So if time is money than we better be efficient with our time.
The reason I landed on pilates was strictly because of the way pilates starts.
I was on the pro tour in 2013 travelling with Josh and Sam. We were in Puerto Rico and I was on a quest to play professionally.
By nature I am a very inquisitive person.
I ask questions to everyone to find out what they think.
I really enjoy conversations I can learn from. These conversations usually dig up a few gold nuggets that I can bring back to people I teach.
The conversation I am referring to in this blog is the one I had with a physiotherapist from the US. I don’t remember her name but I do remember very clearly her answer to my question. My question was…
“There are so many health modalities out there and all over the internet, which one works?”
Her answer was very clear, direct and concise.
“They all work.”
………………..
🤷 🤦🤔
but?
“Well, the problem is that most people don’t know where their pelvis is in space.”
🤯🤯🤯
When I read up on all books in regards to rehab the only modality that started on its back was pilates.
You start supine (on your back) and the first thing you should do is feel where your pelvis is in space.
Ideally when you lay down, your knees should be bent so that your shins and thighs are both on 45 degree angle and your feet positioned about sit bone width apart. Your arms will be down by your sides, palms facing downwards.
For us Kyphotic people, this will be a very uncomfortable position especially if we have a forward head position. Our neck will feel very short because it’s in hyper extension as our neck extensors are shortened which results in our chin lifting towards the sky. Our upper trapezius will be over active, more than likely raising our shoulder blades (scapulae) to our ears. Our chest muscles (pectoralis major + minor) will be shortened, as well as our front shoulder muscles (anterior deltoids) and internal rotators that round our shoulders (scapulae protracted) keeping them off the floor. we will feel hunched because our upper back is stuck in a rounded position as the front (anterior) muscles are shortened.
This sounds like a bunch of latin words mixed together but in all honestly these are all clues to what our approach will be to balance out our body.
If you aren’t kyphotic but have muscle imbalances, this position is still very beneficial and important for you to gain awareness of your own spinal deviation. If this position is very comfortable for you, that’s amazing. You should strengthen your posture and challenge your frame with the overload principle.
If this isn’t a position that feels natural for you let’s make our way down to our pelvis and check where it is in space.
There’s many ways to do this but the easiest way to figure this out for myself was to place my right index finger on my pubic symphsis (pubic bone) and place my left index finger on my anterior superior illac spine (ASIS in short form). Google it if you don’t know anatomy. I’ll wait for you.
Are we having fun learning yet?
If you place a piece of cardboard over those two points and the cardboard is flat, parallel to the ground then you are in a neutral tilt with the natural curves in your spine. If your pubic symphsis is raised towards the ceiling and positioned higher than your ASIS then you are in a posterior tilt and your low back is flat also known as an imprint in pilates wordology. If your ASIS (hip bones for street slang) are higher than your pubic bone (that hard bone just above your reproductive organs 😉) You are in an anterior tilt. My answer in jeopoardy would be, What is an arch in the lumbar spine?
All these clues are brought to you by Rael Iscaowitz and his very informative books and courses. If you like to read, you should pick them up.
There are more tilts as well as many more muscles that may or may not be imbalanced contributing to your biomechanics.
These three tilts are very helpful and I could now feel what the physiotherapist was conveying to me.
Knowing thyself or knowing thy tilt.
The path starts here.
….Identifying your current posture based on your pelvic tilt.
Take some time, lay down on your back and find where your pelvis is in space. This is one of the first things I did when I began learning pilates.
This will begin to build your awareness of your posture and knowing which muscles are shortened. The approach we are taking happens step by step and the only short cut I can offer is taking the correct steps first. Down the road this will help us to zero in on stretching out the correct muscles and when we add breathing into the mix, our Golgi tendons will relax. Pilates has this amazing way of strengthening your muscles once you create a new range of motion. This from my perspective is what sets pilates apart.
Our defined goal is ideal posture, how we get there is to rebalance our muscles, our modality is pilates and where we start is on the mat, learning about our pelvic tilt to find our starting point.
Don’t stress, just breathe.
No no, I mean it, let’s learn to breathe…..