Pilates is Foundational Movement
Photography @pilatesanytimeus
As a young dancer with a very painful hamstring tear, I found Pilates. From the first lesson that I took with Jacqui Landrum in 1996, I could feel that my body was learning the grammar it needed to heal my injury and to dance again. With Pilates, I danced injury free for many more years and gained a global understanding of my body’s movement map that I hadn’t had before. After getting my Pilates comprehensive certification from Romana Kryzanowska in 2001, I started teaching this Method that changed my life, hoping to give back to others. Over the years, I taught Pilates to film directors, financial analysts, agents, marathon runners, iron man competitors, swimmers, surfers, stuntmen, dancers, people with rods in their spine, a client born with only one leg, pregnant women, fathers, mothers, therapists, the list goes on… Each of these people would come back to me with stories of success in their careers or personal lives where they were able to achieve something they didn’t think possible. All of this confirmed what I sensed at my own first lesson, that the principles of Pilates are foundational concepts of human movement. It’s very exciting, really.
What makes Pilates foundational movement for every modality?
First, Pilates requires your focus and curiosity. You can’t be scrolling or doing something else when you are doing Pilates. It is interesting and complicated, so you have to pay attention. Pilates also gives you insights about your body – where you are stronger or weaker, more flexible or more restricted. Once you have that insight, you can pay attention to it in other movements or modalities that you participate in to improve your performance. It’s like the physical version of meditation.
“It forces you to cut out the noise, pay attention, and move thoughtfully.”
Second, Pilates is precise. The longer I do and study Pilates, the more I realize how much the correct body position matters. For example, if the heels are lifted only halfway up in Footwork and you commit to keeping your heels together, you can maintain the hip external rotation better and automatically connect to your external rotators, inner thighs and glutes. The muscles of the foot also contract to stabilize so you strengthen from the ground up. Those muscular connections of support become second nature and provide muscle memory that turns on automatically when you do squats, lunges or box jumps. This gives you more power and stability during these challenging movements.
Third, in Pilates, alignment is non-negotiable. When your joints align properly and correct posture is reinforced, movement is more efficient.
“Paying attention to correct alignment allows your postural (endurance) muscles to do their job and your phasic (power burst) muscles to do their job.”
When this happens, you avoid tightness and pain. In contrast, if we allow our body to go through the day out of alignment, muscles that are built for a quick power movement might instead need to hold onto a wayward skull or limb all day. Problems occur since the fibers of phasic muscles weren’t built for that endurance.
Fourth, Pilates takes you through every range of motion. Humans are meant to be able to crawl under small spaces, squat down while helping their child put on shoes, and climb in and out of a tree house. Pilates exercises require that we flex, extend, twist, abduct, adduct and everything in between. We need all of this mobility and strength to stay active and healthy when we are young, middle aged, and eventually old.
Fifth, Pilates teaches you how to funnel the work of your muscles into your core to find stability and strength from the center. The Pilates word for this is perfect: Powerhouse – where your power is housed. Watch the Olympics or Cirque du Soleil and your eyes widen with awe. It’s so amazing to see people literally float through the air, control every movement, or ski down a hill with incredible agility and speed. Elite movers could not do this without full body connection to their center. This ability is the keystone of Pilates training.
There were many amazing teachers along my path who taught me about the 5 things above – each adding more information for me to grab onto and try out. It is important, though, not to get bogged down in perfecting everything I’ve written about right at once.
“Two of my teachers, Bob Liekins and Susan Moran, taught me that your body will learn through movement.”
Precision doesn’t matter if you aren’t moving. Set your body up simply and correctly, move, then refine as you go. This suits most other physical modalities too.
In closing, I leave you with a quote from Scott Rosen, one of my mentors during my career at Equinox. Scott recently said to me, “Everyone needs Pilates, they just don’t know [they need it].” He was expressing how life-changing he found his practice of Pilates to be, yet how shocked he was that every Equinox member wasn’t taking sessions! This made me even more committed to spreading the good word of Pilates, especially since Scott was not a Pilates teacher or on the Pilates leadership team, he was the President of Equinox.
This is why Pilates is magic – it has so much to offer everyone because practicing it allows you to have a full and happy movement life, whatever you do. Allow Pilates to create the foundation of your movement and longevity. You won’t be disappointed.
Photography @pilatesanytimeus
Carrie Samper is the Senior Director of Pilates Education at Equinox, where she leads the brand's Comprehensive Pilates Teacher Training program. With more than two decades of experience, she is a respected educator, presenter, and mentor who has helped shape the next generation of Pilates instructors. Carrie holds comprehensive certifications from Romana Kryzanowska and Power Pilates and has been NCPT credentialed since 2007.