Pilates, Posture and Working From Home

Has zoom been a big part of your life for the last few months?  Have you felt as though you’ve been staring at a small screen in a crouched position for more time that you care to mention?  Does your body creak, click and moan at you when you stand up or you often feel that your legs have seized up?

Before we had this ‘new norm’ of life, can you think back to how your posture used to be and how your body felt overall?  It’s most definitely been a strange and ever-changing time since the middle of March hasn’t it? 

Now with the season changing again now is a good time to look back at how your body has felt and behaved during spring and summer.  Autumn is a great time to start something new and embrace a change in your life.

Let’s think about how our body is expressing itself right now.  Tune in to whether or not it feels tired or energised, younger or older than your actual age and if you think there’s a chance that it may not be functioning as well as it should or could be.  Do a quick body scan to identify any sticky or tight areas and try to find ways right away that you can reduce and stresses and strains that you are putting on it.

So many people are unhappy with how their body looks and functions and so often this can be down to how they position their body and their posture.  How often have you thought yourself that you are unhappy with your posture and are constantly striving to find ways to achieve the perfect one? But what is the perfect posture and is there actually such a thing anyway?  In my opinion, it’s quite a subjective view on what a perfect posture is, and we should take care not to compare ourselves to others as we are all so different in many ways.

Our spine has natural curves which will be different in all of us.  It functions as a shock absorber and our spinal curves allow us to move load efficiently around our spine.  In order for our spine to be able to do this, it needs strength and mobility down the whole length of our spine and also strength in our extremities, such as upper and lower limbs.

Pilates is the perfect exercise and movement discipline to choose in order to give our spines what we need and to also help with the organisation of our head, neck, shoulders and pelvis, to improve body alignment and give our spinal curves a helping hand.

Joseph Pilates himself quoted “Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.”  

Now it’s hard to get our body under perfect control, but we can help the mechanisms of our body by improving aspects of how we move in our daily life and that we care for our spine correctly to help maintain these curves. 

One way to do this is by taking care not stay in one position for too long as our bodies are not designed to be too static in this way.  Therefore, if we are working from home then you need to allow yourself time to move more.  Staying in the same position for too long can create pain and discomfort.  If you know you are in a meeting for over an hour, then check that you can stand up and still be seen and at least move your body from one seated position to another. 

It’s been hard enough having to adapt to a new way of life over the last few months so the last thing you want to do is to get into a bad physical habit and struggle to stand up straight at the end of the day, or find it hard to get out of bed first thing in the morning.

As we have been often told, exercise is good not just for your body, but for your mind and soul too.  Now we have identified that our body needs to move, what better exercise could we do which includes mind and soul? Pilates!  

Pilates focuses on your whole body health which refers to developing the strength and health of your mind, body and spirit in complete coordination with one another.  Having a strong healthy body will allow your mind to push your body to its limitations and help you to achieve a lifestyle that you can maintain for years to come.

Further goals and benefits of Pilates are to help you to find efficient and flowing movement, increase self-awareness and self-confidence along with an enhanced quality of life.  Since March many of these goals have been tested to their limits as we have had to isolate, socially distance, reduce our amount of movement when stuck in front of a screen – the list goes on.  Therefore, starting a Pilates 1-2-1 session or group class is ideal to help towards achieving these goals and benefits.

Do you wonder though if you will have time to attend a session or class if you have to work from home and your day doesn’t afford you many gaps in which to exercise?  Or, you live quite far away from your local Pilates class and just don’t have the time to get there?  

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Pilates!  Yes, I know I keep repeating myself, but that’s because it’s true and I have complete faith in Pilates that it can truly transform your life when you start to attend a class or session.  Since lockdown the majority of Pilates teachers have transitioned to an online offering as well as now providing their services in studio and/or in person at your home.  

But, does this sound contradictory to what we have just been saying?  That staring at a screen can potentially leading to bad postural habits and aches and pains?  The answer to that is yes, but also no.  No if you have someone at the other end of the screen who is there for the sole purpose to move your body in an efficient and flowing way and quite literally has your back! 

It’s not contradictory if you have a teacher who is able to effectively cue you during the session and can adjust you as and when necessary and is able to modify or progress the exercises depending on how you and your body are feeling on that day.

Our body and spine needs to articulate (move) through all its curves and the distribution of movement will help with the distribution of forces that our body will come up against on a daily basis.  A good Pilates teacher will be able to use imagery also during your session to cue you for successful movement.  

Having a balance of flexibility and strength in all parts of our body will increase the potential for a flow of energy to travel through your body and improve your body awareness and the ability to integrate all movements.

Movement can be seen as an expression of how your mind is in the present moment.  So if your movement is slow and sluggish, that could well be how your mind is feeling at the same time.  Feeling fatigued and under par is not a great way to live and can adversely affect your mental health too.

 It seems that so much evidence is positively pointing towards Pilates as being a wonderful form of exercise and movement in which to invest your time in order to give your body the most opportunity to remain fit, health and strong.

Group classes and 1-2-1 sessions plus duets are available via both an online platform and in person and it’s important to find the right teacher who suits your needs and goals.  Always feel that you can have an in-depth chat with the Pilates teacher that you choose to go to, as they are there to help you to solve your pain point and be with you on your journey to a stronger and fitter body; a body which will support you through years to come and one which has a posture for you to be proud of and still bounce back after sitting in front of a screen all day!