Mind and body control illustrated.

When I am asked the question is Pilates like Yoga, I refer to the comparison a colleague who teaches in both disciplines gave me – “Yoga is for the mind and Pilates is for the body.”

Whilst this is a generalized statement, it does describe the chief and initial focus of both disciplines. Ultimately, they both require equal mind and body participation in order to correctly perform the movements or positions, allowing benefit to the whole being.

I have the pleasure of working with a group of clients who have been attending classes with me for some years now; each of them arrived at my door with some niggling chronic injury. Last Tuesday I was able to lead them through a class involving all the Intermediate Pilates exercises and add in an advanced exercise called The Boomerang as executed in the video. I was thrilled to see these clients flow through this exercise with strength, control, isolation and flexibility. It is what they came to us to find and they have achieved it as well as finding improved movement during their many and varied daily tasks. It has taken both mind and body control, patience and consistency for them to achieve this goal.

'Video courtesy of Sondergaard Photography'