What can you find in your Pilates workout for success?
Joseph Pilates wanted to have this Pilates method which he called Contrology to be something that helped Pilates clients in the outside world. Mr. Pilates wanted the full body movement of his work to keep people moving freely and without injury. Pilates is not just a workout but something that no matter what age you are, shape you are in or issues your body has you can do. Doing Pilates is a lifelong adventure. It can also teach you about success!
What does that mean? What can you find in your Pilates workout that you can take outside the studio and apply to your life to find more success? In anything?
Let’s just focus on one aspect of Pilates and the Pilates workout. Pilates is a practice. Does that mean the more you do it the better you get? In a way yes and in a way no.
Practicing Pilates you will soon learn the choreography and the moves. You will learn the apparatus and how to do those moves on them. You will get more fluid, it will feel less complicated to move and you will feel more confident in the studio while you are in your session.
Now, here is the key to the success part of this Pilates practice. I like to tell Pilates practitioners that there is no perfect Pilates. We never get it perfect. It is a journey and always changing. There is also that aspect of the more you practice your Pilates the harder it gets. You get more connected, and you realize and feel your body move and figure things out so that now the choreography and all the exercises together are a different work that day. Every day.
So you keep practicing and practicing and you see the subtle changes in your mind and body. You overcome challenges and fears that maybe had stopped you before but, now you see the way to make it happen for you.
Fears of I can’t do this, I was in pain, and what if it returns, fear of upside down or do I have that strength? You realize you overcame them and are doing what you never imagined when you first walked into the studio door.
Learning how strong you truly are if you focus and work at it. To see it takes time and commitment. To see that nothing is ever perfect but, it is the best you can do and that is good enough. That can be a hard lesson to learn.
Huge lessons from a workout don’t you think? Lessons you can take outside the Pilates studio and apply to your life every day.
Imagine if Joseph Pilates not only thought I will make your body more mobile and strong but, the focus and connections of the mind, body, and nervous system can also be used out there in the real world to help you be better and more than you thought you could be. In whatever you decide to apply it to.
Pilates is a lot about giving you the space and safe place to explore and work. To get the confidence in your body to know you got this and you can do more.
Pilates is more than just exercise. It is really about a journey that just continues with you and changes as you go through different moments in your life.
Pilates will make you feel less stressed, is that the breathing? The focus? Another tool for success in those moments of anxiety is at work or at home.
Every exercise in Pilates has a trajectory and a start and end. Everyone starts the same but the beauty of Pilates is the building blocks Joseph Pilates created to get the client to a moment. All the building blocks allow for everyone to find that success in the work.
If you think about your daily life as a Pilates workout it just seems to create success for you don’t you think? You have an order to the day, you take each moment to explore and move forward, not getting judgemental but just seeing what you can do and doing it the best you can. Realizing today is different than yesterday so, move forward and don’t look back. If something doesn’t work, take a breath and think what do I need to change or do to make this work?
When you are done for the day realize what you accomplished, how hard you worked, and stayed focused. That you did everything you could in those moments. That is success! That is Pilates.