Pilates Principles of Training

One of the most common areas of feedback we receive from new students undertaking their mat Pilates training, or their first apparatus training, is that they are unfamiliar with the words of the six principles of the Pilates method being forefront in the classes they have been attending.  They can’t recall the principles of method words being taught or explained to them as participants. This isn’t because the teachers don’t teach Pilates exercises by applying the principles,  it is very often because teachers have developed their own words, explanations and visualisations to teach and correct the movements of their class members, therefore applying the How of the principles but not the What. Teachers don’t often use the words, Centring, Lateral Breath, Control, Precision, Concentration and Flow and link back their beautiful visualisations to the principles words.

This can become confusing for new students who attend community classes during their studies when they are looking to embed the principles in their minds and teaching but not seeing it in practice in classes they attend. This article is to help new Pilates students embed the How and the What of the method. The principles are the What and your own visualisations, teaching words, descriptions, corrections are all the How of the explanation. To really teach Pilates we need to explain and link both. Linking back your How to your What. We should state the What clearly, i.e “lets Centre in this position’ and then explain how to with your visualisations. The Precision of this movement is (thats the What) your focus and teaching points are the how. 

This article is intended to help all Pilates teachers find the genius of the Pilates method and system that has developed from Joseph Pilates work. Don’t drop the what of the principles! This is what differentiates the Pilates Method from a general fitness body conditioning class. Let’s ensure we use what Joseph Pilates gave us. Follow these tips below to help bring them into your mind. 

The 6 Principles

 

 

  • Centering: Physically bringing the focus to the centre of the body, the powerhouse area between the lower ribs and pubic bone. Energetically, Pilates exercises are sourced from centre.

In Pilates, we are looking to create a strong, stable foundation for movement. We develop this “powerhouse” for movement by employing the muscles through the centre of the body and bringing the focus to neural activation of the central core stabilisation of the unstable areas of the body. Centring starts with alignment by aligning the four arches, the feet, the pelvic floor, the diaphragm and the roof of the mouth. Centring includes neural activation of the deep stabilising core muscles before and during the activation of the global core mobilisers of the body. This creates stability on the three unstable central areas, pelvis, spine and shoulder girdle.   Aligning the body and bringing the focus and power to the centre of the body, activating the deep stabilisers, to work with the global mobilisers, teaching them to work efficiently and in harmony with the muscles of the rest of the body.

Images like “pull your belly button to your spine”, or, “hollow your abs” are often used to encourage a deep pull-in of the abs. These images, while they do convey the look of pulled in abs, can be misleading. They put the emphasis of the pull-in at the waist and may encourage a destabilising forward flexion of the upper torso along with a posterior tilt of the pelvis. The inner mechanics of creating a stable core begin not only at the belly button, but with engaging the muscles of the pelvic floor and back (erector spinae & multifidus). This is often also referred to as a brace position.

A “bottom to top awareness” is the best way to practice engaging the abdominal muscles properly. Start at the pelvic floor then brace the core – this includes the whole corset of muscles around the torso to ensure a stable, well supported spine.

  • Concentration: If one brings full attention to the exercise and does it with full commitment, maximum value will be obtained from each movement. This starts our mind body connection within Pilates.

Concentration is often thought of as the mental key to the conscious control of a movement or exercise. It can help improve body awareness which is an often reported benefit of practicing the Pilates method.

By using concentration to facilitate a strong mind-body connection, you become more focused on where your body is in space in relation to what is physically going on around you:this is improved proprioception which in turn can lead to more balanced, graceful movements and reactions.

This is all linked to cognitive function and can help in many other aspects of life for example when having to concentrate on tasks at work.

Joseph Pilates said “Concentrate on the correct movement each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value” (Joseph Pilates , Contrology).

  • Control: Every Pilates exercise is done with complete muscular control. No body part is left to its own devices.

“The Pilates Method teaches you to be in control of your body and not at its mercy.”(Suzanne Farrell, cited in Freidman and Eisman 2005, p. 15)

Joseph Pilates called his method of body conditioning “Contrology” or “The Art of Control”. Every movement of each Pilates exercise requires complete control of your body by your mind. There should be no sudden, meaningless, or haphazard movements during your Pilates workout, it is a mind body connection. Focus on discussing in every movement the control challenges whilst concentrating on the centred position during the movement. 

  • Precision: In Pilates, awareness is sustained throughout each movement. There is an appropriate placement, alignment relative to other body parts, and trajectory for each part of the body.

“A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.” Every exercise in the Pilates method has a purpose and a goal. Therefore, as you approach each exercise be precise and try to execute the exercise as perfectly as possible. As Joseph Pilates used to say “honour every movement”. For most of the exercises in the Pilates method repetition we focus on doing a few precise perfect repetitions rather than many lacklustre ones.

Educate your class members on the precision of each movement. What moves when, in what sequence and what doesn’t move. Look for compensatory movement which usually happens in the first second of a movement. What moved that should have remained still. Discuss in every move the indicators of precision. Use the word, give your class a “precision marker’ i.e say the precision of this move is this! educate your class that generally a lack of precision means centring has been lost and therefore so has control. Precision is a marker of an ability to centre and move with control and therefore precisely. 

  • Breath: Joseph Pilates emphasized using a very full breath in his exercises. He advocated thinking of the lungs as a bellows – using them strongly to pump the air fully in and out of the body.

Most Pilates exercises coordinate with the breath, and using the breath properly is an integral part of Pilates exercise.

A full breath cycle spreads oxygen throughout the body, gets rid of waste gasses like carbon dioxide, and stimulates the internal organs.

Deep breathing is an essential part of maximising any form of exercise you do. In Pilates we use the dynamic of full breathing — big inhales and exhales — to initiate and power our Pilates exercises, and most Pilates exercises are taught with breathing patterns, including a lateral breathing method.

Cue using breath to enhance the control of the movement. i.e inhale to prepare, exhale to move and cue the move. 

Diaphragmatic deep breathing.

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that sits below the lungs, horizontally bisecting the trunk of the body. When you breath in, the diaphragm contracts and flattens downward creating a vacuum that draws in air. When you exhale, the diaphragm returns to its dome shape, pushing air out of the body.

Diaphragmatic breathing is both energising and relaxing. Using diaphragmatic breathing consciously is also a popular technique for stress reduction.

Try This Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercise:

  • The Set Up: You can do this exercise lying on your back with your knees bent or sitting up. Either way, do it with one hand resting lightly on your lower belly so you can feel your breath move your body.
    • Your shoulders relaxed and dropped away from your ears.
    • Your spine is long, (neutral spine), a natural position of the spine that allows the curves of the spine to be present.
    • If you are sitting, feel that your weight is falling directly down through your sit bones and your head is floating up toward the sky.
    • Your throat is open and relaxed.
  • The Inhale: Breathe in slowly through your nose. Let the air flow into your upper chest and down your spine — expanding the sides and lower ribs, filling the diaphragm, back and lower back, and dropping all the way down into the pelvis. Allow the deep inhale to push your belly out a little bit.
  • The Exhale: Let go of your breath in the reverse order that you brought it in. Drop your lower abs, then your belly. Let your ribs pull in, and last, let your chest to drop as you fully expel all the air.
  • Repeat: Do this diaphragmatic breathing exercise a few times until you get the sense of how each part flows into the next.
  • When you breathe in, try not to let it affect your shoulders. You want your shoulders to stay down and relaxed. Similarly, you want the inhale to be balanced all the way around the body. The chest does move with the breath but remains relaxed and the ribs maintain their cylindrical shape.
  • Pilates Lateral breathing

Despite the focus on the breath in Pilates, some people feel a little “inhale deprived” when they start learning Pilates exercises. Keeping the abdominal muscles deeply pulled in and taking a great big inhale at the same time, can seem like contradictory directions. But Lateral breathing is a special breathing technique we use in Pilates that allows us to maintain a contraction of the abs throughout an exercise. 

In lateral breathing we breathe deeply, all the way down the spine and into the pelvic bowl but emphasize expanding the breath into the back and sides of the ribcage.

When the abs are recruited properly, they protect the spine and act like a supportive corset for the whole trunk. Knowing how to breathe well while keeping the abs contracted gives us extra support throughout an exercise. As you practice lateral breathing, you will find that you are able to perform Pilates exercises with greater ease. It helps make the scoop of abs easier and enhances the sense of lengthening the spine with the breath.

This exercise will help you feel the lateral expansion of the ribcage with the breath:

  1. Wrap about 3 feet of exercise band around the lower part of your ribcage. You can also use a length of elastic or just wrap your hands around your ribcage.
  2. Hold the band closed in front of your chest.
  3. Inhale: Let the breath travel down your spine and expand into your back and sides so you feel the band is stretched, side and back, by your breath.

While lateral breathing is the technique to use when you want to keep your abs in during an inhale, we are talking about training the abs here. We don’t want to have our abs contracted all the time. Diaphragmatic breathing, with a natural extension of the belly on an inhale, is still the healthiest way to breathe regularly. Adding lateral breath to your diaphragmatic breathing will increase your overall breathing capacity.

  • Flow: Pilates exercise is done in a flowing manner. Fluidity, grace, and ease are goals applied to all exercises. The energy of an exercise connects all body parts and flows through the body in an even way.

Flow, or the fluidity of motion, is something that really sets Pilates apart from other forms of exercise. There are no static, jerky, or fragmented movements in the Pilates method. Each exercise should have a smooth, graceful quality to it. Concentrate on flow not only during each individual exercise, but also on the transitions from one exercise to the next. Seamless fluid transitions thread the exercises together so that your body is constantly in motion and your muscles are constantly working, even in between the exercises.

The aim is to flow from one exercise into the next; constantly reinforcing the strength of your “powerhouse” (abdominals, lower back, buttock and inner thigh).

So, we need to thread these principles throughout each Pilates session -Only a small number of repetitions are to be performed but with as much precision and control as possible starting at the centre and flowing through the body with appropriate breathwork.

Think of flow as moving with beauty and grace. 

Pilates Principles: Delivering the Method

Remember all the principles should be taught in each exercise.

If it appears simply as a meaningless list, you would refer.

Remember there is a lovey link between the principles.

  • You need to verbalise centering and breath at the start of each exercise and get control through that and connect with it- this is the set-up phase of your exercise.
  • You should then be able to explain that this affects precision and explain what precision is to the participant and how the participant knows when they have lost precision (and therefore centering). So, this often comes back to your instruction of which bit of the body moves and which doesn’t e.g. keep your rib cage drawn down or focusing on stillness in the pelvis.
  • Flow is about the correct muscle recruitment pattern and flowing the movement in its activation. You can add queuing for this during the Reps of the exercise. E.G flowing through the lift and lower phase on Side bend or flowing through the spinal articulation on Shoulder bridge/Spine Curl.
  • To do all of the above concentration may be implied but you still need to teach it. It’s helpful during the movement to remind participants the most important thing to concentrate on i.e. precision. This all becomes part of your follow up queuing.

Teaching: Support Techniques

These will help you deliver the above effectively and explain the Pilates principles to your clients.

  • Centering- Learn your “Precision Markers”– remember these are usually the unstable areas –scapulae, spine & pelvis – that need centering for optimal alignment; so, re-centre each time you change position.
  • Flow- this is what adds the beauty and grace to the exercises and includes transitions between exercises as well as within the exercises themselves.; add a count to your exercises to even up the concentric and eccentric phase (this doesn’t need to be a spoken count but could be cueing an internal count)
  • Control- remember to cue the “oppositional energy”- typically head pushing away from feet to get that lovely length through the spinal column; this will then recruit the correct muscles to facilitate full control.
  • Breath- remember the full breath into the rib cage and also to encourage a full exhale to aid lumbar stability.

Enhancing your Communication of The Pilates Principles

Remember communication has 3 strands: Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic. (you have further guidance on this area later in your workbook). So, we can use these to help communicate the Pilates Principles with our clients. This will include specific demonstrations and other visual feedback, the use of wide range of vocabulary and tactile correction.

  • Centering: (Fundamental)
  • Visual: Use visualisations such as tightening your belt or balancing a glass of water to help tune in the centre.
  • Use your own hands to show things like drawing down the ribcage or drawing the A.S.I.S together.
  • Auditory: Remember this is the combination of abdominal contraction & pelvic floor- avoid using generic terms such as “Core” unless you explain it fully to them.
  • Kinaesthetic: Use your hands to draw their ribs down. Use your hands to stabilise their pelvis and draw towards the midline.
  • Encourage your clients to put their hands on their ribs.

 

  • Breath (Fundamental)
  • Visual: Use visualisations such as blowing up a balloon to fully empty the lungs.
  • Use your own hands to highlight the rib expansion.
  • Auditory:
  • Try not to just use a list of breathing in and out or repeating inhale/exhale. Describe how it might feel (soft/strong etc).
  • Instruct which muscles groups are connecting with the breath.
  • Kinaesthetic: Encourage clients to have their hands on their ribs to feel the movement.
  • Use resistance bands tied around the ribs to give physical feedback from their breath– especially useful to help tune into the rear portion of the ribcage.

 

  • Control (Fundamental)
  • Visual: Use visualisations to test the elements of control you are wanting them to understand E.G. a tray balanced on their backs for Pointer, a glass of water balancing on their lower abdomen for pelvic stability.
  • Auditory: Instead of simply saying do something “slowly” or “gently” use “with control”. You can use slowly or gently to back up your instructions where appropriate.
  • Terms such as “Oppositional Energy” help illicit control (and muscular activation) as you push away from the midline.
  • Consider how your clients finish an exercise E.G. release the feet to the floor one at a time with control (to protect the ligaments of the lower back).
  • Kinaesthetic: Use things such as bean bags on the abdomen to give feedback of their control

 

  • Precision
  • Visual: Use visualisations such as Ship’s Mast for a straight leg, touching the wall with the toes to get the full length in the legs.
  • Auditory: Cue the “Precision Markers” that you have learnt for each exercise:
  • Talk about the placement of parts of the body and how these need to be precise to gain the correct muscular activation and therefore maintain control & centering.
  • Kinaesthetic: Ask your clients to feel the muscles responding, either just tuning into the feeling or by actually placing their hands on their body.
  • Use tactile correction to help them with their placement e. drawing their arms longer as they reach, supporting the pelvis to help stabilise etc.
  • Use cues such as can they feel the mat beneath their ribs, check their head is in line etc.

 

  • Concentration
  • Visual: Point to the areas that you’d like them to concentrate on
  • Auditory: Use phrases to help explain concentration such as “Draw your attention to” “Focus on”
  • Kinaesthetic: You can get them to understand the difference that concentration makes by getting to do some of their orientation drills whist they are distracted and then with their full concentration and help them notice the difference to their stability and control.

 

  • Flow
  • Visual: You can use lots of lovely visualisations for flow such as water flowing, bicycle chains for spinal articulation etc.
  • Auditory: You could use a count- such as on Torpedo or Side Bend -3 counts to lift, 3 counts to lower to help achieve even muscular recruitment and thus flow. This doesn’t have to be spoken throughout- they can count internally once you’ve sown the seed.
  • Kinaesthetic: Ask them to tune into the way a movement pattern feels- so an evenness of movement, not jerk, no mis-alignment etc.

Coaching and Communication

Effective coaching of a Pilates session requires a high level of teaching skills.  To teach effectively we need to understand the different learning styles and personality types of our class participants as well as having a deep-seated understanding of the subject we are coaching, in this case Pilates.  It is also important to have refined observational skills so that teaching can be adapted and provided according to the performance of individuals in the class.

Teaching Skills

Frequently teaching skills are often referred to as an instructor’s ability to cue and instruct choreography adeptly.  However advanced teaching skills encompass an understanding of how to reach and convey the benefits of all exercises to class participants with different learning styles in addition to the class being able to successfully follow the workout.  It is often necessary to adapt teaching methods according to the class type and description as well as its time and location.  This is because the type of participant and therefore often their preferred learning style is likely to differ with all these variables.  Suitable motivation to the group also becomes an integral part of teaching skills.  Motivation needs to be genuine and therefore often relies on good observational skills.  A Pilates instructor should have the tools to be able to do all these and therefore possess advanced teaching skills.

Part of the planning phase of any session needs to consider different teaching approaches bearing in mind the learning styles of the client.  Every individual draws on a variety of learning styles the primary ones of which are visual, auditory and kinesthetic.  In an exercise situation where body physical intelligence is being challenged a large proportion of participants primarily rely on visual learning to be successful.  The learning curve of the session can then be logically designed to consider how sequences and techniques are best delivered.

Delivery/Teaching Techniques

As Pilates can be a complex skill set to learn, it is best to deliver the information to your classes/clients in bite sized chunks to aid their learning process and understanding. The list below gives you a menu to use to help you develop your delivery skills.

1) Name and Purpose of the exercise to include: Name, muscles worked, body area. If you have a mixed group your more experienced clients will understand what this means to them (automatic phase of learning) and so will be able to start and potentially complete more repetitions. 

2) Rational– why are they doing it? What is the benefit? It is important to “sell” the benefits of each exercise to help clients understand why they would bother doing something- this can be both from a functional perspective as well as in relation to how they will look/feel.

3) Demonstration– Remember you are the role model. You will need to complete each exercise with absolute precision- think larger than life –as your clients will inevitably dilute some of what they see. Aim to do 2 reps before you get up to assist.

4) Explanation– To include fundamentals of the principles, how do they centre in this position, where is the control challenge and what indicates precision, this all takes concentration and then move with flow, teaching points, adaptations, cues etc – you can do this as you demonstrate or as you walk around.

5) Correction- getting off the spot and helping with alignment/problems; following up verbal cues as necessary.

6) Voice and intonation- remember to use different tones to set the scene for different exercises, maybe to aid relaxation or to improve the pace/flow of the session.

7) Layering information- don’t try to give all this information in one go- deliver it in bite sized pieces as the class/clients exercise. Remember sometimes too to be silent!

Teaching practice Guidelines

  • For each exercise 
  • Centering– Learn how to centre in each position, bringing focus to the centre and alignment, use your “Precision Markers”- remember these are usually the unstable areas –scapulae, spine & pelvis – that need centering for optimal alignment; so, re-centre and align each time you change position.
  • Flow– this is what adds the beauty and grace to the exercises and includes transitions between exercises as well as within the exercises themselves.; add a count to your exercises to even up the concentric and eccentric phase( this doesn’t need to be a spoken count but could be cueing an internal count)
  • Control– remember to cue the “oppositional energy”- typically head pushing away from feet to get that lovely length through the spinal column; this will then recruit the correct muscles to facilitate full control.
  • Breath– remember to elevate the sternum and also to encourage a full exhale to aid lumbar stability.

If you are interested in taking further training in Pilates Mat or Reformer or taking your Pilates to the next level of Level 4 Therapy then do get in touch. Even just for a career chat.