Are you afraid that YOUR body can’t do Pilates? You’d love to try it, but your knees won’t bend right, or you can’t sit up without hunching forward since your back or your hamstrings are so tight? Does your head feel like it’s miles from the floor when you lie on your back? Are you worried that your lower back will be angry if you have your legs straight, so you just aren’t going to try?
Or have you gone to class, tried anyway, and decided Pilates won’t work for you because you finished in pain?
I have good news.
Pilates CAN work for you. In the body you have RIGHT NOW.
You just need to modify the exercises to suit you!
If they’re good at their job, your Pilates instructor can modify anything for you, even during your group class (if it's pretty simple).
Of course, if you have a lot of issues you’re dealing with, you’re best off starting with private sessions before you move into group. You’ll work with your instructor to find the best modifications for your body until you're confident in doing them without a close eye on you.
In a group setting, your instructor doesn’t have the time to spend on just you, going through what is best for your body; group class is about a general workout that will work for most people without a lot of injuries or complications.
So, even if you hate the idea of doing something that doesn’t look exactly like it “should” (and that’s a whole conversation for another day!), you may need to modify the exercises to make Pilates work for you, and actually enjoy your Pilates practice.
Here’s why: Your instructor WANTS you to succeed
I know it’s not just me. EVERY instructor I know wants you to love Pilates as much as THEY do!
We fell in love with this system of exercise because of how it made us feel – not just with the changes on the outside, but because of how it changed us on the INSIDE.
We KNOW it will make your body move better. We KNOW it will help with the stress you keep in your shoulders and prevent that crazy stuff you do in your spare time from hurting the rest of you (whether it’s hunching over your smartphone, landscaping your backyard, or kiteboarding). So, when we see that you could get MORE from an exercise, we want to give you the best possible way to do that. Which sometimes means sitting cross-legged instead of having your legs out straight or putting a ball at your ankles to keep your connection! It’s not to say you ‘can’t do an exercise the right way’. It’s LITERALLY telling you your body needs a slightly different position to get the most out of out. Sometimes it’s just for today that you need to ‘tweak’ your position. Sometimes it’s forever. Your body knows what it needs, you just have to let it find it! Baby steps lead to leaps and bounds
Our bodies, as miraculous as they are, tend to FREAK OUT if we do something out of our ordinary. This even happens during exercise! That’s why we ALL start our Pilates practice as beginners. So, we can slowly acclimate our body into more challenging positions. I always warn my new students that this practice is one of the strangest requests you’ll ask of your body – to begin with. Your body doesn’t trust that you have ANY clue what you’re talking about, because it’s made the last several decades of movement happen WITHOUT your input, thankyouverymuch! So, it resists. It doesn’t think it should change the status quo. But little by little, week after week, it starts to LOVE how this new way of moving feels. It CRAVES it. You notice when your shoulders are up by your ears…because it feels AWFUL when they are. You feel unsteady and strained when your abs don’t engage before you do things – because it feels scary to not have the support you realized you could make happen. When your body moves more comfortably, with more fluidity and ease than you’ve ever known…it changes its mind and lets you do things a little differently. Sometimes you try but can’t find a good connection in a certain position. Maybe it’s extension you struggle with. Maybe it’s the rolling exercises. If you fight against using a pillow or a cushion or a ball or with a slightly different version of an exercise, you’re working against yourself. In ALL the ways. By modifying, you’ll find you progress FASTER than if you just kept struggling to do things the way the instructor makes them look. Remember, we’ve been doing this A LOT longer than you have (and we started and struggled the EXACT same way)! After I had my first kid (and being on bed rest for almost 2 months in the hospital), I had NO strength or flexibility, especially in my legs. I started SO small, bending my knees because I couldn’t fully straighten them, sitting up on a cushion to give my hamstrings a break, and doing the basic version of Every. Single. Exercise.
Until I progressed. A little more every day. And then I could do everything again and it was like that setback never even happened. If I hadn’t, I would’ve gotten hurt. And that’s the last thing we want, because…
You really COULD get hurt.
I know, it seems silly, because when you look at someone doing some of the exercises, they look like NOTHING. How could that hurt you? If you ask the person DOING the exercises though, they’ll tell you it’s a LOT of work. Especially when you’re doing it right! If you’re not using modifications to put your body in the best possible position for an exercise, things can strain, especially if you have existing issues (like a tight lower back or trouble with your neck). If you ARE using modifications, it’s easier to find a deeper, SAFER connection that supports you. It feels better, and prevents you from using muscles your body likes to ‘default’ to (we all have them). All your instructor wants is for you to move well, get a great workout, and feel BETTER when you leave your class. Because that’s how Pilates is SUPPOSED to make you feel! No one else really cares what you’re doing.
Really. I promise. Your instructor is the ONLY one that cares how you look in an exercise, and that’s because they want you to be strong and stable – not because they want it to look pretty!
Trust me. Sally with the curly red hair on the thick blue mat over there couldn’t care LESS about how you’re changing the exercise to suit you. She’s worried about her own positioning, and she’ll probably be modifying a different exercise that you actually feel great about in your own practice!
Sometimes Sally sees the modification you’re making and decides maybe SHE needs it, too, and she feels more comfortable doing it because YOU are! We’re all on our own journey. On the mat and in our lives.
What it looks like in your body is going to look a heck of a lot different than it does in mine, because our bodies, our minds, our histories are different. We’re all coming to the same place from different directions. Your instructor is just happy you’re here and is really hoping to be the best guide for you on YOUR journey. Which leads me to the last, best point of why modifications can make Pilates work for you… That modification isn’t a life sentence.
Just because your instructor suggests you use a modification today, doesn’t mean you’ll use it FOREVER. It’s just where your body is at, TODAY.
Because our bodies change daily, depending on how much sleep you’ve had, how much water you drank, how long you’ve been at your computer, what you did on the weekend…it’s never the same. So some days, you might need to sit up on something. Some YEARS you might need to. It all depends on where your body’s at. I had a lovely client who started group classes and had a very hard time sitting on the floor (getting there, being there, AND getting up) so I suggested she bring a small stool or chair to class. For a couple of years, she brought that little chair to EVERY class. It helped her be where SHE needed to be to strengthen her body and get the most from the sitting exercises. One day, she came without the chair! She’d gotten to a place where she’d graduated to a firm pillow instead (and we celebrated it). If she hadn’t tried using the chair, I don’t think she’d have continued with her Pilates practice, and it made such a difference to her life getting stronger and more mobile in every way!
Countless others, and even I, have used different modifications to make things possible. You get stronger and take the modification away. It can actually feel scary when you first do, because it helps so much you get a little nervous you might not be able to do an exercise without it…and then you’re pleasantly surprised when you can!
Have you used modifications to help make YOUR practice possible? Do you feel uncomfortable incorporating them, or does it help you be more successful? Let me (and the skeptics!) know in the comments below.
Modifications are wonderful, and they really do make Pilates work for YOU! Join me today to make Pilates possible for your body, every day, using the modifications that are right for YOU.
Xo, Kimberly
P.s. If you’re not sure what will work for you, let’s chat and see what you need to get the most from your Pilates practice! We can modify anything, together!
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