10/19/2025
No, seriously.
Every Pilates exercise is a full-body exercise. That’s part of what makes Pilates, Pilates.
The body parts that are stable or just as important as a body parts that are moving.
And many times of moving body part isn’t even really the point.
A simple way to think about it is, at least at first, is that the stable part IS the exercise. And you challenge that by moving something.
Of course as you progress the movements become more dynamic and with larger range… but you get the idea. Everything everywhere all at once.
Joseph Pilates explains in Return To Life that physical fitness, as he sees it, is not about “devoting ourselves to one particular set of pet muscles, but rather more rationally to the uniform development of our bodies as a whole…”
Remember, his method was inspired by the natural world, and animal instincts.
He explains the importance of building the body uniformly: “As small bricks are employed to build large buildings, so will the development of small muscles help develop large muscle muscles. Therefore, when all your muscles are properly developed, you will, as a matter of course, perform your work with minimum effort and maximum pleasure.” (RTL p 25)
I think that if you want to be a great Pilates practitioner, you have to work towards understanding what Joseph Pilates was trying to do with this system.
Because in some cases, it can be “just” a fun workout - there’s nothing wrong with that. But it has a lot more potential.
And with so much “This is Pilates.” “No, THIS is Pilates.” “This is BETTER Pilates.” “This is EVOLVED Pilates.” And so on… there comes a point where your head starts spinning and you’re just like, “What the heck even IS Pilates?!”
I think that’s the point that some teachers throw up their hands, give up, and make it “just” a workout. They can’t figure it out, and decide it’s all bu****it.
But for the curious among us, I say go back to basics and look at what was he even trying to do here. Because a lot of what you see presented as “original” or “classical” or “evolved” or whatever is just someone else’s interpretation.
