Joseph Pilates first sentence in his book, “Return to Life Through Contrology” is: “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.”
I recognize that everyone is different, and I would never claim that this is true for everyone, but I know it’s true for me. If I let life get in the way of my workout regime I do not feel well–both mentally and physically.
Do you know what amount of exercise your body craves and needs in order for you to operate and peak performance?
Remember that Joseph Pilates called his exercises “Controlology.” The whole concept is being in control of your muscles during the exercises and then incorporating that into daily life–engaging your core for a simple task like standing in line or walking.
We can’t control everything that happens in life, but we can control our reaction to it, and we can control our behavior. Think about extending to concept of what you have control over in life beyond just your muscles. It is very empowering to realize that you have control over your fate (to some degree). You can make choices that make you healthier and happier. It’s up to you. All you need to do is decide to be in control and recognize that while you may not have the power to change everything in life you certainly have say in how you feel about the world around you and what part you will play in it.
When designing exercises, Joseph Pilates considered the movements of animals–the limberness, the agility, the grace, the movement of the spine. One animal he particularly considered was the cat–especially when it comes to stretching.
Next time you are somewhere there is a cat (or if you live with one) watch the way it moves, notice how often it stretches. Try and replicate it’s movements and see if you see any similarities to Pilates exercises.
This exercise is a little like last week’s exercise where you isolated the hip joint, except it’s a little more challenging to isolate the rib cage. The range of motion is a lot smaller too. As always, if you tend to stand a lot at work have a seat for this and if you tend to sit go ahead and stand.
Then it’s time to head back to work, hopefully a little more refreshed!
So it has taken a while, but weeks ago a client asked what I thought was a really good question: Since Joseph Pilates first started using his exercises on men, did he really mention kegels?
It was a great question because even today we tend to associate kegels with women. Even though men have them (a question that some people also have). In the two books that I have read by Joseph Pilates, I did not notice him refer to the kegel muscles or the muscles of the pelvic floor. In asking other instructors, the answer I find most likely is that he probably favored the glutes (butt muscles) over the kegels. In comparison to the way we do the exercises today, Joseph Pilates overused the glute muscles. Today we try to focus on engaging and holding a gentle squeeze of the pelvic floor and abdominal muscles as opposed to squeezing the glutes to rock the pelvis.
That’s a good thing to remember the next time you do pelvic tilts during a warm up. When you rock from imprint to neutral you should be using your stomach, not your butt to […]
