Unlocking 7 Pilates Exercises [6 Plus 1 Bonus]
Are there principles in a Pilates practice? If so, what are they and are we missing one? We’re gonna talk all about that today.
I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of onlinepilatesclasses.com and I’m excited to talk about the Pilates principles, because it’s not something that Joseph Pilates created, and we’ll get into that later, but it is something that can help you understand, if you are actually taking a Pilates class, it’s going to help you get the benefits you’re looking for. And we’ll also talk about why I feel we’re missing a seventh one. Let’s get into it.
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Pilates and Its Creator: A Brief Overview
So just so we’re on the same page about what Pilates is. Pilates is a strength-based practice that’s designed to balance your imbalances. It was created by Joseph Pilates and brought to the US in the 20s. And he created not just the Mat, but then we got the Reformer and the Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Barrels. He got us so many different things, and he really wanted us to actually have a personal practice. That’s how his gym worked, his Pilates gym worked. And so we can go on and on about who Joseph Pilates was, but I think it’s really important to note that the principles we’re about to discuss are not something that Joseph Pilates created himself. However, students of his and people who became teachers, trainers of the method, really were able to distill down at looking at everything that Joseph Pilates was trying to get us to do in his method, the six Pilates principles.
So here we are, 60 years after Joseph Pilates died, and while these principles weren’t given to us by him, I do think there’s some validity to going over these six principles. I also want to talk about a seventh one that my teacher, was really, really eager for us to embody in our personal practice. But the reason I want you to even know about these principles is, if you are a teacher watching this if you didn’t learn these, let’s talk about why these exist and like what that means in the practice that you’re teaching. And if you’re a student, these principles, you can be looking for them in the classes and sessions you’re in to determine if you are in the best Pilates place for you, right? There are so many different Pilates studios out there. I want to make sure that you’re picking the best way to do Pilates that fits your body and your practice and your goals. So let’s get into these six.
What Are the 6 Core Pilates Principles?
Alright, so it’s important to note that these are Pilates concept but not necessarily the benefits of Pilates. And so what I want to make sure you know is the benefits of Pilates. So if you haven’t yet watched it, watch our video on the benefits of Pilates, and why you should be doing it, but these principles are going to be really integral in making sure that you are using them in the exercises you’re doing, so that you get those benefits.
1: Concentration
Alright, so let’s talk about concentration, which is probably why I fell in love with Pilates in the first place. It was the first kind of workout method I could do where I wasn’t listing off what I do when I got out, what time I needed to leave for X place and what I was going to wear and that I wasn’t by the grocery store. When you are doing Pilates, you should be able to concentrate on what is moving from where. We’ll get into that more in another principle. But if you are able to think about your crazy life and to-do list while you’re doing your Pilates, you’re not concentrating. And it is a piece of the practice so that your mind-body connection happens, and also so that you can have the mental benefits that come with working out. When you do Pilates and you actually are focused on just what’s going on in your body, it actually is a really amazing thing that brings clarity to what you’re going to do afterward, and also really calms the mind. It’s a really cool way to help us have a movement meditation, if you will. So if you can make sure that in each exercise you are focused on what it is that you are doing and where you’re moving from in the present moment, then you are doing an awesome job already, that one principle alone. If you are in a class or session where you feel like you cannot concentrate, then that is something you might want to go, “Hmm, this might not be the best place for me, because I’m not giving skidding space in the movement that I’m doing to actually focus on what’s going on in my body.” Sometimes teachers mean well, but they kind of tell you what you should be doing every single second of every single thing, and when to breathe, and that can make it where you’re actually listening versus going inward.
So here are some tips, because look, some of the places are gonna play loud music. There could be construction going on. Your kids could be trying to climb all over you. I get it, if you’re at home trying to do this yourself, there can be a lot going on. So some of the things I would just make sure you’re doing, it’s what you can control. Can you make sure your phones are on do not disturb? Can you make sure things are away from you? Can you tell the people around you, if you’re working at home that, “hey, I need 20 minutes to do my Pilates practice, please”? And then the most important tip that you can take with you, whether in a class or at home, is to remember that you’re supposed to focus on your insights first. So really connecting to the equipment, and if the equipment is your Mat, connecting to the equipment. So focus on what you are touching, and then you can also focus on what you’re not touching, and that kind of helps you dive into each exercise mark. It’s a little esoteric right there, I know, but maybe that can just help you, like okay, what parts of my body are touching the Mat, or what parts of my body are touching the Reformer, and then what parts aren’t, and is that what I want from that exercise? And that can help you drown out all the chaos that’s going on around you.
2: Control
Alright, so let’s talk about number two. Control. That does not mean perfect, so I think you can look it up in the dictionary, what does control stand for? It does not say perfect or perfection or doing everything exactly right in that definition, but it does mean that you are in control. Remember, Joseph Pilates actually did not name this method Pilates. He named it Contrology, the study of control. And so here’s the thing you need to know, if you are learning an exercise for the first time, more than likely you will not be in control. There are parts of it you probably can control the more Pilates you’ve been doing, because the exercises as they get harder, just combine exercises you already know. Ideally, you should be learning exercises that combine together to make an advanced exercise, and so you might be able to control parts of it, but also it’s okay to be learning the choreography and giving yourself permission. But once you have understood, okay, my arms move here as my legs move here, and I do x, y and z, then we get to finesse it with control. And here’s the thing, a lot of times while we are efforting the control, we end up doing too much. Okay, so for example, I used to have this client where I would give her a correction and she would stop moving to make the correction, and the actual goal is to not actually stop moving. We’ll talk about that in my seventh one. It is to actually challenge ourselves to how do I take in what I’m hearing, what I this tip on how I can get more out of this and control the movement. So can I lift my arm without arching my back? Or can I lift my arm to arch my back? Right? Depends on the exercise. For example, the Double Leg Stretch on the Mat. When you lift your arms up overhead, if you are out of control, your chest will fall down. If you’re in control, your arms will lift over your head and you’ll stay curled up. In the Swan, if you are connected and in control, when you take your arms overhead, it will pull you into a back bend, right? Or for some people, if you’re out of control, your arms will go over and you’ll hang out in your lower back.
So control is this thing that I think is really important. If you are new to an exercise, allow yourself to be a little bit out of control, and then that information you get of where you disconnect is going to help you get the control that you need. The other way to look at control, as a principle in Pilates explained is, can I move my leg without destabilizing a part of my body? Which is kind of what I just said, but let’s take Single Leg Circles, for example. You are circling this leg on the Mat, and ideally, everything else is still. And so the idea is not to make a tiny circle so it’s perfect, but actually, how big can you make this circle? And can you get bigger each time and challenge your ability to control your pelvis, to control your shoulders, to control the ribs into the Mat. And so what’s really fun about control is there is always a little bit more. And in your effort to discover your ability to control something, you will lose control. And that doesn’t mean, “oh, I go back and make this small”. It’s actually like, “oh, okay, that was as far as I could go in that moment today, but let’s try this”. And so that’s where it gets hard with these principles. I appreciate them, but in this particular instance, and me just trying to explain this to you, I want you to know I don’t expect you to be perfect at every single rep of an exercise. I expect you to lose some connections and then take that information and enter it into the next rep and have better control. And ideally, that’s where more strength and flexibility come from.
3: Centering
Centering is our third principle. And here’s the thing, I really feel like they probably could have gone a different with a different word here. They could have been like “use your power-house”, which is two words so that’s why they probably were like, use centering. But centering is basically a long, a long word of saying, like, you move from your center, okay? And we’ve talked about this in some informational videos I’ve done about Pilates before. Your core is not just the abs you can see, okay? Your core, your center, your powerhouse, is actually the muscles around your axial skeleton. So we’re talking your abs, yes, but we’re also talking the muscles around the hips. We’re talking the muscles along your back and around your shoulder girdle. And so when you are moving from your powerhouse, aka centering, then you are actually bringing the art of Pilates to every exercise.
So what exercises help you center? All of them. But really, the more advanced the exercise gets, the more you must work from your center, because otherwise, it can become more dangerous or unsafe for you, which is why the foundational exercises are so important. I think the best exercise to really even understand centering is the Double Leg Stretch. I mean, every exercise comes from the Double Leg Stretch. That’s what my teacher says, and I really do believe that. So the Double Leg Stretch on the Mat, you start in a tight ball where everything is working on. You expand your arms and legs. You circle those arms around without leaning back, and you pull everything in using your center. So those arms can only reach as far as they’re moving from your center, so a connection to your back. Your legs can only go as low as they’re moving from your center, so you don’t hang out in your back. And when those arms circle around, it’s to gather up strength, pull in so you can go again, right? So, a lot of people can do the choreography of Pilates and not be using their center. And those people would be the ones that say Pilates is easy. So whenever I hear Pilates is easy, that exercise is easy, I hear I’m not connected. Because the more advanced you are, the harder a beginner exercise is, because you can bring even more center to it. And so if me saying that challenged you to go “oh, the beginner stuff is really easy for me”, it’s time for you to look back and make sure that you are truly connecting to your center and not just doing a really awesome job with the choreography.
4: Breath
Alright. So the fourth principle is breath, or breathing. And I actually really love this one. You guys asked me a lot of questions about, when should I breathe on this exercise? You didn’t say it. And so let’s talk about that. Breathing is a key Pilates principle, and Joseph Pilates, in his book, was very, very adamant that we must, above all else, learn how to breathe, and actually the importance of the exhale. He says our lungs are a cemetery for disease and other things you can get sick with. Not the best quote, but we have to learn how to exhale, right? And so that meant that a lot of people are trying to make sure there’s a specific time you inhale and exhale in every single exercise. And I’m here to tell you that some original pilates exercises have very specific breathing patterns, and a lot don’t. And my favorite thing about my teacher, when I was studying with him, somebody asked about, like, when do we breathe here? And he said, this exercise whenever they want. And he said, if your clients are breathing, that’s fine. And also, he said, if an exercise doesn’t have the breath pattern in it, you don’t have to tell them when to breathe, because they will. No one is going to like hold the breath forever. If they do turn blue, you can say, hey, you’re supposed to breathe here.
So with all that being said, we don’t want to just hold our breath randomly, either. A lot of times as human beings, as an exercise gets really hard, we start to hold our breath. That’s not great, either. So in general, if an exercise doesn’t have a breath pattern, and how do you know? Well, if you’re watching my tutorials on this channel, if it has a breath pattern, I’ll give it to you. And if it doesn’t, I won’t. So if it doesn’t, you are just breathing in and out through your nose like a human okay? And why is that? Because here’s the deal, we don’t do these exercises to get the like be perfect at these exercises. We do these exercises so that we actually can do the functional movement of life better. You know, we’re recording this while I’m watching the Olympics, and I cannot tell you how many moves these athletes are doing that look like a Pilates exercise. It’s really cool, right? But even though those are athletes, and you’re like, I’m not an Olympian Lesley, solely, so why should I do Pilates? Because you just reaching up for the top shelf in your kitchen is a movement that we do in Pilates, right? And what happens? Does anyone go “Okay, inhale, reach for the top shelf. Exhale, grab the cereal box. Inhale, put it on the counter”? No, that’s not how life goes. You just actually happen to breathe. Your body just does it.
So I don’t want you holding your breath unless the exercise calls for it, which is like two exercises. One of those would be called Breathing on the Cadillac. But if you are someone who’s getting hung up on the breath, you have a tendency to brace or bear or hold onto the breath, you know, there are some techniques to consider to make an exercise easier. For example, when you inhale, your spine actually goes into extension naturally. So if you’re wanting to get more length out of your extensions, if you are trying to make extension a little bit more possible in your body, inhale on that, okay? When you exhale on the hardest part of an exercise, it’s very helpful. Also exhaling during flexion exercise, really, really key. Okay, twisting, and exhaling is nice. Why? Do with me right now, let’s breathe as we twist. I feel stuck. Okay, now exhale as you twist. You have a little bit more movement, right? So that’s just something to note, but I don’t want you so hung up on like, okay, your right-hand goes here as you breathe in, your left-hand goes here as you exhale, and then, oh my gosh, what if you actually hear an inhale, but no one tells you when to exhale, so then you’re just holding your breath. It’s kind of crazy.
So here’s the deal. Just think about how in life, you do not inhale when your right foot takes a step and exhale when your left foot takes a step. The same thing goes with your Pilates practice. Ideally, the best thing you can do to bring this principle to this Pilates practice is to breathe in and out through the nose. Take deep breaths into the back of your lungs so you can maintain the connection to your center. We don’t want to lose centering. And then when there are exercises that have an amazing addition of that breath challenge, enjoy it. Take it in. It’s going to be there to help you. On other exercises, explore your breath to see what would be the most helpful for you. On the roll up, if you struggle with it, exhale on the hardest part, it’s going to be really, really helpful. If you want to nerd out more on how to breathe in Pilates, then I want you to watch the video that I have about Breathing in Pilates. Because there’s the way we breathe in life, and then there’s the way we breathe we do our Pilates practice. And it’s so so important that we don’t switch the two, or only do one versus the other. So check that out.
5: Precision
Alright, so let’s talk about precision, which is also not a definition for perfect. I will argue to the day I die that precision does not equal perfect movement, because you will never be perfect in your movement. Perfect is contextual and also fleeting, okay? So precision, here’s how I like to think of precision to keep it from sounding like the other principle of control, and if it starts to sound like the other principle of control, here’s the deal. Remember, Joseph Pilates didn’t make these up. And when we get to my favorite principle that isn’t listed here, you’ll see why we could argue for just one. So here’s the deal. I’m going to take Swan on the Reformer, for example. So Swan on the Reformer it has two backbends. It has a big one at the beginning, and it has a little one at the end. And the precision in that exercise would be where you’re back bending from. My hypermobile people are going to show me this amazing back bend where they dump into their lower back, that would not be precise. It also wouldn’t be controlled, right? Or when we go out into the long extension of Swan on the Reformer, it’s a little back bend. But if you bend your knees, that wouldn’t be precise. I’d also argue that’s not controlled.
So, you know, here’s the thing. What I want you to think about is we are not doing exercises for the sake of it, or for the fun choreography. We are doing them to get the most out of our own body’s abilities and to challenge ourselves. And in doing that, there are precise things you want to think about, so that you don’t actually end up hanging out in your overworked muscles or in your weak areas or your hypermobility, okay? So what I would just say is, like, if you’re trying to figure out, like, how does, how do I find precision movement? Because a lot of these things just sound like control again, it’s like the second time we’re talking about control. What I would say is, like, can you get the longest out of everything, longest spine shape, longest reach out of all of this and not be going through the motions? So if you’re like me, and you’re still kind of like, how is this precision different than control? So control would be doing an exercise in your control without using momentum or force, and precision would be doing the exercise with intent and focus. And here’s the thing about intent, you need to know why you’re doing it and how it’ll benefit your body. And so when you’re new to this practice, it’s going to be really hard to apply control and precision to an exercise, because you have to learn how to do the exercise and then why it’s there. But if the person teaching you isn’t explaining that ever, and they’re not going to explain it in every single exercise, that’d be, that’d be the boring workshop, then you know, that’s gonna be really hard for you. So definitely working with a teacher who eventually will tell you, like, here’s why you’re doing this exercise, here’s what I want you to feel out of it. That’s gonna be really helpful, and you getting the most out of all your workouts.
6: Flow
Alright, here we are. The sixth principle, flow. Now, flow, what’s cool about Pilates is how it’s different than like strength training, you do squats in strength training, and then you do lunges, and then you do push ups or whatever. And sometimes people combine a push up and a squat, that’s called the burpee. But in Pilates, you can actually flow from one exercise to the next exercise. Again, because I’m excited about the Olympic sports, like there’s difficulties added to one exercise being one of their moves being combined to another move, right? In Pilates, the more advanced you get, the more you actually don’t take breaks, and each exercise flows into the next one. And so when you’re doing Pilates, you are truly creating a stamina endurance by not taking those breaks and flowing those exercises. Here is the deal. Sometimes we can be so hung up on all those other principles, we forget to add those transitions in. And a lot of times, people forget that those transitions exist. At OPC because we follow Joseph Pilates exercises in orders and his intentions to those exercises (hello, precision) we actually do flow in every single class.
Now here’s the deal, if you’re new, flow is going to make the class feel harder and maybe even feel like you’re not ready for it, or that you need a break. That is okay. It’s so important that you know that these principles are good guidelines, but when you’re working on building this practice into your regular life, it’s okay to have some of these be missing while you learn the intent and you also get the stamina and strength to flow one exercise to the next.
7: Move (The Missing One)
Alright, right, so the seventh principle that I’m arguing for, that my teacher argued for, and also the one that I actually just really focus on in my, not only my personal practice, but how I teach everyone that I come across, is move. Move. Right? And you might be like, “Well, Lesley, didn’t you just say flow is one? Couldn’t flow be move?” Wouldn’t you think? You would think that. And unfortunately, there’s a lot of people out there whose Pilates sessions and practices don’t. There’s a lot of start, a lot of stop, a lot of nitpicking, a lot of making sure everything is perfectly precise and pristine and like nothing is out of whack. You’re going to be out of alignment sometimes in your practice. And something about move and Jay Grimes and and the people who taught with him and the people he has taught, you’ll hear all of them say this, you can’t talk Pilates into a body. As a teacher, I have to pick the right exercises for your body, and as you as a practitioner, the more you do this practice, the more you try to focus on the intent of the exercise, the more you try to find more length, more concentration, more precision, more control, the more you find all of these things that can the more you show up to do it, the more that you actually will change your own body. And that’s what’s so cool about this practice, is that Joseph Pilates and Walker are going I changed that one, I changed that one. You would come to a studio and you would move. You came in, you put your money on the table, and you did your practice. And so my reason for arguing about this principle so much is that in this day and age of so many people loving Pilates and all the different styles out there, and I’m never going to argue this versus that. What I would say is, if in your Pilates practice, there’s a lot of them talking and setting up and you waiting, you’re not moving. And the best thing about Pilates is how it gets your body to move. And we are not doing Pilates so we can get really good at Pilates. We are doing Pilates so we can do amazing things in our life, and our Pilates practice is here to help us move more, but also help us be way better at moving or falling or walking or reaching or dancing in our own life outside of that. And so if you want to know how you can get real results with Pilates, you can check out our other video we have over here. It’s really amazing. I really do believe in this method, and most importantly, I believe in you having a personal practice that you can do wherever you are and move your body.
Using and Assessing Pilates Principles
Alright, right. So how are you gonna use these principles in your practice? Well, first of all, if you are brand new to Pilates, even a new teacher, you’re not going to use all of them. Please, please, please, the one you can use the most would be move. Let’s go through those, just in case you forgot all of them, we have concentration, control, centering, breath, precision, flow and move. Move will be the one that you do the most as you are learning how to do the exercises. Then once you learn the intent of the exercise, and you learn the how to get it from your center, then you’ve got precision and centering that you add in there, and then you can add in that concentration. And then breath. You think breath comes first, honestly, like last, because please, as long as you’re breathing, it’s going to be a great job, right? You’re probably not going to hear your teachers talk about these in your classes like today, we’re focusing on concentration. That would be really crazy, because they’re going to be talking, and that’s going to be interrupting your concentration. But what I hope that this video allows you to do, whether you’re a teacher or a practitioner, is just identify when you think it’s happening in the practice, in the moment, and if all you take from this is that you’re going to move then like, you know, I’m happy.
Enhance your Pilates Practice
Alright, so here’s the thing that I want you also to know. At OPC, onlinepilatesclasses.com, we actually do embody all of these Pilates principles, and especially the move one. And we do this by helping you become more embodied and more in control over your own practice and help you be the person who’s teaching yourself. And so what I would love for you to do, if you want to try it out, if you want to see what it’s like to embody these I want you go to opc.me/challenge. Over on that page, you can choose a Mat challenge or the Reformer challenge, and it’s a four-week series so that you can actually start to start off with a few minutes of Pilates for the week, and then increase the amount of time you’re doing the practice. And what is so fun is that you’ll be repeating some of these exercises week after week as you add new ones in. So you can play with concentration and precision and control as the weeks go on. And then you’ll get to add in more and more. But most importantly, you will be moving your body. And of course, as always, if you can only do a few minutes of Pilates, that’s fine. Hit play and then walk away when you’re done. So go to opc.me/challenge. If you’re interested in what we do at OPC, we really do love to help support you in your Pilates practice, help hold you accountable to your Pilates practice, and also give you feedback on your form. So if you are wondering if you’re doing it right, if you are in control, if you’ve got precision, you’ve got the breath right. When you’re an OPC member, we can actually watch you do an exercise and give you that feedback. So you can go to onlinepilatesclasses.com/youtube.
Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you nerding out with me about this. I hope it was helpful. If you have any questions, aha moments, takeaways, put in the comments below. We go live on Sundays at 9am Pacific Time, where we answer your questions. If you’re an OPC member, we answer those in the app. Have an amazing day.