Pilates Ants
Do you want a flat tummy?
Of course you do. Flat tummies are good. A flat tummy is a sign of appropriately-toned, correctly-functioning, healthy abdominal musculature. Kind of obvious, really, isn’t it?
Except that it isn’t true. Some flat tummies are a sign of appropriately-toned, correctly-functioning, healthy abdominal musculature. The flat tummy you see in the picture definitely is not.
The problem arises when you confuse getting a flat tummy with becoming a Pilates ant.
A Pilates ant? Yes, a healthy flat tummy does not come with a curvy, tapered ant-like waist. That curvy waist carries serious health risks.
If despite the draw-backs I’m going to tell you about today, you still want that curvy ant-like waist, by all means go to Pilates classes. Don’t let me stop you. Pilates classes are very effective at giving you a tapered ant-like waist. That’s why successful Pilates addicts become Pilates ants.
Pilates ants are fashionable. Pilates ants are in. You see them everywhere: in women’s magazines, in films, in advertisements, on the cat walk.
The hype tells you that Pilates women are beautiful and sexy, that they’re superbly fit, strong and healthy. I’ve nothing to say about the first part of that: that Pilates women are beautiful and sexy. You be the judge of that: after all, beauty and desirability lie in the eye of the beholder.
I have a lot to say about the second part of that hype.
A dangerous lie
The second part of that hype is a dangerous lie. Pilates ants are not fit, strong or healthy. We’re told over and over again that, if you want a strong core, you should do Pilates.
Bollocks.
The hype is not just wrong: it’s dangerously wrong. What you really need to know is that, despite all the hype, Pilates ants are light-years from being fit, strong or healthy. An ant-like waist is a serious health hazard. Pilates ants are a disaster just waiting to happen.
I know because I’ve had to rehabilitate a great many people who were messed up, disabled and in pain because of doing Pilates. The first, essential step was always to wean the person away from their Pilates core strength exercises. Once they were convinced of the need for that, progress was usually quite fast.
The first step was always to show them that their Pilates exercises were the prime cause of their problem. To be rid of pain and re-strengthen their seriously destabilised backs, they first had to stop doing abdominal work-outs.
What’s wrong with abdominal work-outs?
In a nutshell: if you want a strong core, you need to strengthen the right abdominal muscles. Abdominal workouts always strengthen the wrong abdominal muscles. When you strengthen the wrong abdominal muscles, you weaken the right ones. Abdominal work-outs, therefore, don’t strengthen your core: they weaken it.
How?
The muscles that give you a tapered, curvy, ant-like waist are your internal and external oblique muscles. Pilates workouts are designed to strengthen precisely those muscles. As a result, Pilates classes turn their members into Pilates ants. And, of course, knowing no better, people are usually very happy to become Pilates ants. They don’t realise the trouble they’re storing up for themselves.
So why is it so disastrous to over-tighten your oblique muscles?
Here’s why.
Tight oblique muscles immobilise your ribs
Free, easy or deep breathing then becomes impossible until you first release the stranglehold of those tight oblique muscles.
Transversus Abdominis stops working
The next thing that happens is that your true core support muscle, Transversus Abdominis, stops working. Unlike the oblique muscles
which you can deliberately exercise, Transversus Abdominis only works in response to outward pressure pushing out against your abdominal wall. In fact, Transversus Abdominis only works when it is being stretched by that outward pressure. When your oblique muscles are over-working, it’s your oblique muscles that are being stretched. Transversus Abdominis doesn’t get to see any of the action. Seeing no action, it becomes totally redundant and takes a permanent holiday.
More problems
A non-working Transversus Abdominis causes the next problem: destabilisation of your pelvis and your sacro-iliac joint.
An unstable pelvis, in turn, causes a tightening of your hip muscles which makes your legs stiff and difficult to move. Eventually, this leads to arthritis of your hip joints. In some cases the arthritis gets so bad the only answer is a hip replacement.
Tight hips in turn stiffen your knees and feet. That lays you open to knee pain and knee ligament and cartilage injuries. Eventually, it often causes serious foot deformities as well.
Is it only Pilates that’s the culprit?
No, Pilates isn’t the only form of exercise that encourages over-use of your oblique muscles and the consequent ant-like waist. I single Pilates out because it’s the most popular and therefore the one that gets the opportunity to damage the most people.
So how come you’ve never heard about the disaster of the ant-like waist before? Why has nobody noticed this disaster I’m telling you about?
That’s the subject of next weeks’ article.
Next week, we will look at the already blighted state of play before core workouts became the rage. We’ll see why the disastrous effects of Pilates and company went unnoticed and unprotested.
What you need to do now
Some of you will certainly be convinced that I’m utterly wrong in what I wrote today.
One thing’s sure: either I’m right, in which case you really need to hear what I’m saying. In that case, you need to give me a chance to hear and answer your objection.
…or I’m wrong, in which case you need to correct me, don’t you?
So either way, if you’ve any objections, write and tell me them.
Previous: A short introduction to the problem
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Hi,
I think you need to do your reasearch a little more. I have been doing Pilates for 8 years and the entire basis of it in Canada is to stablize the pelvis starting.…ONLY with Transverse Abdominal engagement, Neutral spine (NOT FLEXED) Multifidus, Pelvic Floor engagement in a closed chain environment. After all of those muslces are working properly then you proceed to work legs (On Reformer), Arms, Back, Shoulders, Glut Med etc.… So how can you say that the ENTIRE Pilates workout is overfiring obliques!!
Everything you said to be good for the spine is exactly what Pilates instrcutors preach! I think you need to have a look at STOTT Pilates and do a bit more research into different types of Pilates before making statements that you have made. The Stott method starts with eqipment based, closed chain, local stabilizer work.
You sound like you have only seed that Mat oldschool workouts. I agree that it is heavy on the flexion. Like
Many Physios, Doctors and Back Specialists are prescribing Pilates and working with instructors all over Canada to help students. The results are great!
There is my rebuttle.…
I apologize for the spelling and grammer I wrote that really fast!!
Lara,
It may well be that Stott Pilates does not fall so obviously into the trap that most Pilates classes do. However that is no comfort to the millions of people ruining their backs doing rubbish Pilates. If Stott Pilates instruction is so much better, then it must be the duty of Stott Pilates instructors clearly to differentiate between what they do and what most Pilates instructors do.
Failure to so differentiate themselves makes Stott Pilates instructors co-responsible for the life-blighting havoc being wrought by their fellow Pilates instructors. Most Pilates is exactly the type of dangerous nonsense that my article exposes. Assuming that Stott Pilates really is as good as you claim, Stott Pilates instructors have only themselves to blame for the criticism that must follow from their failure to distance themselves from such dangerous nonsense.
(Don’t worry about the spelling, that’s not important).
Interesting. I agree with your principals however the so called Pilates ants I see have almost zero hip waist ratio and NO curves. that photo is photoshopped too. I’ve never seen a pilates instructor with anything but a built up mannish waist, even if they are petite and tiny. Geri Halliwell is a great example, she had hips and a tiny waist and now after about five years of hardcore pilates she has a waist that is almost wider than her hips, madonna has that same awful core square body as well.
The problem is that if you want a tiny waist and a great waist to hip ratio, pilates has to be approached carefully (or not at all) as 90% of the exercises, on or off the apparatus, is working the FRONT of the abdominal muscles and building them up into a six pack which widens the waist visually and physiologically. Understandably most Pilates aficionados will deny this. Many claim that “extra fat” and “genetics” will cause a square torso, not core work, but one should ideally look and see if they have a tiny waist and or hourglass figure themselves and then judge the veracity of their opinions before investing money in training or dvds.
The Wunda Chair, box work on the reformer (eg:climb a tree & the Hundred) and the Barrel especially can create a “hyper-trophyed” abs look. Even mat work moves like “side plank with twist” and “side kicks” that may seem as if they will sculpt the waist can cause the muscles to build as the amount of effort the obliques have to do to stabilize the body is so powerful . This is true with countless of the classic Pilates exercises. Moreover, the majority of pilates is also taught incorrectly by teachers who have partaken in “quicky weekend courses” to teach in gyms so proceed with caution if you study pilates and request that your trainer give you FLEXION work to keep your waist sculpted. Another Pilates myth is that it can give you a “dancer’s body”; in actuality only dancing can yield the results of dancers body.
If you search Google images you will note that many well known Pilates instructors (eg: Mari Winsor and Joesph Pilates himself) are literally square-torso in appearance because their abs are so built up. Women’s waists were much smaller until the Core strengthening revolution which gave way to a six pack abs/narrow hips look which is now considered the most preferable by the media and fitness professionals.
cont: the worst part of Pilates/core nonsense is the “neutral spine” myth. the fact that many terrible so called “teachers” are having clients actually stay in a curved back aka neutral position WHILE THEIR LEGS ARE EXTENDED is tantamount to abuse. I actually secretly took a class and acted as if I had no Pilates experience (I’m certified by Physical Mind) and could not belivbe what i was hearing the instructor tell me and the class!
I have a fairly strong campaign going on online about how Pilates will ruin a hip to waist ratio.
Thank you for posting, Amanda. I’ll take time to consider what you have written and also take a close look at your campaign. By the way, I would never have guessed that the photo was photoshopped. How can you tell?
Yes, the side of the waist looks retouched. With technology now you can’t tell unless they ruin the aspect ratio. Here are some examples of what i mean:
Top Pilates instructors:
http://www.easyvigour.net.nz/pilates/pelderMariWinsor.jpg
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/mas_assets/full/0471681733.jpg
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/03_04/madonna2303_468x653.jpg
This is so informative and it’s typical of women’s beauty myths to not hold the truth. Looking for info about core strength, this is just answering my questions. Id appreciate very much if you’d like to provide me with a little info on how to strenghten my core correctly? (not fluent in English.) Im a woman with a very x-shaped torso, with a whr of 0,64 and a waist of 24. X-shaped bodies are very overlooked in fitness, they tell you how to trim your waist, but not how to help support it when it holds your torso balance point and makes your body hurt and give you trouble with ore strength, balance points and vitality.. what you say about Transversus Abdominis rings true to my waist pain, I naturally constantly flex my obliques because they are holding up my entire upper body and to some extent the buttocks but id probably need to build up my tr. ab.. Its an actual health issue. almost like always having a tight belt your singular torso upholder, in comparasion to the male V-type body which most excersises is aimed for, where the loins and lower back take the most support. I also have large boobs, which put even more pressure on my shoulders and upper back, which only have support of my waist, and tiny arms with a prominent female elbow line. The V-fitness programs is the total opposite of the fitness needs for my body..I would need advice on how to find a program where my core and upper body strenght can be fixed and the pressure to be taken off my small waist and be more elongated all over the body. tnhx.
E.K.
Thanks, that’s a great comment.
The best way to fix your whole problem is (though I do say so myself) through my Smiling Back Method. That page will both get you started and also points you to the other information and help you will need.
Thanks again,
Philip
the main trouble with my transversus abdomis is that my waspish waist is “cutting into it” and that’s what I need to figure out how to be able to build it up..
Don’t worry, the Smiling Back Method has that covered.
What about yoga, if that was practiced regularly with pilates would it make things better with the back, im currently juggling whether I want to do just pilates or pilates and yoga, sounds like a winning combo to me!
Well done, yoga can be excellent. With Pilates being so popular now. Yoga is often tainted with the mistakes of Pilates. Beware of Yogalates. In the short term it may seem good. In the long run, you’ll probably regret it. Even good yoga is well enhanced by the Smiling Back Method. See this video of a yoga teacher who is a pupil of mine. Rob says: “My interest in the Technique came from my interest in yoga. At the time when I heard about it, I thought that this would be a useful thing for me to learn — just a development of what I understood yoga to be.”