Encourage your clients to feel and find the benefits of stretching
How common it is to hear a non-Pilates practicing person say something like ‘Oh yes I want to start Pilates so I can have a good stretch’. Hmm, such a sentence may have grated on me a few years ago until I began to embrace that the lack of awareness of what Pilates offers can be a wonderful conversational opener. Sure we incorporate a lot of stretch and if that is what someone feels they need.
Does Pilates improve flexibility? Yes. Does a Pilates session include stretching of all forms? Yes. But will stretching alone improve the sensation of tightness or lack of movement and availability to perform in long-range? No. Sometimes one may need some stiffness in one place to create better flexibility. Oh this topic can open up a magnificent can of worms.
So lets define what it means to stretch; It is to be made or capable of making longer without breaking or tearing.
In Pilates quite often we think stretch is the answer for most situations, but is it?
When we think of stretch, terms that come to mind are Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF), Dynamic, Ballistic, isometric and Static. Good old terminology we have referred to for as long as I can remember. All of these forms mentioned have a decent purpose and role and are quite often happening in Pilates without intentionally doing so.
When we are investigating a client and their requirements, we are looking at their stiffness versus flexibility, their mobility versus their stability. We are aware that a tight muscle is often a symptom of some other part of the body not working as it should.
Probably the most common comment we hear is ‘my hamstrings are so tight I can’t touch my toes’. Do we address just hamstring flexibility alone? I personally look at starting from the feet and working up. It’s a wonderful segue into deeper conversations. One way I take my client’s mind off ‘my tight hamstrings’ is to start them with a ball under the foot and take the time to explore the stiffness in the foot. The feet have a gorgeous array of bones that make up the foot and the ankle and about after one minute of massage and deep release, I ask the client to do a roll down and notice the difference they feel between their left and right hamstring. I guarantee they will feel they have improved their hamstring flexibility in the foot they have just released. Then follow with the other foot. Then work with pelvic clocks on a chi ball and take the time to explore the variations and create the amazing sacrum float sensation. Another exercise to now indulge the body with is some typewriter bridging. This movement hones in on the spinal mobility with the facet joint conversation occurring at a decent volume. The body has now enjoyed mobilising mostly through the sagittal plane, so I would invite the client then to do some rotation with book openings and then mermaid of appropriate choice in the coronal plane.
To gain optimum spinal mobility and encourage some shoulder mobility and scapular movement, I also suggest adding for our tight hamstring client the golden Supine Scapula series on the Cadillac with the variation of the very responsive movement of the tactile version into rotation. Incorporating extension in a supported Swan on the Chair with prone shoulder awareness movements will also add some spice. At this point I’m confident that the client with tight hamstrings will have a notable response at the end of his session with a roll down of appropriate sort, for example, rolling down a wall, free-standing or hamstring one on the chair.
So put simply, I want to encourage us all to look at the need to stretch in a more subtle light and take into account why the body is tightening in one area. Newton’s third Law of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So if your client feels tightness in one area, you may need to work on the opposite reaction that is the cause and it may be about strength, or stability or mobility. Let’s give our clients a newfound appreciation of the body that may embolden them with an explorative view to movement and wellness.
