How Long Will My Arm Be Today?

“When the joints are working, the body becomes surprisingly simple. My cues get much simpler too — and there's suddenly time for clients to actually feel something.” – Pilates instructor after PILANDES Workshops

Did you know your brain can politely make your arm longer?

I'm sure you thought things like that were pretty much fixed once you turned 23. I once did. But not so. As far as your brain is concerned, this is a matter of negotiation.

For example, if you start raking leaves in the garden, your brain will extend its idea of your arm to include the rake. It must do – how else will your postural system know that a new demand must now be brought into its biomechanical equations to maintain your balance?

All happening behind the scenes without your consent or knowledge.

Say thank you.

It's also very hard to convince your brain that you have no arm, even after you lost it.

There are people who live in agony with an itch (on their non-existent arm) that they cannot scratch. So while your brain may be smart, it's not that smart. It can get things wrong and be quite stubborn about it.

This is why we need to consciously intervene. This is what PILANDES trains you to do.

One useful distinction some scientists make is to consider our brain's bodymaps as two networks: body schema and body image. The concept of body schema has been remarkably consistent since it emerged in the early 20th century to describe how we depend upon a continuously updated map of our body in space. Body image as a concept emerged a little later to describe how we see ourselves: a person with anorexia nervosa, for example, may be dangerously underweight and still see a person in the mirror who is “too fat”.

We are powerfully guided by these internal maps, and science has shown that they are neuroplastic: they update themselves continuously.

I once worked with a violist with the Kyoto Symphony orchestra who was suffering pain in her bowing arm. I could see why.

“Where does your arm hinge with your torso?” I asked her.

She pointed to the edge of her shoulder.

“No,” I said, “it is here,” and I pointed to the base of her neck. “The only joint that connects your arm to the main torso is at these Wing Joints.” I was referring to the sternoclavicular joints, one set of the 5 Postural Joints you learn about in my Trials.

“Move your bowing arm from there,” I instructed her.

She was instantly transformed: instead of holding the shoulder down, her whole arm moved freely up from the Wing Joints, and her pain evaporated. She was no longer at war with her arm.

What map is guiding your Pilates? Or indeed any movement?

PILANDES introduces you to body schema and body image: your evolving ‘dog's nose' sense guides you in how to cooperate with your normally unconscious Postural Movement System. You realise there is an intelligent, constructive, and conscious way to update your internal body maps to achieve more precision, stamina and freedom in your Pilates.

As one of my trainees — Emiko Higuchi — at zen BodyChance wrote to me this week:

When connected to what is made concrete, the invisible postural system — the non-concrete — becomes easier to understand, and appears in visible form: in music, as audible sound.

PILANDES is not only a new way to think about moving – it is a new way of thinking about living.

You can gain access to my BodyThinking course – 64 videos that take you through mapping almost any movement you can make – by joining my coaching service. You get access to everything I created over the last 15 years, including the BodyThinking course. More information about that is here:

https://www.atsuccess.com/offers/5dW7qttb/checkout

NEXT: And Now for Something Completely Different

2026 LONDON:
August 8 – PILANDES
August 23 – Trauma-Informed AT

Information and Bookings

2026 NEW YORK:
October 24 – PILANDES
October 25 – Trauma-Informed AT (also with Fabio Tavares)