The Six Principles Of Pilates - Control
I feel as though this is one of the most important principles in Pilates, considering Joseph Pilates himself originally called the method Contrology!
He wrote “Through Contrology you first purposefully acquire complete control of your own body and then through proper repetition of it’s exercises you gradually and progressively acquire that natural rhythm and coordination associated with all your subconscious activities.”
So we must first learn to develop control of our movements and then through continued practice this will start to spill into our natural day to day movements.
A lot of people think that Pilates is ‘easy’ and on the surface some of the exercises are relatively easy…until you do them well!
We bring our awareness inwards through our concentration (principle one!) so that we can maintain correct alignment throughout the exercises. In one simple exercise there can be a lot to think about; we first think about neutral alignment (when the body is in a position of balance and all joints are under the least amount of pressure) then we focus on an area to move (how, where and when) then we bring our awareness in to other areas of our body that we want to remain stable in order to get the maximum movement and effort into the moving parts. This requires a great amount of control.
We don’t just simply put our leg to the side, we gain control of that leg by engaging our core, stabilising our pelvis and understanding how far we can take the leg. This is the essence of control.
The beauty of Pilates is that it will (through continued practice) begin to become automated. All these factors we focus on in order to move correctly will begin to come naturally, this is when we have gained control of our body.
Afterall we are all just looking for control and balance in our life, why not start with your body and mind and watch it filter out into your life.
“The Pilates method teaches you to be in control of your body and not at it’s mercy”