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Essentially, my lumbar spine (lower back) was compressed and I had an anterior pelvic tilt. Visually, this is when your butt sticks out and your gut protrudes (no matter how skinny you are!). I still have a large dip in my lower back because that’s how I’m built, but with Pilates I’ve managed to align the short and long muscles that were causing imbalances in my legs and strengthen my back and core to better support my spine.

Different curvatures of the spine will be well worth their own post soon, but for now, I want to talk about the benefits of a good posture and how Pilates can help!

Pilates is all about moving efficiently and getting deep muscles working, rather than the superficial ones. These deep core muscles (sometimes called the powerhouse) are the abdominals, back, and pelvic floor. They support our posture so that the shoulders can relax and there is less stress on the hips, legs, and feet.

It also encourages the realignment of muscles so that stronger muscles are not compensating for weaker ones! Putting too much strain on one group of muscles will get them to give up sooner or later, so reminding the body how to recruit smaller muscle sets gives those big guys a well deserved break.  Poor posture and an unbalanced spine makes your muscles work harder just to keep your body upright all day  – that’s exhausting!

So, in addition to strengthening, Pilates encourages postural awareness – it’s built into every exercise. Once you know what is wrong with your posture, you can work on fixing it. For example, I lengthened my hip flexors and strengthened my glutes to lessen that pelvic tilt. I still catch myself falling into old habits when I pass a shop window and have to keep up with the exercises, but I am much more aware than I was and have corrected my posture enough to do away with the pain.

A good posture can do many things:

• It can help relieve pain in the back and neck
• Improves muscle function and circulation
• Creates a slimmer appearance
• Spinal curves absorb shock
• Extra flexibility and range of motion in movement
• exudes confidence!

Basically, Pilates can be an outstanding solution to a life time of bad postural habits. The exercises encourage bilateral, even muscle development and flexibility at the same time. Commitment to at least 10 sessions will rebalance the body, and it will feel so good you won’t want to stop!