I am positive you are good at Pilates..no matter what your Teaser looks like!
Doing Pilates for the first time can be very overwhelming for the new Pilates client. Walking into that Pilates studio can be a little scary with all the Pilates apparatus that has springs, bars and looks like a bit of a torture chamber at first glance. The Cadillac in a Pilates studio for example can look like a medieval device or at least that is what some new Pilates clients have said. Pilates clients are also being asked to move their bodies in ways that maybe they have never attempted before. To put it very simply Pilates is like learning a new language.
Pilates also has a reputation for some of it having to look a certain way. That you have to be able to do a Pilates Teaser or Swan and have it look exactly like this! Many new and even experienced Pilates clients can be made to feel that they aren’t good enough, that maybe something is wrong with them in terms of their body or capabilities. Pilates can become the place where you realize how imbalanced you are or how one hip is higher or twisted as you are told this is not right or this is not what we want.
Many times when I have told people that I teach Pilates they say “oh I can’t do that.” They feel they are too old, not flexible enough, it is for dancers or some excuse that makes them feel they would be bad at Pilates. I even has someone say to me that once they got in shape they would try Pilates. Others tried Pilates but, felt like they had failed. Why? is it that they truly did fail or was it they felt that they failed.
I am going to go with some people feel like they fail at Pilates or that they will fail at it. I will also go out on a limb and say NO ONE fails at Pilates. How is that possible you ask?
Joseph Pilates created his work for everybody! So that everybody no matter how young, old, fit or unfit, injured or in pain could do it. That not only could anybody do it but they also would feel and be successful.
Pilates is about full-body movement which I chatted on in an earlier blog which you can find HERE It is not about having a strong core or abdominal area. It is not about how flexible you are to reach your toes.
Each Pilates session is all about exploring and finding the individual’s movement. What does that mean?
Your body moves differently than everyone else’s. Yes, we all have the bones and muscles and the basic same skeletal framework but, look around and notice how many body shapes there are in the world. Do we really think that a certain specific shape can be maintained by all those people? Long legs, short legs, long torso, short torso, wide hips, narrow hips, wide shoulders, narrow shoulders? No of course not.
Why would that not transfer into the Pilates workout? Even better what if that made the workout more about learning, being challenged, and exploring the movements and how things are all able to work together in a way that YOUR body was designed to move? Not about looking exactly like this or that.
I was reminded of all this the other day when I had a client for the first time. She had done Pilates for many many years and so she was not new to the work in any way. We started on the Mat and progressed to the Reformer and then to the Wunda Chair. I gave her cues to connect her to the work to really feel where she could go and keep her safe. I wanted to see where she could go, would go, how she would get there. This first session is really just getting to know that body in different shapes and positions.
When we finished she wanted to know why I didn’t “put her” in the position exactly. To spend a lot of time to make sure her hips were here, her feet here, etc….She told me how much time her teacher had spent letting her know exactly where and how and what was needed in her body to do this before even going. That I didn’t spend all that time making sure everything was perfect and exactly right before she started. The way she talked I pictured 10 minutes on set up before she was allowed to move at all.
My first thought was why would I want to do that? As a teacher I want this body to move, to not be told to stop or not do something. Take a moment and think if someone says “wait, don’t move that hip…keep it right there!” What would happen? Your whole focus would be on that hip not moving WHICH would make other things not happen. Your body would not know what to move as it was so focused on what not to move!
What if that hip was tight and not able to be “in the perfect spot” and to be honest who does not have hip tightness or imbalances? What if in moving we could find a connection somewhere to help that hip get more connected? To be allowed to maybe release some tightness or become more mobile? That is the goal with Pilates. Not to be perfect and this here and that here but, to find what that body needs to be more balanced and strong!
In Pilates, it should be your time to figure things out and find your way to a movement that your mind and body figure out. If our heels are together or parallel. If your Teaser is a bit more back because your legs are longer than someone else’s that is perfect! It is your Teaser, right?
Pilates should be a place to have the support and tools to not be told this is what you should do! Make it happen this way. It should be the place where you move, and your body finds the spring, the strap, the bar, or the mat to go WAIT… I know what to do! If you get there a little differently than the other person, or your shape is a little different than theirs so what!
I share this moment that made it happen for my own practice. For years my struggle in Pilates was Swan. I was told it had to look like this, I had to do this, make this happen, and work this. I dreaded it every time. The teacher would try and put me in this position that I just couldn’t get and be suffering through.
I felt like it was a fail for me. Then I went to a workshop that a friend, a fellow Pilates teacher was giving and when they asked for a volunteer for swan on the Cadillac I decided I would do it.
Why? I trusted this teacher, and they knew my struggle as I had chatted on it with them. I would say I am bad at Swan. I can’t do Swan.
I again repeated this to the teacher as I found my position on the Cadillac. They looked at me and said “well, let’s see what your swan is today”
As I was led through the exercise again those thoughts hit my mind and I was working so hard to not fail. When I was done I again felt defeated. lost. Then I looked up at my friend who smiled.
“Well, there you go! That was YOUR swan” with a voice that was full or positive words and feeling and it suddenly hit me. It was MY swan. Not someone’s version of swan or what someone else wanted my Swan to be, but it was what my body figured out to do and get to my swan.
The freeing of my mind in this moment was key. Pilates was not about achieving this perfect move but, getting your body to move and go where and how it could and should. Now my Swan is actually something I am proud of as that moment gave me the freedom to explore and move knowing it was my swan. I got stronger, more connected and it opened up so much more for me than just that one exercise.
Joseph Pilates wanted everyone to do Pilates. He believed it could help everyone no matter who they were, what they did, how they looked, or their age. He was positive of that. He believed that.
I also believe and am positive that you are good at Pilates… if you haven’t tried Pilates then I am positive you will be good at Pilates.
I am positive you are good at Pilates because you will be moving your body in the most effective, full range of movement that it was designed to move.
When my clients are finished with their session and are heading to grab their shoes and belongings they always hear me say “Great job today!” because no matter what happened in the Pilates work for them they were doing the work for themselves and not for what anyone else!