How to deepen your practice using the Pilates principles.

Use the Pilates principles to enhance your practice.

The Pilates principles can help you develop body awareness, good form and a broader understanding of the practice. Keeping the principles in mind will help you build the strength, flexibility and the connections needed to do the exercises with greater ease.

Nine principles of the Balanced Body Pilates method

1/ Breath

Use your breath to focus your mind, improve your oxygen levels and enhance lung capacity.

2/ Concentration

Sharpen your focus to improve your form and increase the precision of your movement.

3/ Control

Modify exercises or reduce the number of repetitions to maintain your form, alignment and level of effort during the whole movement.

4/ Centering

Practice regularly to develop a strong, stable and flexible core and move with greater ease. All Pilates exercises radiate outward from the center.

5/ Precision

Perform exercises with optimum form and the right level of effort. Precision results from breath, concentration, control and centering and enables you to develop unconscious competence.

6/ Balanced Muscle Development

Practice all exercises, even the ones you don’t like, for uniform development of all muscles. Understanding, developing and maintaining correct form for all exercises will lead to balanced muscle development and with practice improved posture, comfort and ease of movement.

7/ Rhythm and Flow

Practice smooth, graceful and functional movements to strengthen and lengthen your entire body and to reduce the stress on your joints.

8/ Whole Body Movement

Integrate mind, body and spirit to create balance in your body and life. Integrate movement for a full body experience; integrate the mind and body to create clarity and purpose; integrate the mind, body and spirit to create a life of balance.

9/ Relaxation

Find the right balance between effort and relaxation in every movement. Learning to release unnecessary tension in our bodies helps us to find ease and flow in movement and life.

Play with the principles while you practice

Use the principles while you practice to find more length, more stability or a deeper connection. For instance, changing your breath, the way you initiate movement or your focus can change how you experience a movement and enhance your practice.

The wonderful thing about Pilates is that you never perfect the practice. There is always a new challenge or opportunity to improve. As your body changes with time and life events your practice evolves and changes too.

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure. To achieve the highest accomplishments within the scope of our capabilities in all walks of life, we must constantly strive to acquire strong, healthy bodies and develop our minds to the limit of our ability.

~Joseph Hubertus Pilates

Last Updated: 5/18/2023