Pilates is known for encouraging and enhancing beautiful posture. But here’s the truth: Developing good posture and movement patterns doesn’t follow a straight line. For the record, the back is meant to have lovely, shock-absorbing curves. If it took you 40 years to learn how to stand as you do today, it will take a while to unlearn that same habit.
The cool thing about our bodies is that they are endlessly adaptable. Pilates helps to choose a more efficient or more effective way to stand and move—from a biomechanical vantage.
People often ask WHY they stand or move the way they do. There’s no one answer. Among the reasons could be one or a combination of the following:
+ Incomplete understanding of how their body works. Example: “Some part of me didn’t realize where my hip joints are and that I could move them independent of my spine!”
+ A sense of what’s right developed in early life. Example: “My mother always said, ‘Stand up straight,’ and now THIS feels straight to me.”
+ Activity or lack of activity directed to use the body in a specific way. Example: “I was a teenage gymnast and taught myself to arch my lower back. Now I do it all the time.”
+ A coping mechanism from an injury. Example: “When I was eight, I fell from a tree and landed on my back; it hurt to walk for a long time, so I started to stand and walk differently to avoid pain. “
New PNWP clients are evaluated with a postural assessment to give us both a starting point. We learn to imagine a plumb line for reference to identify and establish verticality.
“We guide clients through Pilates exercises to experience a new way of thinking about moving. This can have powerful results. The compromised movement that feels “right” is often the very thing that needs to be altered. Pilates instruction provides a gentle hand and voice to support and assist through learning new action. “—Leslie Braverman
We’re devoted to help you develop neuromotor control to acquire a new skill. You can experience your good posture, and discover a new way of living in your amazing body.