Classical Pilates for Modern Life

Shining light on Pilates truths, honoring Joseph Pilates,

and supporting you in your Pilates journey. 

At a recent conference at my alma mater, The Pilates Center in Boulder, CO, we reaffirmed our commitment to guiding our clients through the work of Joseph Pilates far beyond just the choreography of the exercises. Going deeper and teaching how to activate the proper muscles to support the movements has a much greater impact on a person’s body, mind, and spirit than simply mimicking the choreography and counting repetitions.

If you’ve ever taken a Pilates lesson, you’ve likely noticed that each exercise is a sequence of movements that often resemble a choreographed performance.

In fact, some of the movements are so elaborate that when you're just starting to learn Pilates, much of your time and focus is spent learning them.

While it’s fundamental to learn the individual steps of new movements, too often that's all that gets taught and practiced. It's something you may not even be aware of—and that's not right!

My Two Cents

Speaking from experience, I can confidently say that most of us struggle with rotating the trunk, and when presented with this exercise, we cannot perform it properly the first time (or even the 100th time). Just trying to mimic the movements to look like the person in the photograph can lead to physical discomfort and mental frustration.

The body and brain need to be guided through how to "go about" this movement with words, tactile cues, and/or props.

So, the next time you take a Pilates lesson or a group class, look to your teacher for guidance on how your body should be working through each exercise—see the big picture.

Each Pilates session should provide a small percentage (even 1% is great!) of positive change for your body and mind so that, over time, you experience improvement in your movement patterns. This will bring you closer to achieving Joseph Pilates’ corrective movement technique—uniform development.

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Sincerely,

Joanna 😊