Workshops provide loads of inspiration and food for thought. The real work, from a teacher’s perspective, comes in bringing concepts to reality. Quoting a fellow friend and colleague Frank Zito, “If I come away with one new idea from a workshop it’s a success.” I like that kind of thinking!
Recently our studio hosted Benjamin Degenhardt for Advanced Mat class and Upright Pilates training for teachers. While I had many new thoughts after the workshop, I want to highlight one in particular.
Quality of movement and how vital that is in the role of a moving body. We live in an age of obsessive numbers and competitive records. This data compulsion is all around us, from market and financial statistics to BMI and weight measurements to percentages of ingredients and calories in food. The list is endless.
It’s also prominent in the exercise and fitness sector. Think how much can you bench press, how many Olympic snatches can you do in a minute or how long can you hold a plank pose? In the grand scheme of everyday life do you think those numbers will help you move around your home or office efficiently?
Here’s the point, quality and diversity of movement should not take a back seat to numbers. Simply said can you get up and down easily or does it take enormous effort to do basic chores? The easier and effortless movements are executed the less risk for injury and efficiency of body mechanics.
Below is just a tiny assortment of daily tasks:
- Get up and down from a chair
- Walking up or down stairs
- Reach down to pick something off the floor
- Carry grocery bags, heavy suitcase or lift a small child
- Turn around to look over your shoulder in the car
- Put your shoes on or take them off
- Stand up easily on a moving bus
- Push open a heavy door
A well-trained body should be capable of executing movements in the list and others with ease. The goal of training a body is to prepare it for anything thrown in front of you. The more prepared one is for a diversity of actions the more efficient the response will be, on a regular basis.
Our spines should be able to bend, twist, rotate and any combination of movements. Limbs should be mobile with strength and support capabilities. The body should easily move in all planes of motion as effortlessly as possible. Of course given no injury or handicap exists.
Benjamin brought to mind a great example of what might be thought of as a simple movement, the sitting rising test. (SRT) This test developed by physicians in Brazil is an example of agility that in their eyes demonstrates the level of musculo-skeletal fitness and maybe even a measurement of how long one will live. I encourage you to take the test!
Basically it asks you to sit down on the floor and stand up from the floor without using your hands. Points are deducted for lack of balance, use of knees and other support needs. I would wager a high percentage of individuals across the age spectrum are not able to complete the test proficiently.
Training philosophy 101, “What you train is what you will become proficient in, given you make the investment.” If you plan to be in the Olympics on the weight lifting team, practicing huge numbers of weight is necessary. If you plan on playing the role of a grandpa, being able to pick your grandkids up off the floor might be a lofty goal.
If your desire is to be independent in daily life than Pilates just might be the exercise program for you. Its’ unique diversity in training along with a variance in apparatus to challenge the body focuses on quality of movement. We place you in a host of positions in space, lying, sitting, kneeling, standing and any combination of those on a variety of apparatus. The overarching goal (training) is to be able to execute all exercises with control and efficiency no matter the plane of motion or movement demanded.
A good example of an exercise that can bring positive benefits to numerous daily tasks, like walking, is “Going Up Front” on the high chair. (See photo above) In this exercise you are placed in a lunge position, with one foot on a stable piece (the chair) and the back foot placed on a moving pedal. The goal is to push off on the stable piece with a steady body as the pedal goes up. In a basic way it simulates the push off phase of walking up a stair.
One begins to learn this exercise with the arms resting on the back of the chair. As the body progresses the arms are taken away. Making it even more about balance and control, signifying quality of movement. As many of my clients have said about this exercise “its no joke!” and a true test of leg strength as well as total quality of movement.
If one executes this exercise well with each repetition there is no need to do massive amounts of reps. Quality vs. Quantity in action. Going up front is just one example of a Classical Pilates exercise that promotes total body movement and if properly trained is done with ease and grace. Most clients are thrilled to not do 100 reps!
Finally, let’s not forget that Joseph Pilates named his method “Contrology.” And appropriately often spoke of as “The Art of Control” now that’s something to strive for. The art of Pilates in motion, for every body at any age.
“Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.”
Joseph Pilates
