Flex Time

“He got a lot of hip tendonitis, and for hockey, found that he couldn’t push off on his weak side,” Morrison says. “I sent him to physical therapy to work on balance and core strength.”

That could mean a routine of Pilates or Pilates-type exercises. According to Larson, “More of the physical therapists are incorporating Pilates-type activities, and I recommend it to all my patients, especially patients with back and hip problems.”

Pilates: More Fundamental than Fad

There’s no question that for the moment, Pilates is “in,” name-checked by everyone from rapper Kanye West to actor Tony Shalhoub’s obsessive-compulsive TV detective Monk.

But don’t let that scare you off. The exercises date back to World War I, when Joseph

Pilates was a hospital orderly and invented the regimen to rehabilitate bedridden patients, improving their strength, flexibility, and balance. (For much more information on Pilates than I can provide here, visit www.pilatesmethodalliance.org, www.pilatesinsight.com, and www.pilates-method-exercise.com.) In the 1920s, his exercises were adopted by boxers, dancers, and gymnasts in New York City, where he and his wife opened a studio.

Even if you’ve never tried Pilates, you might recognize some of the exercises, such as sit-ups or leg scissors. But the emphasis in Pilates is less on repetition and more on correct form, including centered breathing and concentration on which muscle groups are doing what during the exercise. For example, if you’re lying on the floor on your side doing leg lifts, a Pilates instructor will make sure that your abdominal and gluteal muscles are engaged, so that you’re not doing the work with your back. Pilates also includes exercises that focus on stretching out the spine, which you won’t find in other types of core-conditioning programs.

“Pilates makes you aware of where your body is in space,” says Kris Kosmas, a certified Pilates instructor and personal trainer who teaches at the Uptown YWCA in Minneapolis and at her Edina studio, Kosmas Pilates & More. “It’s really just body awareness.”

Awareness leads to proper form, which we all know is critical to achieve a winning golf game, for example. The power behind a golf swing should come from the legs, glutes, and stomach muscles. Otherwise “all the action can easily end up coming from just the arms or shoulders or wrists,” Kosmas says, “and that’s when you start having injuries.”

Doing Pilates can focus the attention that we might give to a golf swing on other movements as well. Ask yourself: Where are my shoulders when I’m lifting weights, driving the car, or picking up the baby? If they’re up by your ears, you’re getting a lot of unnecessary neck and shoulder tension. How about this: Are your butt muscles “engaged” when you’re walking the dog? It may sound silly, but engaging, or tensing, the muscles gives you more power than if they’re relaxed.

I didn’t know anything about Pilates when I went through physical therapy, but

I took up classes afterward. Flipping through my old physical therapy exercises now, I see that they incorporate many of the principles of Pilates.

Classes have worked for me—I’m stronger now and pain free. I recognize when my muscles are getting tight and what stretches to do to keep them happy. The more often I do them, the more I pay attention to the mechanics of sitting, walking, standing, and lifting in my daily life. I still can’t go running, but I can live with that.

You won’t find randomized studies that prove the benefits of Pilates, so you might choose to take all of this information with a grain of salt. And to be sure, you don’t have to become a Pilates mat rat to strengthen your core and get in better form and alignment. Ask your doctor, a physical therapist, or a personal trainer what kinds of conditioning programs you might want to consider. Take it from me, it’s better to be a PIA than to have one.