Pilates key principles: Flow

This is the point where we take everything we have learned over the past 5 months and combine it together.

Breath: The fuel for your power house Pilates key principles: Breathing

Concentration: Connecting your mind and your body Pilates key principles: Concentration

Centre: Your core, connecting to it and letting it power your movement Pilates key principles: Centre

Control: Using the exact alignment, avoiding excess tension, isolating muscles and Pilates key principles: Control

Precision: The exact way the action is executed. Pilates key principles: Precision

We then add Flow so that the movement can flow smoothly and gracefully.

Combining all these essential elements into my Pilates practice is something that I am still working on. I'm not sure I will ever hit the perfection target. It is really important that everyone knows that their best is good enough. However Pilates is bigger than turning up and waving your limbs around by copying the person next to you. If you can, try in your next lesson to focus on one of the key principles. Really build it into every movement. In each lesson add another element, until you feel the deep connection from your core into every movement you make in a class.

By adding these principles into your practice you will find that a simple exercise increases in difficulty. Your core will strengthen, improving your ability to bring flow into your practice.

See you in class

Katie

Comments

When I stretch my hip flexor muscles I feel it in the front of my thighs. Is this right?

The short answer is yes! In my first post I talked about the movement of hip flexion and listed the hip flexors. We have already covered the iliopsoas the main flexor of the hip. Today I am going to talk about the rectus femoris muscle which also assist with hip flexion. The rectus femoris is the large muscles at the front of your upper thigh. If you sit down with a tray on your lap, the tray would be resting on your rectus femoris. It is part of the quadriceps, four muscles on the front of the leg between the pelvis and the knee. Rectus femoris is the only quadricep that reaches over the hip joint as it originates on the front of the pelvis. In class I often reference your ASIS ( A nterior S uperior I lliac S pine), you have two and they are the nobly bones you can feel through your skin at the front of your pelvis. Well you also have two AIIS ( A nterior I nferior I lliac S pine) this is another nobly part of the pelvic bon...

Pilates key principles: Concentration

In a world of attention grabbing, Pilates is a 55 minute window of calm. As a teacher of small group and solo Pilates I can tell if my clients are having a busy mind day. When the mind is elsewhere, movements are not as exact and clients ability to complete a challenging move is compromised. It is OK to have a busy mind, we are not robots, however letting go of your thoughts and concentrating on the movements your body is making will help your Pilate practice to develop. These are my top tips for concentration: 1) Be present, use the repetitive nature of the warm up to connect with every part of your body. Try to visualize each part of your body, be selfish and only focus on yourself. 2) Pay attention to the alignment of your body. The beautiful line from your toe, through your ankle, knee and then into your hip. Maintaining correct alignment will increase the difficulty of an exercise. Why not challenge yourself to completing level ...

Pilates key principles: Control

In Pilates we aim to maintain a high level of control over the movements that we make. As you will have completed some Pilates with me, you will be aware that a small angle change in leg positioning or increased stability through the pelvis can suddenly increase the intensity of an exercise. When thinking about control it is very closely related to precision and you could say that these key principles come hand in hand. You will find that control is improved once you have made multiple attempts at an exercise. Muscles will increase in strength and your muscles will remember the movement of an exercise. Therefore when taking part in a class, stay at a level where you can maintain control. If you work at too high a level you will find it harder to master the control of position and movement and then perfect the exercise. When we have control over a movement we are also able to make the movement using only the muscles connected with tha...

Katie Leaver Pilates

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