Am I Asking the Right Question?

"I realised I'd been too fixed on getting the shape right. Now I feel like the possibilities — for my body and for me as a teacher — have opened right up." — zen place Pilates educator, PILANDES Trial

I can even fool myself about how subtle PILANDES can be.

In Osaka last week, during my PILANDES Trial, there was a woman who commanded the attention of everyone in the room. As soon as I started using my touch to coach her postural movements, all 19 educators and clients suddenly went quiet and turned to silently watch her lesson.

"Oh, you must be an important person," I joked.

Turns out she was – one of the leaders of the Balanced Body training in zen place. She had watched with interest my lesson on Teaser so after the session she came up to me and asked:

"Can I try the Roll Up into Teaser?"

First, I watched her do it, and of course, she did it beautifully. Her form was perfect and she moved with no bumps in the middle. I wondered if I could really help her, but I set about anyway, using my touch to trigger her postural system while cueing her to start with a delicate tilt of her head at the Top Joint.

She did it again and it looked exactly the same. Nothing about her form changed, it was still close to perfect. I felt a little disappointed: "Oh," I thought to myself, "I couldn't really help her."

Except I was wrong.

She reported back that she felt entirely different — so much freer and easier to move. This was a lesson for me. PILANDES cannot be judged only by how your form changes, because what PILANDES brings about also goes deeper, into more fundamental but often invisible changes…

***

Yes, position is important in Pilates.

Form the wrong position, and you risk training the wrong muscles.

But how adamant do you need to be to find the "correct position"?

Here, your attitude matters. Different attitudes about finding the correct position cause monumental swings in the way you recruit muscle cells (fibres).

You want to recruit non-fatiguable Type I red muscle fibres when you practise Pilates. These fibres create a sense of ease, increase your stamina, and burn energy with incredible efficiency. You benefit in multiple ways.

All good reasons to recruit them.

However, these Type I non-fatiguable fibres are biased to be recruited by your postural system, not by your voluntary system. This means the more determined and volitional you become about forming the right Pilates position, the more you switch to using fatiguing, energy-demanding Type II white muscle fibres.

This is why your attitude and psychological outlook matter so much.

When you come to a Trial and watch the lessons of others, it may be hard to see anything different. What you need to do is ask a different question:

"How did you feel this time?"

Changes in muscle fibre recruitment do not always mean changes in your final position. But the inner feeling you have while doing the exercise can be fundamentally shifted. This shift is brought about by different cueing — by intelligently guiding your postural movements around the 5 Postural Joints as you move into your correct position.

You can experience this for yourself at my PILANDES workshops in London & New York – see below.

But remember – ask the right question!

NEXT: Pain is What is Right About You

Stay tuned.

2026 Workshops

LONDON:
August 8 – PILANDES
August 23 – Trauma-Informed AT

NEW YORK:
October 24 – PILANDES
October 25 – Trauma-Informed AT

Information and Bookings