Pilates Is For Athletes

For too long I’ve heard assumptions about Pilates - it’s for dancers, for retired folks, it’s a “woman’s” workout. I assumed many of these things going into Pilates too. Now, I’m going to tell you that Pilates is so much more than that - and why. But, stick around to the end of this blog post and I’ll show you examples that professional and elite level athletes all across the world are using Pilates as their "secret weapon.”

For all of you athletes who just stumbled upon this blog post, you can think of Pilates as a mix of dance (precision, breath) and calisthenics (core, bodyweight strength). The equipment (reformer, cadillac, chairs, barrels etc) are just to assist you to be able to do it on your own (the mat).

ALIGNMENT AND BALANCE TO PREVENT INJURY

As athletes, you become inherently imbalanced. Think about all the repetitive movement you are doing. Are you actively working the rest of your body to achieve balance? This is one of the keys to injury prevention. Pilates, as a method, is inherently about finding and achieving balance. As Pilates teachers, we look out for imbalances (literally - ie is your hip hiked? and figuratively, are certain muscle groups weaker than others) in your body. Beyond just that, our equipment is a tool to help you achieve balance. The reformer is quite literally boxes you in to help you square your shoulders, waist and hips. Lastly, the method of Pilates is developed to uniformly work all the muscles. It is developed as a method to create even muscle tone across the body. It’s a myth that it’s “just core.” A rounded out Pilates workout has arm, core, butt & leg and feet exercises in it. All in an hour!

FLEXIBILITY/MOBILITY

Pilates uniquely combine strength & stretch. It’s not just strength (ie lifting weights) and it’s not just stretch (active static holds). Every movement in Pilates has an element of “two way stretch”. This is just a fancy way of us saying that we emphasize length and opposition within the body as you move. You need a greater than average amount of flexibility to get through a Pilates workout successfully. Even if we didn’t hold any static stretches, Pilates would improve flexibility. But, Joe knew people were stiff, he included splits on the reformer (front, russian, side), ballet stretches (ladder barrel, cadillac), hanging (cadillac), and so much more.

CORE STRENGTH

Now this one might feel like a given but, Pilates helps to develop core strength in all spinal positions. Your core is the center of your movement and keeps you steady and stable. The hope is that after training, you will develop a sense of “unconscious competence” when it comes to keep your core fired. Your core will learn to brace itself, even when you’re not actively thinking about it. Again, this is a huge key to preventing injury.

Now that we know why Pilates is great for us, let me show you who is buying into this. I’ve included a list of every pro athlete I could find who has said they do or have done Pilates. The list is a long one and I hope it gets you inspired.