Pilates Made Simple |
| By Fitness Together Wellness eLetter February 1, 2008 |
|
|
|
Fitness trade journals report a 50% growth in Pilates from 1999. Both consumers and trainers have been educated by fitness journals, magazines and the standard media hype. Pilates has been touted as the secret to flat abs for Madonna, Sting and otherHollywood actors, and even professional athletes join in the Pilates movement.
Those guidelines are perfect for most deconditioned clients, and they can expect to achieve favorable results for a combination of muscular strength and endurance. With an entry level Pilates program, our primary focus is on joint mobility and dynamic stability and less on strengthening the prime movers of the body. We do not perform sets and reps. The following concepts are incorporated:
It is the low load that enhances joint mobility and dynamic stability. You may have heard the phrase that, with Pilates, "you work from the inside out." That is essentially what we are doing — going from deep to superficial. Pilates could truly be looked at as the foundation for any and all strength or movement training programs. For optimum function, the body benefits from a combination of mobility, dynamic stability and strength. Starting with Pilates may just set the stage for a good all-over resistance training program. In Pilates, very basic biomechanical movement principles are taught: breathing, pelvic placement, rib cage placement, scapula mobility and stabilization as well as head and cervical placement. These principles are not specific to Pilates alone and may be carried over easily in all other movement methods. Breathing The most important principle is the breath; we encourage a full breathing pattern, a "3-D" breath, allowing for all three lobes of the lungs to expand and release with each inhale and exhale. In doing so, we not only stretch many intrinsic muscles that might otherwise not get stretched but also help to create proper intra-abdominal pressure to support the spine. The transverses abdominus, or TA, is activated on the exhale and co-contracts with other inner core muscles to stabilize the spine. We teach clients to feel how their ribs expand three-dimensionally on the inhale and, on the exhale, how that deepest abdominal layer the TA activates — it will feel like a gentle corset around their midsection. This TA activation is what truly flattens the abdominal wall, and it is the secret to flat abs! This is a simple but extremely beneficial prerequisite for all abdominal work. Pelvic Placement Pelvic placement is our second basic biomechanical principle in Pilates. We adopt either a neutral pelvis (both the asis and pubis are in the same level plane) or a slight posterior tilt (the asis is lower than the pubis). The neutral pelvis is used for closed chain (both feet on the ground) activities and the posterior tilt is used for open chain (both feet in the air) activities. The reason for neutral being used in closed chain is to avoid unnecessary flexion of the lumbar, which could compress the discs, as neutral is the most shock-absorbing position, with respect to the spine. And the reason we do a slight posterior tilt in open chain is to take the pressure off of the erector spinae, if the abdominals cannot support the spine against the weight of the legs in the air. By adopting these pelvic principles, we ideally avoid compromising the spine and disc space. Rib Cage Placement The ribs should lie flush with the torso when relaxed and expand slightly upward and out upon inhalation. The muscles attached to the ribs, the TA and obliques, will help keep them flush when properly activated during all phases of the breath. This principle is often taught when supine (face-up) by inhaling and lifting the arms up from the floor toward the ceiling just to shoulder height and then exhaling to lower the arms toward the floor to an overhead position, just by the ears. Watch carefully that the ribs do not "pop" up when the arms go overhead. Use the exhale to engage the abdominals, which will keep them from popping. The latissimus dorsi may be tight and will be pulling as the arms go overhead and could dominate over the abdominals. When the ribs pop, this creates compression in the thorocolumbar junction (where the thoracic and lumbar spine meets). Scapula Movement and Stabilization Because the scapula lacks bony attachment to the ribs and spine, it has a great deal of mobility, but it may lack in stability. It's important that we create a balance between the mobility and stability of the scapula while moving and especially when adding resistance. If the bones do not glide properly and allow for smooth rhythmic patterns, the shoulder girdle as a whole is compromised and may result in impingement and rotator cuff injuries. During our warm-ups, we always include protraction, retraction, elevation and depression of the scapula, both to educate the client on how the scapula moves and where they can find their neutral stable alignment. Head and Cervical Placement The head should be balanced directly above the shoulders, and the cervical spine should follow the line of the thoracic spine in all planes of motion. We teach this alignment first in supine (face-up) and then in prone (face-down). We have the client do a crunch, keeping the pelvis neutral and only flexing the cervical and thoracic spine. The best cue I've found is to ask the client to nod their head just a little bit, gaze at their knees and flex their upper body off the mat. The nod sets the cervical spine in the slight craniovertebral flexion needed, then the gaze at the knees keeps them from looking up, which would extend the spine rather than flex it. Start Position The last thing we take into consideration when teaching Pilates is how to modify for our clients. The goal is to start an exercise from the most neutral position possible and then move to more challenging progressions. If a client cannot find neutral alignment due to muscular imbalances, it's important that we modify the start position with props. The key to proper muscle firing patterns and creating overall symmetry is to start from a neutral place, where the muscle can do the job asked of them. A muscle will respond more favorably when starting from its resting length than from an over-contracted or over-stretched position. The following are some examples:
|