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Pilates is a mindful movement practice that can help us to organize the body; creating space and length where we need it, offering healthy compression to a joint that longs for it, finding connection where perhaps connection is lacking, and facilitating movement repatterning to best support the body dynamically. Essentially, it helps us reconnect to our factory settings, before life asked us to adapt to its various demands, and it does so in a way that can help us move with greater calmness and ease. A life well-lived will leave its imprint in our tissues. This is due to our body's amazing ability to show up to help us get through whatever life throws at us - physically, mentally, and emotionally. Sometimes however, the body adapts so well that it gets stuck in those patterns or states of being. Add to this the fact that we are anatomically asymmetrical due to how our organs are shaped and situated, and those asymmetries, combined with how we live in our bodies day-to-day, can cause imbalances to develop in our support systems that can sometimes lead to pain, discomfort, and injury in the body. Pilates is a methodology that helps us cultivate our adaptability, understand our asymmetries, and become familiar with our individual movement and postural strategies that are perhaps pulling us away from that balance between strength and mobility. It empowers us to better hear what our bodies are trying to tell us they need to help keep that balance.  

 

We can also think of it this way: In life, we want as many movement strategies available to us as possible. That way we can climb the mountain, play with our kids, do our work, take out the garbage, and nap on the not-so-supportive couch - all pain-free.  We're not looking for right or wrong ways to move necessarily, again, we want variety, but we are looking to unpack the less efficient, less supportive options, especially if they are identified as causing discomfort in the body, and have perhaps taken over as the only way the body likes to move or organize. It is important to note that there is no such thing as perfect posture, we are designed for movement, not rigidity. The goal is to shift towards integration so that we can move as a fluid, connected, adaptable system, not a collection of parts. The more integrated and adaptable you are, the more responsive you can be in your day-to-day life. Our work is to use Pilates, and the various other movement modalities practiced at Tiny Goat, to foster a sense of safety for your system, to facilitate access to movement by releasing tension, and to build strength from the inside out. 

 

In one-on-one sessions, we will work together to identify what your current goals are with your movement practice and each session will be in pursuit of this learning. We will always look at your current strategies around posture, breathing, and core recruitment, as well as those movement patterns relevant to your primary concerns. We will use the Pilates equipment to assist with retraining biomechanics, accessing greater mobility, and fine-tuning muscular imbalances. The equipment is one of the most efficient ways to understand how to integrate and move as a system.