The Dreaded Exercise

Do you have a favourite Pilates exercise? Do you also have one you happen to dread?

If the Dreaded One gets left out of the class flow by your teacher are you excited? Relieved?

I definitely have ones that I do-not-like-in-any-way-shape-or-form

Yep - I definitely do

On the flip side, one of my absolute faves is The Teaser

Yes - I love it!

You might ask why (especially if you are one of the many, many people who don’t care for it).

Well, I love the Teaser because even though it’s a hard, challenging, strong intermediate level exercise it’s always been easy for me to do. When it goes well I feel powerful, coordinated, strong, and confident!

It's not surprising that we gravitate towards exercises we like. Choosing the easy way (or the easy exercise) is actually just human nature.

As this study shows we’re biased towards thinking that More Challenging = Less Pleasure.

Can you relate?

Why does the Teaser comes easily to me? Well, it's because I have an extremely short no waist and a relatively compact, proportionate body (except for my ape index)*.

When I raise both ends of my body up into the Teaser shape the load/weight of my shoulder girdle and of my legs are closer to my powerhouse/core/centre, therefore easier to lift.

 (major aside: I just went down a bioengineering rabbit hole looking at levers 1, 2, & 3, fulcrums, and loads to try and explain my Teaser Ease in scientific terms - wish I could tell you I not only understood what I read but that I could explain it to you. Ahem, I am none the wiser how any of them apply to my favourite exercise - I just know they do!)

Basically the Teaser is easy (and therefore pleasurable) for me through no special skill of my own but because of the body proportions I was born with.

Last time I checked this was something I had no control of.

So, what this means is that in your Pilates journey it’s important to focus on the things you can actually change and fuhgeddabout things you will never be able to alter like, oh I don’t know, the length of your thigh bones, or the shape and structure of your hip sockets??

Cue the Serenity Prayer:

“Lord, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

the courage to change the things I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference.”

photo by Ruben Hutabara

Let's apply the prayer to Pilates:

#1 The Serenity to know that maybe you struggle with an exercise (or part of an exercise) because of something you absolutely cannot change about yourself.

#2 The Courage to know whether or not #1 is actually true or you’re using that thing about your body as an excuse to avoid the exercise.

#3 The Wisdom to change your thinking about the harder exercises and INSTEAD:

• use them to learn about filling in the gaps of your “Movement Potential”
• use a prop to assist you to do the best version of the exercise available to your body
• figure out what skills in the exercises more easily mastered you can apply to help fill in the gaps of the more challenging ones!

Let me be clear - I’m not advocating that you perform exercises that aren't safe for you and your body!!!! 

Instead, I'm advocating that the inherent layers woven through Joseph Pilates’ magical method can offer us so much if we know what to look for

There’s so much juicy information to be garnered from the hard exercises if we ask the right questions.

Here are some to get you going:

Ask yourself

Why is the exercise that I don't like hard and/or challenging for me?

Can I pinpoint the reason?

• Do I not have the strength in a certain part of it?
• Do I feel nervous/scared to do it?
• Does the choreography confuse or overwhelm me?
• What skills am I missing (whether that be physical or mental) that prevent me from accomplishing this exercise, or at least do a better version of it? Ding, ding, ding! This is the million dollar question!! Find the answer to this one and you'll be on your way to a stronger, more well rounded Pilates practice.

Alrighty, I’ve already expounded on my fave exercise so it doesn’t seem right that I wouldn’t tell you about the exercise I avoid at all costs.

Read on and see how I use the questions posed above for self reflection, to take personal responsibility for my learning.

I want to move the exercise off my yeek-I-don't-like-this-at-all list onto my I-don't-especially-like-it-but-it's-not-that-bad-to-do list...

photo by Ray Grau

photo by Felice Wölke

I inhabit my inner Cowardly Cat (lion or kitty) when it comes to the Leg Pull Front

Dang, I hate extremely dislike that exercise

I’m dobbing myself in as someone who doesn’t explore one of the more challenging exercises in their repertoire

I use my hyper extended legs as the excuse that I absolutely cannot accomplish it. (If you take my classes you’ll notice that I never, ever teach it, hmmm)

If you’re not familiar with the Leg Pull Front here’s a photo👇 and yes, that’s a roller underneath my knees as an assist and also, please enjoy the subtle grimace on my face😉

Even though I can’t really change my hyper extended legs (any more that I can wish myself a waist, lol) my excuse that they prevent me from being able to do the exercise is total b**ls**t 🐃 💩 😝

Even though I’ve never really felt good while doing the exercise I have performed a reasonably okay version of it in the past.

However, in the present, my human nature kicks in and because of the more challenging = less pleasure paradigm I avoid it.

Here’s the rub though, since I never practice it (cause I ‘hate’ it and it’s hard😩) I don’t give myself the chance to use the actual difficulty of the exercise to unlock a more successful version of it.

So, this is where I trust the Pilates method and ask myself some of those questions from above:

Why is it hard?

Can I pinpoint the reason?

• Yep, I feel as though the backs of my knees are going to pop out, that my legs are going to snap backwards like an emu, and man it hurts

Do I not have the strength in a certain part of it?

• My pelvis feels super heavy and I don’t feel like I can hold it up. I don’t feel like my legs have the strength to keep me out of the backs of my knees

Do I feel nervous/scared to do it?

• Maybe not nervous but I have forecast that it’s going to be hard and it’s going to hurt so it's probably not the best mindset to have

Does the choreography confuse or overwhelm me?

• Not on this one, it’s actually pretty simple - lift your hips up and do alternate leg kicks

What skills am I missing (whether that be physical or mental) that prevent me from accomplishing this or at least do a better version of it?

Ding, ding, ding! That's the million dollar question!! 

• The two main things I think are not enough glute/pelvic lift and not enough engagement or strength in my quads and inner thighs.

Now I can go back to exercises that I’m already pretty good at and find what skills inside of them I need to bring to the Leg Pull Front.

There are many that I could choose from but two that come to mind:

• The Hundred for the skill of holding up the legs as well as finding the midline support
• Shoulder Bridge for the hamstring/glute connection

I love the circularity of the Pilates Method and that embodied inside of each exercise is so much information not only about the method but about ourselves 

After putting some thought into it, it's beautifully simple, right? 

Put this in practice

Pick one of your least favourite exercises and answer these questions:

 Are you serene?

Are you courageous?

Are you wise?

Then:

Gather your insights & find the nuggets of wisdom inside the exercise.

Look to the skills from other exercises you already have that can help.

Apply them and let your dread change to curiosity.

I can't wait for you to explore!

Be Well,

xBec

That Joe, he was on to something...

*One of my favourite images ever: Vitruvian Man showing an Ape Index of 1 

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog are not intended to amount to advice and Rebecca Forde disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this post