The Confused Muscle Head

“Alright guys, I have to head home. I have Pilates class early tomorrow.” I say as I step off of my stool at the bar. My friends give me long, confused glances. They don’t even have to say anything. I know exactly what they are thinking…”Pilates class? Is he joking?”

The truth is I’m not joking. Like a lot of guys I thought Pilates was just for women or people who were too lazy to do a real workout. That is, of course, until I tried it for myself. My first introduction to Pilates was one simple movement in the midst of a fitness bootcamp class. Normally I teach, but when I don’t I like to join in on class to see what other trainers are using in their programs.

The instructor made it seem so simple. She stood on one leg, and lifted her left leg away from her body (also known as abduction). She brought her leg up until it was parallel to the floor creating a 90 degree angle at her hip/thigh.  I was confident I could pull it off. I have flexible hips. The first thing people say when they see me squat is “wow, he goes low.”

So I lifted my left leg off the floor and I brought it all the way up until it was parallel to the floor. Piece of cake!

“That’s good, Tony.” The instructor said, “now try to keep your torso upright, no leaning over.”

It wasn’t until she had said anything that I noticed for every inch I had lifted my leg from the floor, I had shifted my body to the right to counter balance myself, and help decrease the angle of my hip. As I worked to bring my body up right, I could feel my leg start to drop. Now standing straight up, my foot was a mere foot off the ground. No matter how much I struggled I couldn’t get it to go any higher. I pushed and pushed, until finally my hip began to cramp up and I had to stop.

The next week I stopped in for a full Pilates class. It was some of the toughest  minutes of my life. I wasn’t drenched in sweat at the end, I wasn’t sucking wind, but I felt like I wanted to lay down and go to sleep. I had twisted and turned my body in ways that it wasn’t used to.

I entered my first power lifting competition at the age of 13. My body was very much used to squats, and presses, and pull-ups, and snatches, and jerks, and all kinds of exercises, but not this. Pilates used to be called “controlology” and for good reason. It is one thing to be able to move a heavy load with precision and quickness, but there is something to be said about being able to move your own body in an open space with control.

At this point you may be wondering why this is important if you are a strength athlete. After all I myself am a perfect example of the fact that you can be a well performing strength athlete and still really stink at something like Pilates.  So if I can succeed in my strength training without Pilates, why start now?

I think the most important reason is proprioception. Proprioception, very simply put, is having an acute awareness of the muscles in your body and what they are doing. Pilates increases your proprioception, or in other words your perception of where your body parts are in relationship to one another. Why is this important? Proprioception greatly helps to reduce the chance of injury.

An injury that often occurs due to a lack of proprioception is a sprained ankle. You place weight on a foot when the foot is not yet properly positioned to support your body, and thus you roll or sprain your ankle. If you had a heightened perception of the position of your foot you could have made the proper adjustment before bearing weight on that foot. Typically this isn’t something you actually have a thought process for. By increasing your proprioception these adjustments in muscle and joint position become quick and almost automatic. And this goes without saying but, the less you are injured, the more you get to train at your respective sport, and the more you train, the better you become.

Pilates also adds a nice balance to traditional strength training. Particularly it’s not uncommon to over develop certain muscles if you are a power lifter or strength athlete. This over development may not cause injury, but can cause postural issues which can lead to chronic pain and can eventually cause a decrease in strength.

Pilates also focuses quite a bit on controlling your breathing, which is a hugely overlooked aspect of increasing performance in the gym or on the field. Proper breathing can increase your work capacity, and endurance.

In the end I would say Pilates is not a complete fitness system, but neither is power lifting, or Jiu-Jitsu, etc… That is why Fun Intelligent Training offers all of those things. Naturally your goals will help to decide where most of your focus should be, but a Yoga or Pilates class isn’t going to do anything but improve the overall fitness for a strength athlete, and a little strength training will do nothing but improve the fitness of a distance runner or cyclist, and so on. Personally, for me, this is what fitness is all about; surrounding myself with an experienced group of people from all different backgrounds of health and fitness, trying new things, keeping it interesting, having fun, and continually challenging myself.

People tend to spend more time working on the things they are good at, rather than the things they need to work on. Simply because it’s just no fun to do something you stink at. I would rather do squats than bench presses any day, but then again I’ve always been a great squatter, and not a very good bench presser.  So the next time you think about skipping out on stretching after your lifting session, that should be a good indication to sign up for a Yoga or Pilates class. Time to work on those weaknesses!

Tags: Article, Jiu-Jitsu, pilates, Powerlifter