How Adaptable Is Pilates?

There are many reasons why you might need to adapt Pilates exercises: structural limitations, recommendations from your doctor or surgeon, or personal preference. Regardless of why you might need to tweak an exercise to work better with your body, this episode explores some of the limitless options that maintain the integrity of the exercises and make them achievable for everyone. Tune in!

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Show Notes:
Check out Why Props Are Your Friend to learn even more about the power of props!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to Pilates Students' Manual, a podcast helping you get the most out of your Pilates classes. I'm Olivia, and I'll be your host. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on Instagram at @PilatesStudentsManual. You can support the podcast by visiting buymeacoffee. com/OliviaPodcasts.

[00:00:29] Let's learn something new.

[00:00:47] Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Today's episode is piggybacking on an episode that I shared recently about the value and importance of using props in your Pilates [00:01:00] practice and how they can make exercises both more accessible if that's what you need or more challenging if that's what you need, depending on how you use them, of course.

[00:01:10] A lot of what I'm talking about today goes hand in hand with that, but specifically today, we're looking at how you can adapt the exercises in the Pilates method to meet you where you are. Sometimes, like in the episode I shared before, we're using props in kind of a temporary way. Like you're working on the roll up and you don't quite have enough strength to do the roll up, so you're using a bolster or like a pillow behind your upper back to decrease the range of movement, decrease the amount of effort to come off of that pillow to come up to seated. And you know, it kind of takes the sticky spot out of the equation. And the idea is you keep practicing, you get stronger and eventually maybe you don't need to use that bolster or pillow behind your upper back anymore because you can do the [00:02:00] exercise in that bigger range of movement all the way from lying down, rolling up to seated.

[00:02:05] There's lots of reasons why you may want or need to adapt a Pilates exercise. And sometimes it's because you need support in a more permanent way. Like you're six foot four, which is 193 centimeters. I looked it up. Or on the flip side, you're five foot one or 155 centimeters. Like the height that you are is fairly permanent and you might need to adjust the equipment or the exercises, so that they make sense with your body proportions. You might have a bigger belly or just be a bigger person. You might have a metal rod in your spine that limits the way that your spine can move. I have a teacher friend who works with adaptive athletes, and so she's working with people who have limb differences. They might be missing an arm or missing a leg, and the exercise is going to be different if [00:03:00] that's your body situation. You might be dealing with something like benign positional vertigo, where you get dizzy if you lie flat on your back, or acid reflux, where you are, you know, kind of burping stomach acid and lying flat on your back or doing an inversion just isn't comfortable in your body.

[00:03:21] There's also adaptations you would make to the exercises if you were pregnant to reflect and match the current guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine on best practices for exercising while pregnant. So, regardless of why you would like to adapt the exercise, the cool thing about Pilates is that you can adapt the exercise in lots of different ways that will fit what you need when you need it. 

[00:03:51] I personally take a wider view of what Pilates is. If you think of in the legal world where they have like [00:04:00] the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, I'm someone who leans more towards the spirit of the law. So like Joseph Pilates has a book, right? Return to Life Through Contrology, where he gives you all of his mat exercises. He tells you how to do all of the exercises and pretty much just one way of how to do them. Right? That's the letter of the law. He wrote out, these are the exercises. This is how to do them. 

[00:04:25] But if I am, or if I'm working with someone who's dizzy when they lie flat on their back, I'm going to use that prop to support them so that they're elevated. They're lying at a bit of an angle instead of lying flat. So that they can do the roll up and roll backwards without the world spinning around and them getting super nauseous, you know? That's still the roll up, even though you're using a prop in a way that changes how the roll up looks a little bit. In my opinion, you're still rolling up from lying down. [00:05:00] That's following the spirit of the exercise, even though we've made this accommodation. 

[00:05:05] There are things about us, like our height, our size, that the equipment especially can really be customized to support us in the body that we have. The reformer especially is so customizable. The Cadillac, the trapeze table also so customizable. So depending on what model of reformer you're working on, if you're super tall, we can gear you out. We can move the carriage, the moving platform part further away from the foot bar to make room for your legs or your belly or whatever you need to make room for. On the flip side, if you were more petite, we can bring that footbar closer to you by either gearing in or lifting that footbar so that you are also able to take advantage of all of the awesomeness that you can do on the reformer, but that fits your proportions.

[00:05:57] Lots of things are customizable on the [00:06:00] reformer. The, you can gear in and out, you can adjust the height of the pulleys. You can just the length of the straps. You can adjust the foot bar. Now, when you're working with an instructor, if you're in a group class, they might have some rules about adjusting the straps because it's a group class. But if you're working with a teacher one on one, they will a hundred percent be able to make that equipment be a better fit for you. If that's what you need, or if you have your own equipment, like I do, I am lucky enough to have my own reformer and I have the foot bar set up in a way that I like it, that for the average person, it might be a little bit too close for them. But for me, for my height, my proportions, my flexibility, That's a really good supportive spot for the foot bar and it's my reformer, so I put it where I want. 

[00:06:49] So you can customize each of those pieces of equipment to fit you. And just continuing to keep in mind that you can use props to support you on the [00:07:00] equipment. You can use adjustments on the equipment to support you. Like you can use that wedge I was talking about to prop yourself up so that you're lying at an angle instead of lying flat on your back. You can do that if you're pregnant, you could do that if you had vertigo, um, you could do that if you had acid reflux and it doesn't suddenly negate the footwork or feet and straps or whatever exercise you were working on because you were using this prop, you're still doing the exercise.

[00:07:28] As I mentioned before, sometimes our, we have structural limitations. So, if you had a metal rod in your back, you could not physically flex your spine and do the roll up even if you wanted to. There is a metal rod, like you're playing on a different playing field. There's some overlap, like if you were someone who had osteoporosis and your doctor has told you to avoid loaded spinal flexion. You could flex your spine, but you are at a higher risk of spinal fracture. And [00:08:00] so your doctor is saying, Hey, could you not do this movement under load, please? And even though Joe's exercises say, Oh, you should flex your spine under load here, for those people, that's not going to be an option. I also work with a few clients who have their big toe fused, so they can't flex their big toe. It's connected to the bones underneath their toe, so it does not wiggle around. So they are not able to plank on the balls of their feet because their toe doesn't flex in a way that would allow that to happen, but it doesn't mean that they can't plank at all, ever. We just get to find a new way to do that.

[00:08:39] So because Pilates has so many different pieces of equipment and we can do almost every exercise on almost every piece of equipment. Some doors close and other doors open. We have other opportunities to explore the shapes. So a person who can't flex their spine and maybe do a chest lift in, uh, [00:09:00] hands and straps on the reformer, right? They want to curl their head and shoulders up. But the metal rod in their spine says no. They can also find the abdominal work that you would have in a chest lift in other ways. 

[00:09:13] Like a great workaround for that for me is to take like a stability ball, a little squishy stability ball and have them push their hand into the ball and the ball into their thigh when their legs are in tabletop and that turns on the same muscles that would be doing a chest lift, right? You get to do that same work, but isometrically instead of concentrically. 

[00:09:36] Or my client who can't flex their big toes can still do a kneeling plank on the reformer and we can play with the spring setting and we can play with the foot bar height to make that kneeling plank as challenging as a full plank in a way that her body's able to do it. 

[00:09:54] So much Pilates equipment has springs and those springs can be adjusted for everyone [00:10:00] because the average spring settings that are in the teacher training manual are for the average vast majority of people that you'll have in class that you'll teach that you'll see. But we also recognize that one spring to a person who's a 260 pound or gosh, I didn't look up kilograms for that, but like a football player or like a rugby player, like a really big person who's very strong, like one spring to them is going to feel very different than to someone. Who's, you know, maybe a little bit weaker, maybe a little bit smaller, like it's not going to feel the same to them. So to say like, Oh, well this is the spring setting for the exercise, period. Like that doesn't even make sense logically. So the spring resistance can change based on your size, your strength, your flexibility, your coordination, like all of those things can help us change the exercise. 

[00:10:57] So I'll share another story with you and another [00:11:00] thing to kind of keep in mind when you are looking at maybe adapting some of the Pilates exercises. We've talked about structural things, like metal rods in your body or surgeries, maybe that have limited the range of movement in some joints, having, uh, maybe a knee replacement or a hip replacement, depending on how that's healing, you know, your range of movement might be different things like your height, things like your body proportions and size. Um, but here's another little thing in the mix. 

[00:11:29] I have a client who is so strong, so capable, a literal Pilates rock star, and she doesn't like to plank with her hands on the foot bar because she gets, I don't think it's vertigo, but she just gets nervous when she's closing the carriage and she's afraid that she's going to fall forward. And I've reassured her, you're not going to fall forward. You know, everything's fine. Like your position is great in this exercise, but she just really doesn't like it, like that exercise. That's long stretch on the [00:12:00] reformer. So if all I cared about was getting her to do Joseph Pilates exercises and I was constantly trying to make her do this exercise and she's constantly telling me no I don't want to do this exercise, like I would just be beating my head against the wall because she said no and I'm saying yes and like, there's no compromise and you know, we're both unhappy.

[00:12:23] You might think to yourself, Oh my gosh, that must be such a big point of conflict that you know, there's this exercise that's a great exercise that she has decided that she's not going to do, but it isn't a point of conflict at all because I know there's more than one way to do a plank on the reformer, even in Joe's exercises, there's more than one way to do a plank on the reformer. 

[00:12:45] So we find plank in other directions. We play with side plank. We play with facing the pulleys and doing plank. We do planks on the tower or we do planks on the chair. We do planks upside down on the Cadillac, [00:13:00] like there's so many ways to find that work that if you're like, Ooh, it makes me nervous. Like I have clients who say they have their reasons, they say, I don't want to stand on the equipment, even though I've been doing Pilates for a really long time, even though I'm really strong, even though I know I would be fine. It makes me nervous. I don't want to do it. And I say, thanks for letting me know, you know, that's totally okay. We can do a lunge 18 different ways.

[00:13:24] We can do, you know, whatever side plank side standing thing that I was going to have you do on the reformer. We can do on the chair, we can do somewhere else we can do from the ground, or we can do kneeling, things like that. 

[00:13:37] So in your own Pilates practice, instead of beating yourself up about things, whether they're permanent things, temporary things, mental things, physical things, I would really encourage you to let your instructor know that About what's going on in your body about, you know, your concerns, what you're looking for, what [00:14:00] support you need and see if there's other ways to do the exercise.

[00:14:05] Oh, my gosh. Swan on the long box is another one like this where you're lying on your stomach on the box. Hands are on the foot bar. You're pressing out to straight arms and doing a swan backbend, some spinal extension, right? Some people are very uncomfortable lying on their stomachs for various reasons. It feels like their chest is crushed, feels uncomfortable on their belly. You know, it's not great. So like, what else can we do? Do we just say never do swan again? Like, no. Why don't you stand in front of the foot bar with your hands on the long box? And do the same movement of swan, but now you're standing instead of lying on your stomach.

[00:14:43] You know, there's so many ways to adapt the exercises. So if you reach out to your teacher and you say, Hey, I'd really love to find more support in this exercise, or this isn't working. Is there something else I can do? The instructor might be able to help you if you're just chatting between classes. They might say, Hey, let's [00:15:00] do a one on one session and I can really do a deep dive and we can find the best plank variation and the best, you know, chest lift options. They might want to do something more in depth with you, but like you can always ask and it's so valuable because you're going to keep doing Pilates and it would be great to do it in a way that feels good and feels right and matches what you need. 

[00:15:19] So it might be something like adding a prop or changing the springs or changing another equipment setting or finding that same exercise. All right. You know, we're all doing this swan over here, but you're going to try this swan version over there because it just feels better for you. Like. I want you to have a great time doing Pilates and challenge yourself, but also recognize that there's more than one way to do things and to feel supported as you challenge yourself. And those little changes or little tweaks, little adaptations to the exercises can help make Pilates a better fit for you. 

[00:15:56] Huge thank you to all my supporters on buy me a [00:16:00] coffee, especially to our newest member, Katie. I can't wait to chat with you in a coffee chat. This month newsletter just went out, so definitely check that out and schedule a little coffee chat with me. I hope you have a great couple of weeks and I'll talk to you again soon.

[00:16:26] Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Pilates Students' Manual, a podcast helping you get the most out of your Pilates classes. Be sure to check out the podcast Instagram at @PilatesStudentsManual and subscribe wherever you're listening. Interested in teaching Pilates too? Check out Pilates Teachers' Manual, available everywhere you listen to podcasts.

[00:16:49] I hope to see you next episode. [00:17:00] Until next time.