Why is Pilates good idea if you are thinking about learning internal martial arts

If you are thinking about learning internal martial arts, it could be a very good idea to start with a six months Pilates course first.
What are intended benefits of Pilates

Pilates strengthens the core, the deep stabilizer muscles, the whole body - bones, muscles and joints.
Pilates increases mobility of the joints, flexibility of the muscles
Pilates improves posture, coordination, balance, body awareness, sense of well being.
Pulates aids relaxation - mind over (muscle) matter, learning to listen to and be kind to your body, concentration

All the above goals are also goals of internal martial arts. The main difference is that Pilates is designed to teach you these things in safe way, methodically, and extremely efficiently. Pilates is a very good starting point for internal martial arts. It is based on the same principles, but it is designed to be practiced by people who are recovering from injuries, which means that, if practiced correctly, it is a safe way to build internal awareness, flexibility and strength.

Here are the 8 Pilates principles. See if you can spot the similarity between them and the internal martial arts principles:
The Eight Pilates Principles

1. Concentration- "The Pilates method of body conditioning is gaining mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body." - Joseph Pilates. Constant focus on every movement is required.

2. Breathing – lateral thoracic breath. In order for the body to receive enough oxygen to perform the exercise, we must breathe efficiently. In order to keep the lower abdominals close to the spine; the breathing needs to be directed laterally, into the lower ribcage. Moving on the exhalation will enable greater core stability at the hardest part of the exercise and prevents breath holding (Valsalva).

3. Centering- By engaging the core muscles either pelvic floor or Transverse Abdominis, the best stability is achieved. These muscles co contract which means when you engage one the other engages as well. The other 2 muscles that make up the core are the diaphragm (under the lungs which moves in and out as you breathe) and multifidus which is a series of back muscles the entire length of the spine – these also engage when you lift pelvic floor or draw in TA (tummy button to spine).

4. Control – maintaining the correct alignment of the body and performing the movements slowly with control creates strong, long lean muscles.

5. Precision- "Concentrate on the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value." - Pilates. Making sure you maintain the correct alignment and execution of the exercise means that the correct muscles will be recruited.

6. Flowing movements - Movements flow in time with the in and out parts of the breath, performed correctly, slowly, controlled so as not to strain. Lengthening occurs away from a strong centre stabilised by activating the core.

7. Isolation – controlling different muscles groups depending on the exercise teaches the brain to correct incorrect patterns of muscle recruitment, posture and movement.

8. Routine – practicing all of the above techniques regularly creates a routine; the brain will in time automatically remember the correct alignment, precise execution of the movements with specific muscles. The more practice we do the further we can advance in skill, strength, balance, flexibility and technique. Practise makes perfect!

Here is the description of the ideal Pilates body posture. This is what the Pilates is supposed to teach you to achieve. See if you can spot the similarities between Pilates posture and internal martial arts posture:
Alignment of your legs - Place your feet beneath sit bones and hip sockets, find the knobbly bones at the front of the pelvis and line your knees and ankles directly under them.

Weight even through the feet - Rock into front of foot then the back then come to the centre placing the weight evenly through the whole of the foot – imagining if you like a triangle between big toe, little toe and heel and placing the weight evenly through those three points.

Soft knees - Shake out the knees – we work with soft joints in Pilates – encouraging the muscles and around the joints to work and strengthen.

Neutral pelvis – hands on hips imagining if you like that the pelvis is a bucket of water – take the pelvis forward and back pouring the water to the front and the back – make the movements smaller between the two points until the bucket of water is level. To check that you have neutral place your fingertips on your pubic bone and make a triangle with the thumbs at the top – when you look down if you see a straight line this is your neutral pelvis – make micro adjustments to ensure you achieve your neutral pelvis.

Lengthen up through the spine – when we have our neutral pelvis our spine is in the correct position all the muscles tissues, vertebrae and disks are in their natural position, it is the safest position for our back and ensures we recruit our muscles correctly, poor posture on the other hand can lead to pressure, tension and pain as the muscles, tissues, vertebrae and disks may be compressed and pulled out of the natural position.

Locate and engage the core muscles to 30% – The core muscles consist of Transverse Abdominis or TA - deep internal postural abdominal muscle - a corset like muscle which if joined at the bottom of the ribs and the top of the pelvis supporting the lower back and stabilising the rib cage and pelvis, Pelvic Floor or PF a series of muscles in a hammock like shape in the pelvis, Multifidus - postural back muscles that run up alongside our spine and the diaphragm at the bottom of the rib cage which is involved in breathing.

The core muscles all work in conjunction with each other so when you engage one you are engaging them all but you may feel happier focusing on a TA engagement or a PF engagement or you may like to change the focus depending on the exercise. (See earlier information for more instructions about activating these muscles.)

Breathing - We practise lateral thoracic breathing in Pilates – breathing wide and deep into the ribcage whilst maintaining our 30% contraction of our core muscles. Interlace the fingers wide onto the ribcage and breathe in deeply through the nose feeling the ribs expand out to the sides and the front and back. Exhale a little bit more than you would do on a normal out breath this helps to exercise the muscles around the ribs a bit more, repeat a few times.

Shoulder Placement - Open the chest by rounding the shoulders gently so that the hands come to face the sides of the body. Then draw the shoulder blades gently down the back towards the pelvis - you should feel muscles firing up under your blades and around the sides of your upper rib cage.

Lengthen the neck – lengthen up through the back of your neck and the crown of your head to the ceiling as if you have a chord attached to the crown and you are being pulled upwards. When we lengthen through the neck the chin folds down a touch – to check you have the correct position bring your fist in sideways under your chin it should touch the chin and the chest – imagine you are holding a ripe peach under your chin as you work.

Always remember to keep the neck long during the exercises – the eyes will be looking forward at all times – if you are kneeling the eyes will be looking at the mat and if you are lying on the mat your forehead will be on the mat eyes looking directly down – if you lift the chin the neck shortens – this puts pressure into the base of the neck as the head is very heavy and the vertebrae of the neck are the smallest vertebrae of the spine. Always be conscious of protecting your neck with correct alignment.

This is what Pilates has to say about core muscles, the ones that connect the upper and lower part of the body. Incidentally, these are the most important muscles in internal martial arts as well.

The core is a set of deep postural muscles that provide strength and support to your body. The core muscles incorporate Pelvic Floor, Transverse Abdominis, the Diaphragm (involuntary muscle involved in breathing) and Multifidus (deep spinal muscles throughout your whole spine).

Pilates exercises teach you how to isolate the core muscles. Isolating these muscles produces much quicker strengthening of these muscles. It also allows you to develop a direct control over these muscles, which is very important in internal martial arts. If you want to be in a sung state, your core muscles have to be activated somewhere between 10% and 30% at all times, no matter what the rest of your body is doing. This is crucial for development of full body power as well.
There are two ways to do practice activation of core muscles: We can engage EITHER pelvic floor OR Transversus Abdominis to activate the ‘core’, or we can learn to engage both the pelvic floor and the TA together. Then we do specific exercises to strengthen it.


The core muscles work in conjunction with each other so when you engage one you are engaging them all but you may feel happier focusing on a TA engagement or a PF engagement or you may like to change the focus depending on the exercise.
Transverse Abdominis
Your Transverse Abdominis is another part of your core – it is the deepest layer of abdominal muscle – it is a bit like an internal corset – joining the ribs to the hips around the whole of your trunk.
Engaging TA
To engage all of your outer and inner abdominals; draw the tummy button back towards the spine to an 100% contraction, then release to 0%, draw it back in to 100% release to 50% then go to 25% - what we are looking for is that the outer layers of abdomnals have released and that just your deep TA remains engaged. Release to 0% then draw gently in too that 25% contraction - use an image to help you - imagine that your insides are a wet sponge - you want to gently take hold of your sponge but not squeeze it – ideally you will keep this 25% contraction of these deep muscles in all you do in your Pilates class and your daily life - use the sponge image to help you to make sure you are not holding yourself 'sucked in'

Exercise for building awareness of TA
Imagine on your 100% contraction that you are at notch 10 on a wide belt or 100% – release your belt down to notch 9 or 90% then 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 or 10% then 0 – no contraction. Then go up through the levels again to help you get to know this muscle and the levels of contraction – it also is a simple exercise to do to gently strengthen this muscle
Your Pelvic Floor
Your Pelvic Floor is part of your ‘core’, it sits in the bottom of your pelvis a bit like the weave in the bottom of a wicker basket and holds everything in, it is obvious that when the pelvic floor is week that things like stress incontinence occurs – think of the weave in the basket coming a bit loose.


Engaging Pelvic Floor
To engage Pelvic Floor imaging the muscles that you would engage if you were trying to stop the flow if you were having a wee – draw these muscles in to 100% then go to 0% draw in to 100% then release to 50% then go down to 30% then go to 0% then draw back into 30% – the ideal contraction for this muscle – we are training this muscle to engage and support us at 30% continuously. Try this exercise with your hands on your bottom – try to do this exercise without feeling that you are squeezing your bottom super hard – we are trying to work Pelvic Floor on its own!!

Exercise for building awareness of Pelvic Floor – do this exercise standing, sitting or lying down!
Imagine that 100% is floor 10 of a building and you are at floor 10 in a lift – take your lift down to floor 9 or 90% the 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 or 10% then 0 – no contraction. Then go up through the levels again to help you get to know this muscle and the levels of contraction – it also is a simple exercise to do to gently strengthen this muscle. Try this exercise with your hands on your bottom – try to do this exercise without feeling that you are squeezing your bottom – we are trying to work Pelvic Floor on its own!!