PILATES FUNDAMENTALS
Back to Basics
One of the first lessons in Pilates is how to use your pelvic floor effectively. The pelvic floor is a basket shaped, interweaving of muscle that supports your pelvis, femur, and lumbar spine from the inside of the pelvis.
The effectiveness of proper utilization of the pelvic floor cannot be understated. Quite literally it’s like turning on the ignition of a car to drive forward. Like a key in the ignition the pelvic floor is a driver of support for movement born in the pelvis, legs and spine. The goal of Pilates is to get each person able to utilize their pelvic floor like a light operated on a dimmer switch, turning up or down support with conscious awareness. The amount of contraction varies based on the intensity of movement experienced. A pelvic floor contraction needed to stand up right is not the same contraction needed for jumpboard.
One of the goals of Pilates is to make the pelvic floor conscious for each person, giving you the ability to utilize the level of contraction needed to execute a movement gracefully from the inside out, whether you need a minimum, mid-level or maximum contraction will depend on the intensity of movement. The pelvic floor has the ability to give power, grace and control to your movements.
