The Truth About Pilates

First of all, I can speak from experience as I have completed the Australian Physiotherapy & Pilates Institute (APPI); Modified Pilates for Physiotherapists: Matwork Level 1,2, 3 & Pilates and the Ball courses. I do have the qualifications and experience to know what I’m talking about with this.

Pilates has been championed by scores of A-listers, including Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Aniston and Kate Winslet. Not forgetting Pippa Middleton stealing the show at William and Kate Royal wedding in 2011 with an enviable figure attributed to Pilates.

My experience of pilates occurred when I was working for Special Force on the high speed craft shock mitigation working group looking into ways of dealing with lower back pain following fast boat insertions in rough seas. I was send on the APPI Modified Pilates for Physiotherapists: Matwork Level 1,2, 3 & Pilates and the Ball courses and became a fully “qualified” pilates instructor.

A bit of Pilates History

Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1883. He appears to have been a frail child suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. In 1912 while working as an orderly in a hospital on the Isle of Man he started to help the patients who were unable to walk by attaching bed springs to the beds to help support the patients' limbs.

In the early 1920s Joseph Pilates emigrated to the USA with his wife Clara, and together they developed and taught the method in their 'body-conditioning gym' in New York in 1926. By the late 30s, New York City had become a mecca for dancers. During this era, Pilates developed a reputation for his ability to “fix” dancers’ injuries. Many dancers, including luminaries such as George Balanchine, Martha Graham, and Hanya Holm, studied with “Uncle Joe” and referred injured colleagues to him.

In 1932 Pilates published a booklet called 'Your Health' and followed this with another called 'Return to Life Through Contrology' in 1945. Through these writings and his students, his method was passed on after his death in 1967 at the age of 83. During his lifetime this method of exercise was called Contrology. It was only after his death that it became known as the Pilates Method.

So, it was started by a hospital porter who emigrated to America and marketed himself in the upcoming dance community as being able to fix dancers with his 34 Contrology classical exercises, with many of the exercises are now contraindicated to lower back pain. The original 34 classical Pilates Mat exercises

Moving into the present.

Thousands of pilates studios have opened around the world mainly due to the host of celebrities stating they do pilates. I’m sure plastic surgery, performance enhancing drugs, intense exercise regimes and a bit of eating disorder didn’t help that much, it was definitely the Pilates.

Then the medical profession and physiotherapist jumped onto the pilates run away train. To be eligible to even start the APPI courses you had to be a medical professional with a BSc such as a Physiotherapist, Osteopaths or Chiropractors, etc. This criteria already starts to give pilates credibility and the allure you’ll learn the secrets of the dark arts.

The main focus of the course was all about being able to isolate the transverse abdominal muscle (TVA), it’s a muscle layer of the anterior and lateral (front and side) abdominal wall which is deep to (layered below) the internal oblique muscle. The transverse abdominal and the segmental stabilisers (e.g. the multifidi) of the spine have evolved to work in tandem. You cannot consciously activate only one muscle (TVA) when you're talking about core stability, that’s like trying to extend your leg using only your rectus femoris, its impossible.

TVA Picture

At the time I did my course they only had 2 research paper from 1980s that showed TVA activation was delayed with lower back pain and by activating TVA it helped restore lower back function. Since then an avalanche of papers have show far more effect ways to deal with lower back pain and how to effectively train the core muscles, especially from professor Stu McGill. At a workshop I attended he said the best way to train the TVA was, ’drink 2-3 bottle of red wine. Then when you’re sick the next day and you can feel you're abs hurting…....thats your TVA being worked’.

What everyone fails to mention is that Pilates (the therapy version) is not professionally regulated. In October 2000 "Pilates" was ruled a generic term by a U.S. federal court, making it free for unrestricted use.

So because it’s not professionally regulated anyone can be pilates instructor, or teacher or even set up a pilates school with their own pilates instructor courses. You can make up any exercises, use some scientific term, include an eligibility criteria, add some smoke and mirrors and you are up and running! Modern Pilates only use 2-3 of the original classical exercises because it’s been widely show they are either dangerous or non effective.

In 2015 the Australian Government's Department of Health published a meta study in order to determine if pilates was suitable for being covered by health insurance. The review found that due to the small number and methodologically limited nature of the existing studies, the effectiveness of Pilates is uncertain. In 2017, the Australian government named Pilates a practice that would not qualify for insurance subsidy, saying this step would "ensure taxpayer funds are expended appropriately”. So they weren’t convinced.

If we go back to media frenzy of Pippa Middleton and her bum. It was attributed at the time to her pilates workout program. I later discovered the magic pilates exercises she used to get that figure were squat, lunges and step ups!

What? … You mean the fundamental lower body strengthening exercises!

Plus they failed to mention Pippa Middleton competes in multiple races every year, be they running, cycling, swimming, or cross country skiing. Her race resume includes the 2011 Blenheim Triathlon, the 2015 London to Brighton Bike Ride, and the 2016 Great Wall Marathon, where she was the 13th overall female finisher, according to Runner's World. That kind of performance requires regular training. 

Don’t be fool and deceived from celebrity endorsement, media frenzy or the latest fad. Before you go and waste your money on lying on the floor and wondering ‘is that muscle activated? or ‘Are you sure this is exercise? It feels like i’m lying in the floor’. Do some research into what you're actually doing and the effectiveness it will have.

Do the basic well and consistency is the key! Needless to say, Special Forces did NOT start doing pilates to help with shock mitigation.