It’s no secret that Pilates makes us feel good. But it might be doing more than you think. Amy Cuddy offers us “A free no-tech life hack: change your posture for 2 minutes.”
(Watch the full video of Cuddy’s TED talk at the end of this post.)
Yes, our mothers were correct.
Standing up straight is good for you. Cuddy proposes that your posture, indeed great for your body, “could significantly change the way your life unfolds.”
The Pilates Workout: your very own ‘no-tech life hack’
By all reports Joe Pilates was an arrogant man. Consequently, the 2-minute power poses advocated by Cuddy proliferate in your Pilates workout. In each and every workout we have a chance to embrace our inner arrogance and strike a pose, a POWER pose that is. And our power poses MOVE! Change your posture, your mind, your LIFE in 1 hour 3x/week.
Back in the day I was a client of Excel Pilates in Washington, DC. They have a fabulous, powerful tagline:
Empower Your Body. Empower Your Mind.
1. The Teaser
Don’t act like you’re surprised by this one. Why does it feel so great to do the Teaser? Such a mixture of accomplishment and nausea? It’s an infusion of power built right into your workout. Exhilarating and little scary all at the same time. SHOW OFF a little as you circle your arms when you do the Teaser on the Long Box.
Look what I can do!
It’s even helpful. And it is certainly okay to have a good time while you workout…:)
2. Stomach Massage with Hands Back
How about the lift of the Stomach Massage Series with the hands back? Those hands back there are what Jay Grimes calls ‘attitude’ and it’s just the sheer will and lift of your chest and your back that holds you up. And your arrogance…don’t forget that.
3. Swan on the Barrel
Sail right up into
the universal posture of victory
a lifted chest and both arms thrust triumphantly upward.
4. The Side Bend
In the animal kingdom, Cuddy explains, body language is all about power and dominance: “about expanding, stretching out, taking up space, opening up…humans do the same thing.” Joe watched the animals as well and saw the powerful, expanding, take-up-space positions. Just doing the work becomes an exercise in empowerment if you let it.
Kara Wily (of 5 Top Blogs Answer 1 Burning Question fame) always has top-notch material at the ready. I remember a cue in one of her online classes that kept resonating in my mind, my body and my teaching days later.
“Be GREEDY with space.”
“When I was training in dance, I loved to travel. If I could take off in grande jete in the middle of the floor and land in the corner of the room, that was a good jump. When dancing in a group piece, however, you also have to be aware and sensitive to the other dancers to keep the group in a bird-formation traveling together. So I developed the idea that I could be greedy with my space as long as I kept it in my space. I think it has everything to do with what we teach in Pilates.
Most people do not know the extent to which their bodies can fill in the space around them until they are encouraged to go further.
I like to build stability to build more potential for movement. The more aware I am of my center, the more willing I am to reach out from that center and ‘be greedy with space’.” -Kara Wily
With this one you can almost see the cats stretching while Joe watched. It helps to feel like you are just waking up from your nap as you stretch your side all the way up to the sky. Take up some space and give yourself a nice treat. Much thanks to Robert Wernick for inspiring all of us to embrace our inner-animal.
5. The Star
Need I say more?
Perhaps we’ve all seen this footage (0:16 seconds in) of Romana Kryzanowska performing the Star. I love to channel my inner-Romana when working on the Star in my own workout. Her virtuosity is at once effortless and delicious. Will we see a better Star?
I don’t think so.
“On my first lesson he gave me the exercise called the Star….and you know, many people never learn the Star at all. So I guess I was pretty much a star then! (laughs)
8 Responses
This is fantastic!
Thanks Kelly!
Boomerang, for me! I love all the different elements in the exercise, and you get to do a teaser, too boot. 🙂
Oh gosh yes, and for that one you have to go the distance and make it all the way through the exercise as well 🙂 Thank you Rachel for sharing!
Pike on the chair … when I can do it, LOL.
I got it as an “assignment” in my privates, and as a “homework assignment”. It’s one of those things that pretty much tells me where my body is that day.
Thanks M, yes, that is a good one! Very useful and very invigorating and empowering. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
I’m really struck by the “Be greedy with space” quote – can’t wait to mention that in my classes when they resume in the fall. Thanks – great post!
Thanks Bob, that quote from Kara was the inspiration for the entire post. Then I found the TED talk and so on… Kara’s got lots of great stuff – I also especially like a tagline of hers “Lie down. Workout. Feel better.” “Be greedy with space” really spoke to me 🙂 Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts!