expanded. Research has shown that bracing the core muscles can be inhibiting your diaphragm function and even increase back ache. Pilates training aims to teach clients to be able to combine movement with breathing as well as how to control movements without bracing. It is as important to know how to contract muscles as it is to know how to relax that very same muscle.

• Control can be paralleled to stabilisation as each exercise in the 34 mat exercises

created by Pilates needs the utmost control to be executed correctly. Control of the pelvic girdle is needed to stabilise the lower body when the upper body is being mobilised and visa versa. Control is closely connected to the principles of centering and concentration as you need to activate the core muscles and use full concentration to have full control during these exercises.

• Flow: The goal of Pilates is to encourage the body to move with ease and fluidity through even the most challenging of movements. This shows that the coordination of various body parts are working together to create a flow of movements in your everyday life.

• Precision: Joseph Pilates believed that the emphasis on perfect technique and

movement helped his students to break down bad habits and learn the more superior movements with repetition. In a Pilates class the teacher will continuously “cue” the client to correct certain movements or habits to aid in the level of precision that the movement is carried out with. With our current sedentary and seated lifestyles, we are not always aware of the poor posture that turns into habits. Pilates is there to work against these postures that can create a lot of body aches and pains.

• Breathing: Breathing is interweaved with every exercise of Pilates. Certain movements need to take place on the inhale and others on the exhale. With each exhale the ribcage is already initiating your core and aids in the movement. With the inhale the ribcage is expanding, and the upper spine is activated through mobilising the ribs. If there is one thing that we have learned the past 3 years during the covid pandemic, it would be how important correct breathing can be. It is scary to see how many people simply do not know how to breath effectively. This is one aspect that Pilates training has managed to improve for all clients.