Shownotes
Pilates is all about cueing specific muscles, neutral spine and avoiding locking your joints, right?
Often - yes. But it wasn't always that way. In fact all those things have flipped 180 degrees over the years since Joseph Pilates' day.
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Transcripts
Music.
::Welcome to Pilates Elephants, I'm Raphael Bender. It may seem completely weird
::to ask, when did Pilates get so obsessed with cueing individual muscles?
::Because that is the norm in most Pilates classes these days,
::but actually it is kind of weird that we do it.
::So I'm going to give you a little tour through a few points in Pilates history
::and look at the evolution of Pilates queuing.
::I'm going to start with Return to Life Through Contrology by Mr.
::Joseph Hubertus Pilates, published 1947, I believe. When was this published?
::1945.
::And there are a few points here that have evolved over time.
::All right, so stick around and we'll learn about the evolution of Pilates cueing from Mr.
::Pilates all the way to a more modern, the modern era and when muscle cues started
::to come in and why they started to come in and a few other core things,
::pun intended that have changed in Pilates cueing over the years and essentially
::reverse themselves over the years.
::So firstly, when, when it comes to cueing muscles, when.
::In Return to Life, this is the original kind of format edition.
::I think it's the one with the picture of Joseph Pilates on the front in a T-shirt.
::Page 17, is it page 17? No, it is page 8.
::Mr. Pilates says, quote, this does not necessarily imply that we must devote
::ourselves only to the mere development of any particular pet set of muscles,
::but rather more rationally to the uniform development of our bodies as a whole.
::So he's saying we shouldn't focus on any specific muscles. We should work on all of the muscles.
::And actually, if you go through his entire book and read all of the instructions,
::he has instructions for all of the mat work exercises in here,
::and he never instructs any muscles.
::There are, I think, two exercises where he mentions that this exercise is good
::for certain muscles. So I think one of the exercises, I can't remember which
::one it is, he mentions, you know, this strengthens the abdominals.
::And then there's one where I think he mentions it's, you know,
::this is good for the shoulders.
::He never mentions any specific muscles by name, but he mentions like muscle
::groups, I think twice from memory.
::And so there are zero muscle cues in this book.
::He literally doesn't mention the name of any muscle, like there's not the name
::of a single muscle in this book.
::Um so that is uh 1945 mr
::joseph pilates then we have the pilates method of
::physical and mental conditioning from 1980 by philip
::friedman and gail eisen and uh
::so in this book they give instructions
::on the same pilates exercises and they
::do not mention any muscles uh there are some differences which i will point
::out to you as we move on but they mention no muscles then we have the Pilates
::Method of Body Conditioning by Sean Gallagher and Romana Krasnowska from originally
::published in the year 2000, I believe.
::And again, we have instructions for many of the matwork exercises and no names
::of muscles, no names of muscles included.
::And then we have, or I have here, Ellie Herman's Pilates Reformer,
::third edition, which was It was also published, I think, in 2001,
::and I think what Ellie Herman represents, now she was actually trained,
::amongst others, by Romana.
::Ellie Herman was trained by Kathy Grant and then Romana, so there is a crossover
::in her kind of training lineage there,
::but I think Ellie Herman kind of represents the next generation after Romana
::and after Philip and Gail, and...
::In her book, we start to see muscle cues.
::So we have cues like feel your lat stretch as your arms raise above your head.
::We have cues like stabilize your scapulae before you raise your arms.
::So we're starting to see a few specific cues, but still not a lot. This is 2001.
::And then from here, I think this is 2001, this is where physical therapy really
::came into Pilates. And we started to see specific cueing of individual muscles
::like Ellie Herman has in the foreword of her book here.
::She talks about the four layers of abdominals and the multifidus muscle in the
::back and how it's really important for spinal stabilization.
::So we're starting to see the emergence of that muscle cueing in 2001.
::And the Stop Pilates training I did, which I did in 2004,
::there was a lot of emphasis on muscle cueing and the manuals had very lengthy
::lists of specific muscles that were active in each movement and always starting
::with lumbar multifidus and pelvic floor and transversus abdominis.
::So really from 1945 to kind of the year 2000, there were basically no muscle cues in any of Pilates.
::And around the year 2000, 2001, they started to emerge with that generation of Ellie Herman,
::Moira Stott slash Marythew and others, where now those muscle cues have just
::become accepted as the normal way that we teach Pilates. But it wasn't always so.
::In fact, Mr. Joseph Pilates was dead set against muscle cues.
::There are a few other things I want to talk about here as well in terms of the
::evolution of cueing specific body parts.
::So 1945, Joseph Pilates says, page 17.
::Quote, in the reclining exercises, be sure wherever indicated to keep your back
::full length, always pressed firmly against the mat or floor.
::So in other words, flatten your lower back against the floor. 1945.
::And in Philip Friedman and Gail Eisen,
::1980, the Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning,
::one of the things that they mention is spine to mat.
::Can't remember the page here but i did take take a note of it so basically it
::does say there are a couple of um exercises let's have a look at the net call here,
::where they do mention anchoring and position. So you're lying on your back at
::the start of the neck pool and it says, quote, spine to mat, navel to spine.
::So they're still using the same cue that Joseph used there.
::When we get to the year 2000 with Sean Gallagher and Romana Kosinowska,
::the Pilates method of body conditioning,
::in the forward section where they talk about the six principles of Pilates.
::They add on a couple of supplementary points and one of them is spine to mat.
::Lie down on your back, feet together, legs straight, press your back as flat
::as you can to the mat and remove all the space between the small of your back and the mat.
::So they're very direct in saying like, press your back as much as possible to
::the mat, which is exactly what Joseph says. Then we get to Ellie Herman.
::And Ellie Herman in 2001 talks about neutral versus flat back.
::And what she says is this quote. This is from page 23.
::Many people from the New York school teach people to, quote,
::tuck under or flatten the curve of their lower back when doing Pilates exercises.
::In my method, I use neutral spine when it is safe and effective and flat back when applicable.
::My general rule of thumb is to use neutral only when doing exercises that are
::closed chain, meaning the legs are either on the floor or when using Pilates
::equipment supported by a bar or straps.
::Pilates mat exercises are mostly open chain with the legs in the air,
::making the spine vulnerable to destabilisation.
::So this is the first time when we start to hear, around about that year 2000,
::is when we start to hear that word stability or stabilisation used in this context. uh.
::In the open chain exercises, it is safer to use the flat back position if the
::client is not strong enough to stabilize in neutral.
::And that's what I was taught in Stop Pilates as well.
::You may just choose to not give open chain exercises in this case and work on
::gaining stability in the neutral position first.
::So that is not what Joseph Pilates said.
::When Joseph Pilates taught the 100 or gave instructions for the 100 in Return
::to Life, which is the first exercise in the book of course.
::He says now you have your back flat on the mat and your legs straight and your
::heels two inches above the floor,
::and he says remarks quote at first you probably will not be able to carry out
::instructions as illustrated in poses this proves why these exercises and all
::succeeding ones will benefit you however with patience and perseverance you
::eventually should succeed in achieving the ideals as posed with accompanying
::normal health So in other words,
::just do it and, you know, do it as best you can and you'll get better at it.
::So he's not saying, hey, until you can keep perfect neutral spine,
::well, he doesn't even have the concept of neutral spine, you know,
::until you can quite stabilize your pelvis, don't do open chain exercises.
::He's saying, no, just do it with your heels two inches off the floor and your
::back press flat to the mat.
::And if you, if that, if, you know, if you can only do that for like two arm
::pumps or whatever, like just do it for two arm pumps and you'll get better at it.
::Um, and so Ellie Herman, then, you know, in 2001, we have this concept and I
::was taught this in Stop Pilates as well of, you must be able to stabilize first
::before progressing onto the quote, you know, full version of the exercise.
::Um, yeah.
::And then, you know, so Ellie Herman goes on to say, in the flat back position,
::the quartet is slightly altered since now the multifidus muscle will be on stretch.
::And so the quartet is her concept of, you know, the various muscles that form
::the core, including the multifidus.
::Clients who have posterior pelvic tilt and or very strong abdominals may experiment
::with bringing their pelvis into a more neutral in open chain exercises.
::When on the equipment, however, many exercises are closed chain,
::and it is an excellent opportunity to train your clients in neutral spine,
::working with natural curves safely and effectively.
::So we have this concept of neutral being safer starting out around that year
::2000, where neutral wasn't even part of the language of Pilates up until that point.
::It just wasn't a thing. It was always about spine to mat.
::All right. So there are two things. First, the cueing of muscles didn't exist
::until about the year 2000, and then it did exist.
::And then the spine to mat thing was a very big part of the cueing of Pilates
::from 1945 up until about 2000.
::And in about 2000, we started to have this concept of neutral spine versus flat back.
::I want to give you a third perspective, which is the idea of locking joints.
::So in Return to Life, if you've read it, you will have noticed this,
::that Joseph Pilates uses the term locked, like, I don't know,
::40 times or something in the book. He says it a lot.
::So for example, in the instructions for the rollover, in Cautions,
::Pose 3, he says, quote, keep legs tensed, knees locked, end quote.
::So he's like, he specifically says, uh, you know, lock your joints,
::um, in the instructions for the saw on page 47, he says, uh.
::Do, do, do, do, do.
::Arms shoulder high, pressed backward until shoulder blades lock.
::So he's, you know, he's into locking. In the neck pull, page 55 of Return to
::Life, he says, pose four, cautions.
::Quote, elbow straight backward until shoulder blades lock.
::In pose four, keep elbow straight backward until shoulder blades lock. He mentions it twice.
::So he's quite specific that he wants you to lock your shoulder blades,
::and he mentions locking the knees in eight or 10 exercises, quite prolific in mentioning locked.
::Then we come to Friedman and Eisen in 1980, and we've already moved. So Mr.
::Pilates died in 1967, and we've already moved into the classical era of Pilates.
::We've moved a lot beyond the Contrology era, which was Joseph Pilates' name
::for what we now call Pilates, and we moved into the classical era,
::which was very, very influenced by dance because Romana Krasnowska was a dancer.
::And so we now have in Friedman and Eisen...
::They don't want you to lock your knees.
::Instead, stretch your heels as far away from your hips as you can.
::Feel your knees straighten.
::Keeping your heels stretched out, bend your feet back, try to point your toes.
::So they go to stretching the heels as the cue rather than locking the knees.
::And so they go, for example, into talking about stretching a little bit later on page 35 here.
::They say, quote, the most common reaction to the instruction straight arms or
::straight legs is a tensing up that involves locking the elbows or knees.
::This is never useful. It tends to interfere with free motion and it can produce
::a kind of reverse bending of the arms or legs called hyperextension.
::Combined with certain movement, it can lead to injury. when we use the term
::straight arms and straight legs we mean only straight not locked.
::So therefore so from 1980 we've already
::got this concept of not locking the knees or elbows or shoulders and again when
::we get to say the sore in their book they don't mention locking the shoulders
::the shoulder blades back when we get to the neck pull they don't mention locking
::the shoulder blades back,
::they just say something like, elbows level with ears.
::Then when we get to the Pilates method of body conditioning by Sean Gallagher and Romana Kozunowska,
::again in the saw, they say, extend the arms open to the sides,
::but they don't mention anything about locking the shoulders.
::In the neck pull, again, they just say, elbows by ears. They don't mention anything
::about locking the shoulders.
::Ellie Herman's book, now the book of Ellie Herman's that I have is a reformer
::book, so it doesn't have the sore or the neck pull in it.
::But she does have an instructions for shaving, which is one of the reformer arm series.
::And I already mentioned that she says basically stabilize your scapulae before you raise your arms.
::And by stabilize your scapulae, I think she talks about it at the start where
::basically what she means is, you know, flat and flush on the back and, um,
::you know, not anterior tilting or winging or any of that kind of, um, stuff.
::So in other words, not locking the scapulae.
::All right. The final, um, you know, I guess, uh, you know, takeaways for me are that,
::you know, what we currently experience, you know, we go into a Pilates class
::and, And we're cued of all of these specific muscles, activate your glutes,
::activate your adductors, activate your abdominals,
::stabilize your scapulae, relax your upper traps, all of these cues that we have,
::don't over-activate hip flexors, that we take as just a normal part of doing Pilates.
::They were antithetical to how Mr. Pilates taught. He never cued muscles.
::He specifically said, we don't focus on this or that pet set of muscles.
::And that continued right up until really around about the year 2000,
::right through the next generation of Pilates teachers, until basically physical
::therapy came in with what we would call contemporary Pilates now,
::with the next generation of teachers after Ramana.
::And we started to see words like stabilization and activation and feeling this
::or that muscle being part of the cueing of Pilates and that has now become as
::firmly entrenched in most Pilates as like that's just what Pilates is but that's
::not what Pilates always was.
::When it comes to alignment cues the spine to mat you know the flatten your back
::forcefully cue was really right up until,
::again, that same roughly time when physical therapy kind of became infused in
::contemporary Pilates around the year 2000, 2001,
::where we start to see neutral spine being, quote, safer for, you know,
::clients who can't, quote, stabilize, end quote, their lumbar spine or their
::pelvis, you know, in an open kinetic chain with the feet unsupported.
::Then finally, with regard to locking.
::And Mr. Pilates very specifically says, lock your knees, lock your elbows,
::lock your shoulder blades.
::He says it multiple times, probably 40 plus times in his book. He's very specific.
::He definitely wants you to lock your knees when your legs are straight.
::And already by 1980, that had changed to, we lengthen the heels away.
::We don't lock the elbows.
::We simply straighten the elbows or the knees.
::And I can only imagine that's the influence of Romana and dance,
::although I'm just speculating.
::And that continues on into the present day where we have this emphasis in most
::Pilates of not locking the joints.
::But it didn't come from Mr. Pilates. In fact, it's the exact opposite.
::So I think those are three very interesting insights just from a historical
::perspective that we've gone from Mr.
::Pilates saying specifically don't focus on this or that pet set of muscles and
::him never, ever cueing muscles.
::In fact, I've heard an anecdote that people used to say, what's this exercise
::for? He would get cranky and say, it's for the body.
::To now this emphasis on, you know, not only which muscles we're working,
::but which muscles we should contract consciously and which muscles we should
::feel and which muscles we should not contract when we're doing any given exercise.
::And then the flat back, which was a really big part of Mr. Pilates' technique.
::And right the way through class to classical period, now has become a neutral
::spine, which again, I think a lot of people would sort of just take for granted
::as like inherent to Pilates, but actually it was antithetical.
::It was, you know, Mr. Pilates said, don't be in neutral spine.
::It's flattened you back to the mat.
::And then finally, I think, is that all?
::The stabilization, yeah. So the concept of stabilisation, which really didn't
::exist in Pilates up until that sort of contemporary era of Pilates,
::which started around the very late 90s or early 2000s.
::So dear listener, I hope you found that of historical interest and hopefully
::that gave you an interesting perspective on the way we currently do things, or when I say we, I mean,
::the Pilates industry by and large currently does things,
::and that cueing neutral spine, cueing individual muscles, stabilization,
::and avoiding locking joints were all,
::None of them were part of Pilates as designed and taught for decades by Joseph Pilates.
::They've all mostly been relatively recent with the advent of what is referred
::to as contemporary Pilates, which came in around about the turn of the millennium,
::with the exception of the locking of the knees and elbows, which I think passed
::with Joseph and the next generation, led by Romana mainly.
::Emphasize not locking the knees and elbows. So there you go.
::Like a lot of those things have turned around 180 degrees and we now do them
::completely opposite to what Joseph specified in his book. All right.
::Hope you found that interesting. Much love and I'll see you in the next one.
