A Deep Dive Into Pilates Part Four: Centering

“This is the equivalent of an ‘internal shower’. As the spring freshness born of the heavy rains and vast masses of melting snows on mountains in the hinterlands cause rivers to swell and rush turbulently onward to the sea, so too will your blood flow with renewed vigor as the direct result of your faithfully performing the Contrology exercises.”

Over the past few months we have been covering the foundations and underlying principles of Pilates in these monthly “A Moment to Share” emails. We hope that you’re beginning to see why Pilates is considered a whole body approach to well being. In our first email we covered the history of Pilates and how it has come to be what it is today. In the second we discussed the incorporation of breath with the movements of Pilates and in the third we discussed the power that concentration brings to the process. Feel free to click on the links if you want to review or if you are just joining us and would like to start at the beginning.

If we look at breath as the doorway that creates an access point, and concentration (AKA the mind) as the conscious being going through that doorway, then centering, the third principle, can easily represent the “home”. The point from which all else emanates from. Putting these first three principles together is like putting a quarter into a coin-operated shower and witnessing the strong flow of energy and power that erupts.

In anatomical terms, the “Core” or what Joseph Pilates often referred to as the “Powerhouse” is generally thought of as your diaphragm, abdominal muscles, pelvic floor, and the multifidus. These structures form a roof, a floor, and the sides of a chamber. They are all intertwined and interdependent, coordinating with each other to create stability in contraction and release for movement, and to maintain a graded pressure system within. When everything is functioning correctly and in balance, this core supports your torso, your organs, and your spine to prevent injury. It also creates a solid foundation from which to create and emanate power into your extremities.

I often ask my clients,
“If a tree had big and strong limbs but it had a rubbery and weak trunk, what could you hang from those limbs?”

One of the greatest benefits of Pilates is that it helps you to relocate your midline and your center of gravity through the reactivation of your core. We spend a lot of time teaching clients about their core structure, helping them access and engage it, and using it to support the movement of the exercises. Clients often state in just a few sessions that they start to feel and activate an area of their body that they haven't felt for a long time. At the same time, they didn’t really know they were missing it until they found it again. I have to admit that it’s pretty neat when they make this connection and they're immediately remembering and visualizing their 20s - playing sports, dancing, and feeling strong and agile. Poof! Instant youth! Being able to access our core also gives us the sensory location of our midline. It's equivalent to recalibrating your internal GPS system.

Stand with your feet underneath your hips and evenly weighted. Ideally you want to align your body in neutral posture. Now, imagine a string running from the floor, to your tailbone, up your spine, through your head (just behind your ears), and out the crown of your head. Now imagine that someone is gently pulling both ends of that string in opposite directions. Move with this visualization and feel the spinal column open up and elongate. Now, take a full big inhale and encourage the lower sides of your ribcage to expand outward and up supporting the elongation. Stay elongated and tall as you now slowly exhale until there is not a drop of air left within you. Sense how the outward body comes inward towards your midline and then feel the very last drops of the exhale settle at a point just below the belly button. This point is your center of gravity. It will move as you move, but in static stance we hold the center of our universe in our pelvis!

By bringing our concentration to this area of the body we can then use it as the originating point, the source, of all movements to follow. The pelvis is where your body is built to have the most stability, therefore any muscle that directly connects to the pelvis should also be considered a part of your core. It is important to note, that in order to most effectively stabilize your pelvis you need to take an integrated approach to create balance in all of the muscles surrounding it. By initiating movement from this center point we allow our extremities to be free to perform each task and movement with greater ease, coordination, and symmetry.

Centering can go beyond just finding the core muscles to also centering yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually. It is about finding the center within the person - that center that encompasses all aspects of the person. As you focus within you will bring calm to your body, mind, and spirit. By definition, it is a technique that aims to increase and focus attention and energy, to provide relief from stress and anxiety. Centering is not unique to Pilates and is used in many mind-body disciplines such as yoga, meditation, tai chi, and martial arts. For example centering is an ancient visualization technique that is popular in Aikido – the Japanese defensive martial art of "spiritual harmony". It teaches you to focus on the here and now, taking power away from outside concerns and negative thoughts, and helping you remain stable and grounded in the present.

When I am working with clients the principle of centering shows up a lot.  I witness it when a client’s energy shifts from the start of the session to the end.  They come in our doorway buzzing, as they exit a life of stimulation, scheduling, uncertainties, and stress.  They lie down on the reformer.  They breathe deeply, travel inward, connect with their center, fire up strength, and emanate power for one hour.  They take a break from the outside world and they thread the first three Pilates principles together in a beautiful dance.  Our clients leave the session feeling lighter, cleansed, rejuvenated, centered, and stronger.  And believe me, we can feel it too.  I also see centering show up when a client is doing the Pilates exercises.  That "aha" moment when they go from just moving from their extremities to moving from their core.  Any exercise can be done both ways.  It takes training in concentration and knowledge of the body to do it right, to bring focus and energy into our center and then to allow it to flow outward through our actions, choices, movements, and expressions. 
 

Expect nothing less than feeling  your best. 

Sincerely, 

Shellie