Having an awareness of your body and posture is a great way to help maintain a healthy, well-functioning body. Sustained postures that your body isn’t used to or a lack of awareness of how your body feels in certain positions can lead to low back pain, neck pain, headaches, injuries, shortness of breath and even digestive problems. Being aware of your posture can help with maintaining the body’s natural spinal curves, reducing muscle tension and improving movement.
The APPI (Australian Physiotherapy and Pilates institute) method of Pilates taught at goPhysio is based on 5 key elements which are the focus of postural awareness:
- Breathing
- Centering (engaging the core muscles whilst maintaining the neutral spine)
- Rib cage alignment
- Shoulder blade placement
- Head and neck position
Through these 5 key elements, Pilates can really help us become more aware of and in tune with our body. Ultimately, this can help encourage us to move more, move better and prevent injuries from occurring.
Whether you work at beginner or advanced level, Pilates exercises focus on maintaining an optimum postural position throughout all exercises regardless of the specific muscle group a particular exercise may be targeting. Always looking for optimal alignment and movement control of the pelvis, spine, ribcage, shoulders and head whilst maintaining good breathing patterns. With practice, this is transferred through into daily life as you are moving around.