Are you practicing Pilates effectively?

What if you considered your exercise time practice of life movements?  I’m guessing that most people hear the word practice and relate it to athletes practicing their sport or musicians practicing playing music, but practice is relevant to everyone who moves.  Who doesn’t want to move better?  Who doesn’t want to be the 90 year old who is traveling, walking and moving like a typical 50 year old?  I love the practice tips given in this video and how relevant they are to your Pilates practice or any type of movement you do in your life!  

From the video above:

Practice is the repetition of an action with the goal of improvement.  Practice helps us perform with more ease, speed and confidence.  

Mastery of anything is about the quality and effectiveness of the practice, not just the hours spent practicing.  Effective practice is consistent, focused and targets content or weaknesses that lie at the edge of current abilities.  

The great thing about effective Pilates practice is that the more effectively we practice the more we feel the benefits of the exercises in our body.  Who doesn’t want to feel stronger, more mobile, more flexible and even taller quicker? Many of the tips this video gives to improve your practice time and make it more effective are things we do or can do in Pilates on a regular basis:

1. Focus on the task at hand and minimize distractions.  
2. Start slowly. Coordination is built with quality repetitions.  If you gradually increase the speed of the quality repetitions you have a better chance of doing them correctly.  
3. Frequent repetitions with allotted breaks.  ( Practice your Pilates skills not just in class but take little breaks throughout your day and practice skills like good posture, walking in good alignment or just practicing one exercise at a time at home)
4. Practice in your brain in vivid detail.  ( Yep…just practicing your teaser in your head is going to help you improve it!!)