It’s all in the mind
As mindfulness, meditation and breathwork become a key area of focus in the wellness and health industries, the evidence supporting their benefits for Pilates continues to grow. The shift from high-intensity, gruelling exercise towards lower-impact, strength-focused movement styles like Pilates has been accompanied by a new emphasis on the importance of recovery, rest, and the mind-body connection. While Pilates is built on many of these foundations, it’s a time during which the spotlight on mindfulness practices offers an exciting opportunity to deepen your existing Pilates practice, and allow you to better support your clients in achieving their individual health goals.
Mindfulness practices, including meditation and breathwork, have been shown to improve mood, reduce stress and anxiety, support brain function and flexibility, and generally enhance wellbeing and health when done consistently. But these practices also bring specific benefits to Pilates - both for instructors, and for your Pilates clients. Let’s dive into just a few of the major benefits of mindfulness for Pilates.
It enhances the mind-body connection.
For many of us our original training taught us the importance of breathwork. When start to consider adding Mindfulness into our experience it takes our training to new levels. When you apply mindfulness to your Pilates practice your requires you to bringing more attention your awareness to your body and the sensations you’re experiencing - a technique and skill which can be applied to your Pilates practice too. It brings your attention to your movements, your experiences of the present moment, how you’re feeling as you move through a Pilates sequence as a teacher or a student.
This means you’re more aware of your body as you do your Pilates, so you can mindfully activate and engage each muscle group required in each movement you perform. Instead of rushing through sequences and flows, focusing on getting your heart rate elevated or getting to the end of the flow as quickly as possible, you’re more attuned to the individual muscles you’re working. For example, in a lunge sequence, instead of lunging repeatedly as quickly as possible, you can intentionally activate your glutes, hamstrings, core, stabilising muscles and your quads, helping you perform the movement to the fullest extent, with correct form and involving all the right muscles. Whereas without mindfulness and attention, you might only activate one or two of these key muscles in performing the movement, meaning you’re not getting the same effectiveness from the movement and you’re risking injury in the process.
In developing a mindfulness practice, or incorporating mindfulness into your teaching, you can help your clients to hone their mind-body connection, and enhance the effectiveness of your classes in the process.
2. Mindfulness helps achieve better results from your Pilates practice.
Similarly, mindfulness helps to improve the results and outcomes you and your clients can achieve from Pilates. In enhancing the mind-body connection and allowing your clients to intentionally activate all the necessary muscles to perform key movements correctly, you give them the best chance at seeing faster, greater results from their workouts. If they’re recruiting more muscle groups, enhancing their range of motion, reducing their risk of injury and performing each movement to its fullest and most challenging extent, they’ll notice a difference in their strength, physique and ability very quickly!
The presence, intention and focus achieved with mindfulness hugely improves the results Pilates can achieve for your practice, and your clients’ health goals.
3. It brings presence to your Pilates practice.
Mindfulness has been shown to improve your ability to be present and focused in the moment, helping you and your clients experience more enjoyment and satisfaction from Pilates. In really making the most of each Pilates class or flow you teach, you and your clients can get more out of each session - both physically and mentally.
A Pilates practice can offer a chance to reconnect with yourself, take some “me time”, and switch off from the pressures and demands of daily life for both yourself and your clients - but only when done with mindfulness and presence.
Instead of your clients being distracted by endless thoughts, to-do lists and negative self-talk during their Pilates practice, they’ll learn to focus on their body and their movements, giving them a much-needed release and break from their day-to-day schedule, commitments and stress.
Not only does mindfulness help your clients enjoy their time on the mat or reformer more fully, it has also been proven to elevate mood and brain function, and actively reduce stress levels, meaning there’s more room to embrace the practice of Pilates without distraction.
4. It gives you more energy, so you can enjoy your Pilates more fully.
Mindfulness also helps you and your clients to feel more energised, largely due to the emphasis of meditation, breathwork and other techniques on deep breathing. This then provides the muscles with more oxygen and energy, helping your clients to exercise more efficiently, and feel stronger and more energised during their Pilates practice.
As you know, when you feel nourished and revitalised, you enjoy Pilates far more, so this benefit of mindfulness is undeniable.
Mindfulness allows a more intentional approach to Pilates, allowing you and your clients to experience better results, more enjoyment, and an enhanced ability to be present during your practice.
Understanding what mindfulness actually is is crucial - while many people believe mindfulness requires you to rid your mind of all thoughts and emotions, this is not an accurate reflection of the practice. Instead, mindfulness focuses on releasing judgement, allowing your thoughts to pass without attachment, and learning to be present and connected to yourself. If you’d like want to understand more about mindfulness, breathwork and meditation, and how you can use it to elevate the Pilates practice of your clients and yourself, Unite Health has just launched an innovative new online program designed specifically for Pilates instructors and enthusiasts. The Mindfulness, Meditation and Breathwork for Pilates course takes you through practical modules and tools to seamlessly incorporate mindfulness, meditation and breathwork into your classes to help enhance your teaching skills, client relationships, and your overall well being.
You can find out more here. Learn more here.
Unite Health is the exclusive provider of APPI (Australian Physiotherapy & Pilates Institute) Pilates education in Australia and New Zealand. With an emphasis on evidence-based teaching developed by expert physiotherapists, and taught by leading Pilates educators, Unite Health offers courses for everyone, from Pilates enthusiasts, to instructors, to allied health professionals and beyond.