Pilates for Athletes
Posted by Kim Saha on Thursday, June 2, 2016 Under: Athletics
Firstly I bet each and every coach has been told their athletes need to do Pilates and every athlete has been told at some point in their career that Pilates would help either after injury or to enhance performance.
I also believe that most of you have resisted doing it! and I don't blame you!! I have been a serious athlete and have been a physiotherapist for as long as I remember and I have certainly questioned its place and effectiveness within elite sport.
So... why did I doubt it?
Before doing my full pilates training my main issue with pilates was how complicated it seemed. All of the positioning felt over the top, I constantly doubted whether I was contracting the right muscles if anything at all!!. I found it boring and frustrating. It took a lot of practice to move onto the next stage of exercises and I lost a lot if my clients going through tedious exercises to reach a level that they felt made a difference at all!.
Why am I now a convert and how are all my classes now Oversubscribed?!
I trained with the APPI who are Physios teaching Pilates. This training made sense as I learned the scientific background and principles of Pilates. Then through teaching regularly and practicing daily I have developed my own way of progressing through the levels. So now I have my own method!
The Kim Saha Method -
The Key to this method is its simplicity. The main principles are taught, simply and there is no pressure to achieve the positions just to understand them and that they are to be worked towards. These principles being positioning, deep abdominals contraction and correct movement patterns (see my youtube video on the basics https://youtu.be/KfHlcWPmUYY)
I believe that you will achieve the main Pilates principles through stress free relaxed practice.
As long as you are not dong any harm by adopting slightly individual positions / movements I will not overly correct. In the same way if some of the moves are slightly unstable, along as no damage is being caused I will encourage repetition regularly and strength will improve naturally.
I therefore allow people to progress from the first session to the level they can physically achieve as long as they are maintaining a neutral pelvis and not bulging through their abdominals.
Why do I believe this works?
If Athletes and Sports people can feel their muscles burning they will feel an improvement. If this is done in a good posture with constant reminders of positioning and specific cues then over time the correct muscles will fire encouraging stability and efficiency of movement. Although controversial I believe this is the way forward with sports people. The pilates community needs to change their approach if we want to influence the sporting world. I would rather engage an athlete mentally and have them commit to a programme feeling enormous results than stay true to my training and engage very few alienating many more.
My Pilates Workouts For Athletes
I have developed my Pilates Workouts for Athletes... Call it what you like though Abs, Glutes and Core Circuit? It is essentially the same exercises i'm sure you do already with pilates positioning, focus, specificity and control.
These workouts can be done regularly alongside training to keep the stability muscles engaged to give the body the best chance to produce the power needed to perform like a winner!
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for regular workouts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXgoMN9MAU2U3rLMLWUWdJA
I also believe that most of you have resisted doing it! and I don't blame you!! I have been a serious athlete and have been a physiotherapist for as long as I remember and I have certainly questioned its place and effectiveness within elite sport.
So... why did I doubt it?
Before doing my full pilates training my main issue with pilates was how complicated it seemed. All of the positioning felt over the top, I constantly doubted whether I was contracting the right muscles if anything at all!!. I found it boring and frustrating. It took a lot of practice to move onto the next stage of exercises and I lost a lot if my clients going through tedious exercises to reach a level that they felt made a difference at all!.
Why am I now a convert and how are all my classes now Oversubscribed?!
I trained with the APPI who are Physios teaching Pilates. This training made sense as I learned the scientific background and principles of Pilates. Then through teaching regularly and practicing daily I have developed my own way of progressing through the levels. So now I have my own method!
The Kim Saha Method -
The Key to this method is its simplicity. The main principles are taught, simply and there is no pressure to achieve the positions just to understand them and that they are to be worked towards. These principles being positioning, deep abdominals contraction and correct movement patterns (see my youtube video on the basics https://youtu.be/KfHlcWPmUYY)
I believe that you will achieve the main Pilates principles through stress free relaxed practice.
As long as you are not dong any harm by adopting slightly individual positions / movements I will not overly correct. In the same way if some of the moves are slightly unstable, along as no damage is being caused I will encourage repetition regularly and strength will improve naturally.
I therefore allow people to progress from the first session to the level they can physically achieve as long as they are maintaining a neutral pelvis and not bulging through their abdominals.
Why do I believe this works?
If Athletes and Sports people can feel their muscles burning they will feel an improvement. If this is done in a good posture with constant reminders of positioning and specific cues then over time the correct muscles will fire encouraging stability and efficiency of movement. Although controversial I believe this is the way forward with sports people. The pilates community needs to change their approach if we want to influence the sporting world. I would rather engage an athlete mentally and have them commit to a programme feeling enormous results than stay true to my training and engage very few alienating many more.
My Pilates Workouts For Athletes
I have developed my Pilates Workouts for Athletes... Call it what you like though Abs, Glutes and Core Circuit? It is essentially the same exercises i'm sure you do already with pilates positioning, focus, specificity and control.
These workouts can be done regularly alongside training to keep the stability muscles engaged to give the body the best chance to produce the power needed to perform like a winner!
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for regular workouts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXgoMN9MAU2U3rLMLWUWdJA
In : Athletics