Unlocking Pilates Progress

The Power of Incremental Movement

Something thematically that's showing up the last couple of weeks, especially with some of the new clients at the country club, is they're used to traditional weightlifting strategies when it comes to working out.

​​For them to be able to focus on Pilates and mindful movement, I need to rein in their speed. And help them feel things so they're not just making shapes and throwing limbs around.

​​My favorite strategy to do this, an automatic slow down with some strength validity, is incremental movement.

​​An example is when you use a Pilates ring between your inner thighs and​​ do inner thigh squeezes. If you're a teacher, you've seen this with clients who bang it out and bounce the ring back and forth (it doesn't give you a heart attack).

​​This is what you do instead...

​​You say, "We'reWe will squeeze the ring in 10% increments. 10%, 20%, 30% 40%, 50%, 60%,70%, 80%, 90%, 100%, hold, and then let it out. Repeat."

Turning Up The Intensity

As you're trying to increase the movement's intensity, you're modulating a 10% squeeze. I think there's validity to being able to activate something at a small degree versus the max and to be able to modulate between the two. This is a quick, surefire strategy for getting strength and control in some exercises people aren't used to creating., just like with Chest Expansion.

As a teacher, have you ever tried having a client pull their arms back a third of the way, two-thirds of the way, all the way, and then let it out?

It's a very different range of motion because it allows the client to turn on muscles from the beginning versus swing, release, and release the cables back and forth. People can fall that way, and it can be dangerous.

​​But as soon as clients do that third-of-the-way incremental movement, it's not hard, but they've got everything hooked up muscularly from the beginning of the exercise. Then they do two-thirds of the way, and they're like, "Oh shoot, this is hard!" And then they go as far as they can, and it's a humbling range of motion that they usually wouldn't have if they had just swung in one fell swoop.

Playing Around with Footwork

Incremental movement can be played with in a variety of ways. On the foot bar for Footwork, I'll say, "pushout 10%, 20%, 30%," working your way out to 100%, so clients feel the muscular activation the entire way versus slam out, drop in, hanging on joints using acceleration.

With Foot Work on the chair, push the pedal 10% and 20%, breaking the move down into stair steps, and see if clients can maintain their form, strength, and support. And if they can, they should be able to quickly push it in one fell swoop. ​​
​​For newbies, there's validity to turning on your musculature and finding a position at 1the 0% range, 30%, 6and 0%, finding little moments in between the shape, not only because it's new choreography, which can be overwhelming, but it immediately slows people down.

​​I find, especially with hypermobile folks, that it keeps their musculature activated throughout the exercise. I hate to use the word cheating, but there's no cheating and hanging on joints and ligaments to make the shapes.

So there you have it. My fun tip for today: Incremental Movement. You maintain good form and musculature and max out the exercise’s strength profile. My challenge is to consider where to add incremental moves throughout your practice.

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