"Joseph Pilates said you're only as young as your spine, so if you have a young spine at 80, you're going to be young." - Louise Buttler
Pilates has never been more popular.
From elite athletes and runners to busy parents and complete beginners, more people are turning to it as part of their training and wellbeing routines.
But despite that growth, many misconceptions still exist around what Pilates actually is - and who it’s for.
Some people assume you need to be flexible before you start. Others see it purely as rehab, recovery or something reserved for a certain type of person.
For Louise Buttler, founder of el be Pilates, the reality is much broader than that.
Here, she breaks down more of the biggest myths surrounding Pilates - and explains why it can benefit almost everybody.
THE MYTH
You need to be flexible to start Pilates.
THE REALITY
You don't need to be flexible at all. Your flexibility will improve. But it's more important to think about your mobility. So we want to keep our spine young. Joseph Pilates said you're only as young as your spine. So if you have a young spine at 80, you're going to be young. But if you have an old spine at 30, you're going to be old. So, you know, a lot of the time we're only moving our spine in one direction, whereas in Pilates we're flexing it, we're extending it, we're rotating it. It's doing all the things the spine needs to keep it strong and mobile. So that's a key point: you CAN start Pilates not being flexible.
THE MYTH
It's only for rehab or older people.
THE REALITY
Right now, Pilates is definitely having a moment and it's really popular. It feels like it's just popping up everywhere, which I adore, I love, but I feel like there's two extremes. You've either got the older people or you've got the really cool, young girl with the matcha in the hand wearing the latest Adanola outfit. But in reality it's actually everything in between. It is so much more than that - it's a movement that is quite literally for everybody. It is for strength. It is for mobility, it is for flexibility. It is something to do alongside your running, alongside your strength training. It prevents injury and it supports injury recovery. If you are an athlete and you did Pilates for a few weeks, I would be very surprised if your results didn't change in areas like endurance, agility and power because it just gets all those muscles working or functioning in the way that they're meant to. So it rebalances the body. Our body gets all out of balance with our lifestyle and by rebalancing all the muscles in the body, it enables the muscles and the joints to function efficiently and effectively.
THE MYTH
It's not relevant for certain sports.
THE REALITY
It's relevant to EVERY sport. There's this amazing picture of all the Pilates moves in comparison to everything you do in the Olympics. So every position in the Olympics is a Pilates move. It's a very powerful image. So with golf for example you're rotating, and we do a lot of rotation in Pilates. With tennis, you're swinging a racquet, and we do a lot of functional movement where you're having to do your squat but rotate.We do a lot of stuff like side work, balance work, coordination, all of these things, which then lends itself so well to every different type of sport.
TRY IT YOURSELF!
If you’re curious about Pilates and how it can help you, Louise has shared a perfect workout to get you started.It's a full-body strength session using your own body weight to challenge and strengthen the side body, upper back and shoulders, while improving posture, control and stability.
So set aside 25 minutes, follow along and feel the difference.
Then continue your el be Pilates journey with a 25% discount, a 14-day free trial and unlimited access to 600 Pilates workouts and 40 curated programmes.
