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

Flex, rotate, extend and articulate your spine.

Articulate your spine! How many times have you been asked to do this in a Pilates lesson? If you come to one of mine, probably lots. The cue, "articulate your spine" is used in the large pelvic tilt exercise and is used to promote movement between each individual vertebra. In a large pelvic tilt you start in the Pilates relaxation position. Firstly you tilt your pelvis so that your lower back moves closer to your mat and your pubic bone rises (a small pelvic tilt). Then leading from your pubic bone you peel your spine from the mat one vertebra at a time, until you reach a bridge position. To come back down, I like to think I am trying to imprint my spine into sand. So to make a really good spine print I have to get each vertebra to touch down individually finishing with my tail bone. Naturally I am engaging my core throughout the whole exercise. So what do we achieve by articulating our spines? We have lots of muscl...

Pilates key principles: Precision

Before I trained as a Pilates teacher I attended classes for years. I was always trying to speed through exercises to get extra repetitions in and prove to myself that I was really strong. However I was not really strong and I was not aware of the key Pilates principles. Precision in movement is the exact manner that an action is executed. When you are completing a Pilates exercise you are using your breath to power you movement, your concentration, your Centre, your control and finally your precision. The greater the precision the more likely you are to find the muscles that should be exercised and then to achieve your goal. When exercising I am thinking of the muscle that should be working, isolating it and being precises in my movement. Precision can make the difference between accessing a muscle or not. Next time you are in a class, slow down and connect with the muscle your working. Use all the Pilates princip...

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...

Katie Leaver Pilates

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