Fast and furious, or slow and controlled?

When describing Pilates, sooner or later people will usually use the phrase "slow and controlled" but is this really an apt way to talk about Pilates, and is it what we should be aspiring to?

I teach two types of classes - Pilates and STRONG Nation. If you do both of these, you'll develop both speed and control in abundance. However, it isn't true to say that speed and control are mutually exclusive. When learning a new skill it is better to start slowly as there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. However, as we become more accomplished and instinctive, we can start to add speed without compromising control. A slalom skier would be an excellent example of someone with both incredible control and speed! But a beginner skier needs to proceed relatively slowly until they have developed the skill to move and turn on the snow. A small amount of speed gives the skier a little help with balance, and allows them to progress from the nursery slopes onto the piste. But go too fast too soon and there is a risk of flying out of control! In races, slalom skiers often exceed the speed over which they have full control, but the victory goes to the one who finds the perfect balance between the two.

Momentum is not a forbidden word in Pilates

As beginners in Pilates we learn the basics of core stability and control - which allows us to isolate the movement of particular joints. This is necessarily slow. Beyond the beginner level however, it is incredibly difficult to do Pilates without some momentum. Instead, Pilates it involves the creation and management of momentum to perform the desired exercise. But there needs to be sufficient control underpinning the movement to be able to execute it well. A nice example is single leg circles. These are performed lying on your back with one leg in the air. A beginner version is about isolating the movement in the hip joint and involves a slow circle with a bent knee to reduce the leverage. At the intermediate level, the leg is straight, and the leg moves at the speed where the pelvis can stay still. At the advanced level however, the leg whips round quickly and comes to a stop. There will be some movement in the pelvis, but by this stage the student will have developed enough core stability that they will be able to return it to the start position by the time the leg has finished moving.

STRONG Nation, with relatively straightforward exercises, introduces the element of speed much sooner. To make it accessible to beginners a scaled down version of the exercise is used instead - again this helps the student to control momentum before launching into a fully-blown power move. An example here is plyometric lunges. To the beginner, it might be a small step forward, for intermediate it would stepping forward bending both knees, and for advanced, the full plyometric lunge jumping from one leg forward to the other.

 

Pilates was originally called Contrology, not Slow-ology
 

For both leg circles and plyometric lunges, a beginner is unlikely to be able to safely and effectively accomplish the movement, hence the need to modify. The faster we move, the more control we require, so increasing speed is part of the progression. However, just as most skiers are perfectly happy not ever trying slalom, most students are happy sticking to beginner and intermediate Pilates. But don't be fooled into thinking that speed doesn't exist in the method!

Jane Mansley