Mindful Proprioception and Pilates

If I said : “What do you think of your back?” What do you think of?

Do you think “positive” or “negative” thoughts about your spine? Do you blame it for things? Do you celebrate its’s strength, fluidity and resilience?

When you say I have a sore “back”, – which part are you referring to? The skin? The bones? The muscles? The fascia? The nerves?

Do you think of your spine as something that takes up space in your body?

Do you think of your spine as something that holds your body up?

Do you think of it as something that moves well? 

Or something that is giving up on you, and deliberately betraying you?

(and now go back read those questions again and replace “think” with “feel”…)

Maybe you’ve been told your spine (or joints *) are “degenerating" or your discs have bulged, or protruded. And does that explain the pain you feel? 

(* I’m using the spine here as back pain is the most common, but you could replace this with other joints.)

Without getting too anatomical - new year, new me, wink.

Attached to your spine are your ribs, which house some pretty important organs.

Attached to your spine are muscles for your arms, legs, pelvic floor, neck, head and of course trunk! 

In between all the vertebrae of your spine are little sacs that act like shock absorbing pillows called invertebral discs. -these are the parts that can bulge or protrude. And then – oh! The pain! “I am in so much pain, no one has ever been in this pain. You with your healthy spine, – you can’t understand how I’m suffering!”

And here is where I’d like to put a giant billboard by this road of thoughts with this graph from Polestar Pilates :

If you look at your age you’ll notice that at least 50% of the people you associate with on a daily basis have “facet arthropathy” – i.e. degeneration of their spine. And if you only hang out with people over 60 then– everyone has it! But wait – not everyone is constantly in excruciating pain and needing to get their foam roller, their Pilates Instructor, Physio, Chiro etc to help them.

Why do some people have more pain than others?

Well.. it would seem “mindfulness”, attention to detail, conscious movement -whatever you call it - have a lot to do with it. 

Let us come back to Mr Pilates 6 principles -

Breathing Concentration Centering Control Precision Flow

(Sounds like mindfulness and proprioception right?)

A recent experiment to reduce complex limb pain involved participants sitting with their “sore” hand behind a screen whilst the scientist touched them very lightly in different places. One group was allowed to read a book, stare out the window etc, whilst the other group was looking at a picture of their hand with five numbers on it and they were asked to point to the number where they were being touched.

Of the two groups the stare out the window group had no change. The touch the number group had an 80% reduction in their symptoms, some to no pain anymore. That’s a lot of reward for very little effort!

In short what studies indicate over and over again is :

a lack of proprioception = pain.

(For a more detailed explanation of how this relates to your spine you can read part 2 of this : Spinal Proprioceptors)

In class we ask you a lot of proprioceptive questions :

Does this movement feel better slower or faster?

Heavier or lighter springs? 

When you exhale or inhale?

To help you get better at this skill of proprioception.

And We, your Pilates Instructors, don’t know the answer for you. We are asking because we want to help YOU to know the answer. We also don’t expect you to know the answer the first time. Which is why we repeat movements.

We are all different, and we celebrate that. And I think Mr Pilates did a great job in laying down a simple map. I will say -

“Take time to always to be curious about how a move can FEEL good for you too.”

MP will say “ Mind Body Control”

and Jane might say “Concentrate on each move, so your mind is as involved as your body”.

The check points for you to find that good feeling are Mr Pilates Principles – 

Am I breathing? 

Am I centred? 

Do I have control? 

Am I being precise in this movement? 

(and if not ask your teacher Instructor for some more cues) 

and lastly, – 

can I make this FLOW? 

(and all of this takes concentration.)

Now when you are thinking about your spine, your joints, YOUR body, you can feel them moving well, you can learn to adapt moves to make them feel great for you!

So that when your Instructor says this is a lovely movement, you can agree.