Pilates Principle: Flow
We’ve arrived at the last of the Pilates principles – flow. Let’s review what we’ve covered – there are 6 guiding principles: breath, concentration, center, control, precision, and flow.
This month, let’s discuss FLOW, and its relationship to Pilates!
During my teacher training program, there was required reading, and they were 2 books written by Joseph Pilates. One book he wrote titled “Return to Life Through Contrology” was published in 1945, and so much of it still applies today. I want to share with you excerpts I highlighted on flow.
Contrology is designed to give you suppleness, natural grace, and skill that will be unmistakably reflected in the way you walk, in the way you play, and in the way you work.
Correctly executed and mastered to the point of subconscious reaction, these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities.
Therefore, when all your muscles are properly developed you will, as a matter of course, perform your work with minimum effort and maximum pleasure.
I realize that none of these quotes have the word flow in them, but flow as it relates to movement is moving from one point to another in a manner that is steady and continuous. The movement quality itself is smooth, graceful, and with ease. The transitions between exercises become exercises themselves that are efficient and fluid. In fact, think of the exercises you practice on the mat or the reformer. It starts with fundamental exercises, moving to intermediate exercises, moving on advanced exercises. The difference between those 3 areas is usually leveling up by one or two factors. Let’s look at a rolling exercise on the mat. I would say a fundamental rolling exercise is “rolling like a ball”. An intermediate rolling exercise is “open leg rocker”. An advanced rolling exercise is “crab”.
Romana Kryzanowska (a Pilates elder, and a student of Joseph Pilates) has described Pilates as “flowing motion outward from a strong center”. Part of a Pilates practice that is flowing is working on the transitions from one exercise to another that the transitions are exercises themselves. Transitions are most evident in the sequences for the mat and the reformer since there is an order for the mat and an order for the reformer.
Need a refresher on the mat order and transitions? I covered it here.
What is demonstrated in your Pilates practice carries over to your daily life movements. it’s called out a workout for a reason. Practicing Pilates is hard so that you can live your life with more ease. How can you reduce your “set-up time” and “rest breaks” in your practice? How can you reduce any “futzing” before you start moving? How can you reduce any “leaning” in your practice? Think of leaning in Pilates as the equivalent of stumbling, tripping, or falling in your daily life.
I think we can all agree that when we first started Pilates we probably all felt like a fish out of water. We probably all moved our limbs without being connected to our center. Then, over time, you get stronger, and get competent at more exercises. Maybe at the same time, you realize which exercises are still hard that you need to work at. Give it more time, you make a concerted effort to make changes/improvements in the exercises you’re practicing, quite possibly using props as tools to give your body feedback. Finally, you get to a point where you notice your daily life has more comfort, more ease, dare I say, more flow without even thinking about it.
Flow can also represent a life without discomfort, aches and pains, or injuries. Where even our minds are free to think about other things. Think about the last time you experienced discomfort, aches and pains, or injuries. Besides the physical toll it can take on the body, it can also take up a lot of mental space and emotional energy.
Why are transitions important? In daily life, injuries can occur when we are transitioning from one thing to another, and we’re not paying attention. Now, I’m not saying injuries don’t happen while doing something adventurous, something big, something grand, something out of the ordinary. However, how many injuries happen doing something that you do everyday? Has that ever happened to you? You were just living your life, not doing anything big, and all of a sudden, you feel a tweak, a pull, a strain, or even worse, an accident, an injury. Next time you hit your mat, practice your transitions. It’s an easy way to get some cardio in, build stamina and endurance, and stay moving from beginning to end and keep all your internal connections. FLOW!
Practice your flow on the mat in a group mat class with me. Practice your flow on the reformer at my home studio.
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