Cues to Use: 5 Pilates Teacher Rules That Were Made To Be Broken
Pilates teachers LOVE to make rules.
“Always do this. Never do that. You must behave this way. Use these words. This is right, and that is wrong. Always.”
Bright-eyed trainees fall in line, carrying on the traditions of generations past. They stand at the side of the room, in Pilates stance, their powerhouses in and up. Don’t speak or react. Absorb. Mentors look over their cloned creations with approving nods. Never question the teacher. That would be disrespectful!
Well, guess what? F*ck that.
I am not someone who takes anything at face value. I need to know “why?” I need to understand intent. I literally cannot wrap my brain around concepts until I understand how and why they came to be.
And when you understand why a rule was made, you can also understand when to break it.
If there is one thing I learned teaching Pilates, it is that there are no absolutes.
No two clients are the same. No two teachers are the same. There are many, many ways to achieve a single goal. The only right way is the one that works for that client.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE PILATES TEACHER RULES I MOST ENJOY BREAKING:
1.NEVER TELL THEM WHERE THEY SHOULD BE FEELING IT.
The theory on this one is, it’s the students’ movement experience and you should let them own that.
And I appreciate that.
However, as a student, I always found it so much easier to understand the intention of the exercise when I understood where the effort should be directed.
I can’t even tell you how many times I hear new Pilates students say after a Shoulder Bridge or Swan series, “That’s good for strengthening the lower back, right?” Crap.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many ways you cue it. It’s word soup. And if they think they are doing it properly with a hyperextended lumbar spine and no abdominal control, they’re going to assume your cues are for someone else in the class.
Why not just tell them. “Hamstrings, back of shoulders, good. Lower back, bad.”
Tell them what the exercise is for. Why not?
Now, I understand that effort should ALWAYS originate from the “center” or the Powerhouse.
However, it does help a new student to know that, in an exercise like Table on the Wunda Chair, for instance, you should be feeling the entire back body holding you up. The hamstrings need to work and if they aren’t, and you are dumping into the arms, a simple weight shift forward could get those babies firing. Why not tell them that?
In Russian Splits, you should feel your back booty working hard to anchor you. What’s wrong with saying that?
So go ahead, tell them where they should be feeling it if you think it could help.
2. NEVER ASK THEM WHERE THEY FEEL IT.
Some say that as teachers, we should observe and cue accordingly. Never ask this type of question. Just let them move. The body knows.
But asking them to identify verbally what they are feeling not only helps them to take more active responsibility in their movement, but it can also help them to strengthen their mind-body connection.
Asking the question makes them think about it. Thinking about it directs their attention to it. Directing mental attention to something will help create new neural pathways. (Neurons that fire together wire together!)
Further, asking someone where they “feel it” could lead to the coveted “aha moment.”
Sometimes people go on autopilot, and not in a positive direction.
Asking them to puts words to what they are experiencing in their bodies draws their attention to it so that they can be more purposeful in their movement.
If you notice a client hyperextending their lumbar spine in shoulder bridges, why not invite them into the correction process by asking them to identify the changes in the muscular effort? That is information they will be able to use in other exercises and everyday life.
3. NEVER DEMONSTRATE
For the most part, Pilates teachers don’t generally do the exercises along with the class. We need to watch the class move in order to cue and correct. We are taught to instruct the class with clear verbal instructions and supplement that with strategically chosen cues and imagery.
However, the visual learners out there, your cues go in one ear and out the other.
I can’t tell you how many times my own teachers have defaulted to “she can’t do this” when really, the problem was that I didn’t understand what they were asking of me.
It’s not necessarily the fault of the teacher. My brain just gets mushy with too much instruction, and I need to see it. I am a visual learner.
There’s nothing wrong with jumping on the equipment to demonstrate. Sometimes being able to execute the exercise properly really is just a matter of seeing it.
4. NEVER USE ANATOMICAL TERMS
This one drives me batty. Do you know how many “made up” words I have had to learn over the years because teachers refuse to call bones, muscles and body parts by their actual names?
If you have the time to explain what this cutesy word you made up means, then you have time to explain it in actual terms.
And listen, you don’t NEED to know the anatomy to do or teach Pilates. The body works as a single unit in Pilates and the goal is to just move in all possible planes and ranges.
But for anatomy geeks out there… you don’t have to dumb it down because your teacher did. Give your students more credit.
5. NEVER SHOW THE WRONG WAY (TRY THIS, NOT THAT)
The thought process here is, stick to the positive.
I get that.
But sometimes seeing something done incorrectly gives you the context to understand the end-game more fully.
Personally, this is one of the most valuable ways that I learned, as a student.
There are nuances in Pilates that I just couldn’t truly wrap my head around until I saw the “wrong” way.
So there you have it. What are some of the Pilates teaching rules you most like to break? Comment below!