What do you think of when you hear I teach Pilates? Are you interested, thinking it will be the ultimate core workout? Or are you not interested because you think it will be too easy? If you have ever tried a Pilates class, what were your thoughts afterwards?

Sometimes Pilates gets a * beside it for those of us who crave high intensity movement and need sweat to validate our workouts. There is nothing wrong with wanting that, but I think we need to move away from how we perceive the value in different types of movement practices. I have shared over the years, but it is a good reminder that the following things do not equate to a good workout necessarily:

sweat
how sore you are the next day
length
how many burpees (or another high intensity exercise) you did

Now, some of those things can definitely mean you had a good workout, but just because you didn’t achieve that, doesn’t mean you didn’t gain any benefits from the exercise. We also can sweat without performing movements correctly. I am a firm believer in quality over quantity in any movement or training session. So no matter what your goals are, that should be at the forefront to help us achieve those goals with success, avoid injury, and maintain longevity for life.

Pilates has become a special movement practice for me over the last three year and half years. A few years ago I shared why I love Pilates on my blog. It was important to me that I share the value in this type of movement because I think it is completely undervalued. Today, I wanted to dive a bit further into a specific element that makes Pilates stand out from the rest. I love to move my body in a variety of ways, hence why I teach and offer a bunch of different programs, but this is why I enjoy Pilates as much as I do.

There are six key principles that make up the movement practice of Pilates:

Breath
Concentration
Center
Control
Precision
Flow

Although all of the principles above are important, today let’s talk about Precision.

If you have ever taken a Pilates class, you may realize that your regular core workout, your last barre class, or something your fitness instructor had you do, may not be as different than you thought. It is usually HOW you execute the movement that makes it different than any other exercise regimen or workout. When we move with precision, our bodies can execute the movements better and we can therefore achieve greater benefit from it.

For those that have taken Pilates with me, I ask a lot of questions and tell you where you should be feeling things. All of those moments matter and build up to the greater precision we are striving for, as mentioned above. You learn which muscles are supposed to work and when, how to properly align your body, and how to teach your body and mind to understand the movement and how it feels within your own body. I then recommend you take your learnings and apply it when performing similar movements in your faster-paced or higher intensity workouts so you can continue to move in the best way possible.

Precision will help us to actually feel the proper engagement. We want to strive to feel it in the right places, and not just mimic and look like the coach. Looking the same and feeling the same are very different things.

The next time you have the opportunity to take a Pilates class, I encourage you to do so. If it is not your thing, no big deal, but we can all benefit from mind-body connection and hopefully be able to continue practicing with that sense of precision in all exercise modalities. At the end of the day, it is about quality of movement to promote a healthier, longer, pain-free life and proper execution and body awareness will help promote that.

Yours in self-discovery,

Rachel

The Pilates Principle of Precision

There are six key principles that make up the movement practice of Pilates: