2009/06/10 00:00:00
History forward
What’s in it for you?
Mat versus machine
Find a teacher
Standing taller
By Kellie Rowden-Racette
“OK, now lie on your stomach, with your arms stretched in front of you and your spine in neutral,” commanded the lean Pilates instructor as she glided, cat-like, between the four students in the dimly lit studio somewhere deep in the bowels of suburbia.
What?
“Pretend there’s a piece of hot coal under your belly button and you don’t want to get burned,” she further explained, sensing my uncertainty. I tested it out.
Oh!
I’ll admit that when I decided to give Pilates a try, I was skeptical. I work out, I do my sit-ups — did I really need an entire hour of my week devoted to forcing me to tighten my abs? Well, maybe. After all, Pilates seemingly has taken over the country like kudzu, so there must be something to it. It seems everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Tiger Woods (and even the San Francisco 49ers, if you can picture it) is on the bandwagon.
But before you set foot in your local Pilates studio, step back and learn where this phenomenon came from and what to truly expect.
History forward
Pilates is named after its founder, Joseph Pilates, who was a German-born performer and boxer living in England in the early 1900s. In World War I, he was placed under forced internment in Lancaster, England. During this time, he began devising a system of exercises that serve as the foundation of today’s “mat work,” or exercises done on the floor. After being transferred to another camp, where there were many injured internees, he used bedsprings to rig makeshift equipment that would create spring resistance and movement and rehabilitate the prisoners. These primitive contraptions served as the original prototypes of the Pilates equipment many studios use today.
In 1926, Joseph Pilates immigrated to the U.S., where he opened a fitness studio in New York, sharing an address with the New York City Ballet. There, his exercise methods gained popularity with professional dancers. They were taught in only a handful of studios, mostly on the East Coast, but during the next several decades, the non-dance community started to take note, too, and Pilates began to attract a cult-like following among the wealthy and famous. Today, classes in the Pilates method have become widely available, and, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association International’s Pilates Training Participation Report (2005 Edition), 10.6 million Americans practiced Pilates in 2004 — quadrupling since 2001. According to the Pilates Method Alliance, there now are more than 11,000 Pilates instructors in the U.S.
What’s in it for you?
So what’s behind all this fuss — is Pilates really that good of a workout? In today’s society of tight schedules, high expectations, and sedentary lifestyles, the answer is yes. While some folks discover Pilates because they are recovering from an injury, others are attracted to it because of good old-fashioned vanity. A strong, lean “powerhouse” (abdominals, lower back, hips, and buttocks) equates to a killer physique and improved posture. Still others appreciate it because it reduces daily stress.
“It’s definitely not a mindless workout,” says Virginia Nicholas, owner of Moving Breath Pilates in Tempe, Ariz. “People have to learn to train deeper muscles, and that takes concentration. You can’t just come in and do the exercises sloppily — you have to engage in the moment and do them properly.”
But the big attraction is that Pilates helps you perform other workouts better. Pilates increases core strength and flexibility, which in turn benefit the rest of your body because of increased stabilization. Even though its introduction in this country was rooted deeply in the mostly feminine world of professional dance, this reason alone is why more and more professional athletes — including men — are incorporating Pilates into their overall training.
“Athletes like it because it’s an equal emphasis on strength and flexibility,” explains Moira Merrithew, cofounder of STOTT Pilates. Merrithew cofounded her company with her husband, Lindsey, and has witnessed firsthand how Pilates has benefited male athletes in particular. “Men tend to focus more on strength training and then madly stretch, if at all. You need to balance it out and create more mobility.”
Nicholas also agrees Pilates has a lot of offer a wide population — men in particular. “I work with a lot of clients who are golfers, and if you think about it, golfers always swing the same way, and their muscles become imbalanced. Pilates corrects that because it pays attention to the biomechanics of the body. Once balance is regained, most of my clients have noticed their swing is more effective and their ball is going farther.”
So, really, what’s to lose besides a dismal golf swing and a few pounds? Here are some guidelines to get you started.
Mat versus machine
Mat classes are just that — classes performed on a mat using a variety of props such as yoga balls, power rings, and elasticized bands to create resistance. Using these accessories and the leverage of your body, an instructor can lead you to tap your core muscles to perform a series of exercises. The equipment classes, however, use stationary machines called the “reformer” and the “tower.” The reformer is a gliding, padded platform that sits about a foot off the floor. It has a sophisticated system of straps, strings, and pulleys that can facilitate more than 100 exercises. Participants can sit, stand, kneel, or lie on the platform while pushing or pulling off the foot bar using their legs, arms, ankles, and wrists. These controlled movements let the body slide back and forth along the rails while gently working the muscles.
The tower is a tall, upright metal frame that also has resistant straps, springs, and pulleys. While the two often are connected, they don’t necessarily come that way, so if you see a class advertised as featuring a tower or reformer, don’t assume you will be working on the whole machine. Some tower classes, for example, could use the metal upright tower up against a mat rather than a reformer, and similarly a reformer class could offer just the gliding bench.
So which type of class is better? Neither — they just complement one another and should be taken together, say most experts. The mat classes (which most experts suggest for beginners) will teach you how to find and engage your core stabilizers. (Not only that, it’s a good idea to get a handle on the exercises before you get on the reformer, which is raised off the ground.) The equipment-based classes are considered more challenging than mat classes and also produce visible results sooner. Still, some say an advanced mat class could do the same.
“It’s great to say that you should do mat classes and reformer classes in conjunction, but that’s just not realistic for a lot of people,” says Rachel Posell, a Pilates instructor who teaches both types of classes for the Washington Sports Club in Washington, D.C. “Reformer people will tell you that it’s a better workout because of the resistance created by the machine; mat people will tell you that mat is more difficult because the only thing holding you in place is your body. They’re both right.”
One difference not up for debate, however, is the price. Although equipment classes are sometimes considered more efficient, they can be more difficult to find — and pricey — with private sessions running as much as $90 an hour. Mat classes, on the other hand, are more wallet-friendly, running $10 to $20 a class, and a mat routine is highly portable, making it a perfect workout to do at home or when traveling.
Whichever you choose, most studios often will encourage you to buy a package of several (five or 10) classes to get you started. There are a few benefits to this: First, when you buy a package of classes, you usually will pay a discounted rate per class. Second, if you are a beginner, it’s better to have an instructor coaching you to make sure you are learning the exercises properly. Finally, committing to 10 classes is the best way to ensure you give Pilates a solid try.
“It’s true — Joseph Pilates said it, and it’s absolutely true,” says Stella Fanzone, Pilates director of the Columbia Association in Columbia, Md. “After you take 10 classes, you will feel a difference; after you take 20 classes, you will see a difference. After 30 classes, you will have a new body. Seriously.”
Find a teacher
While Pilates enthusiasts share what seems to be an almost worshipful reverence for practicing under instructors who studied with Joseph Pilates himself (“You want to stay as close to the source as possible,” says Nichols), newbies might hesitate to travel great distances or pay big bucks to take a class from Pilates royalty — especially if the local club down the street is offering classes, right? But, still, you want to choose carefully. You want an experienced instructor who is able to adapt the workout to suit your needs.
“When a student comes into my class, I talk to them about their physical history and what their goals are,” says Fanzone. “You really want an instructor who has undergone thorough classical Pilates training and has years of experience teaching and taking Pilates. You don’t want one of those weekend-warrior instructors who went to a two-day workshop and then think they can teach Pilates. It’s much more involved than that.”
Another clue to look for is some sort of national certification, such as from the Pilates Method Alliance. Beyond that, some questions to ask an instructor are
- Where did you train? Beware of certifying bodies that don’t have a national presence.
- How long have you been training/instructing? It’s good to look for someone with a few years of experience, so you know they’ve seen and worked with a variety of clients.
- What other related physical movement experience do you have? Many Pilates experts are former dancers or athletes, which can be an indication of where their motivation comes from. If you’re an athlete looking to improve your game, for example, you will want someone with an athletic background.
- What type of classes do you offer? While all the equipment in the world doesn’t make a Pilates studio or an instructor good, you might want some options beyond mat classes as you get into it.
Standing taller
As the class wrapped up and we put our equipment away, the instructor came over to me, the new kid in class, and asked, “So? How do you feel?”
In a word — great. Even though we mostly focused on the core muscles during the hour-long class, somehow my arms and legs were humming, too. The tightness in my shoulders and neck was gone, my lower back felt 10 years younger, and I felt like I was standing a little taller. What’s more, the “standing taller” feeling lasted for a couple of days before I slumped back into my desk-bound, hunched-over posture. Call me a convert, but I’m in.
Copyright Kellie Rowden-Racette and Military Officers Association of America. All rights reserved.
