Moving to NOT Move

Aquarium Adventures.

On a recent trip to the New England Aquarium with my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Quinn, we came across a learning tank full of tiny river fish. The tank had buttons on either side that controlled the current. Hit one button on the left and the current flowed from that side causing the fish to swim against it. Push the button on the right and the fish turned and swam against the current now flowing from the opposite side.

What does this have to do with Pilates? Bear with me, I’ll get there. Recently, while teaching a client teaser with the push through bar, we were working on the ability to lower the legs all the way to the mat without disturbing the pelvis. I cued her think of tilting her hips back to keep the pelvis steady. After three tries of me saying: “Keep the hips still!” in rapid repetition as she lowered her legs down to the mat, we both began to get a little frustrated. She knew she wasn’t giving me what I was asking for and I knew I wasn’t communicating to her what I meant. Each time she began to move her legs I watched as her front hip joint stayed closed and her legs dragged her pelvis forward with their increasing weight the closer they got to the mat. On the fourth try, I said “PULL BACK WITH YOUR HIPS!” as she lowered her legs and I began to see a bit of separation between what her legs were doing and what her hips were doing. It was halting and incomplete but it was there. As she lay back to the mat I asked her what had changed for her.

Teaser with the Push Through Bar

She told me that on the fourth try it FELT as though she were moving her hips. If you notice, the first three times I cued her into stillness. The fourth try she “moved her hips back” with all her might away from her legs. Now from my standpoint, her hips were not moving in space at all. This is what I call “the moving to not move” concept and it is a fundamental building block of Pilates. Without mastery of this concept, a client’s progression in Pilates will stagnate.

So how does my experience watching the fish relate to this concept? Those tiny fish were swimming in their tiny tank as hard as they could against the current. But those fish were NOT moving in space. As they swam they stayed suspended in water, hovering, in their respective spots. Swim a bit harder and they shot forward, swim less and the current pushed them back.

The fish WERE swimming, yet they were not moving in space. This is a perfect example of “moving to NOT move” and was exactly what I wanted of my client. The perfect balance of muscular effort, with the muscles of her powerhouse counter balancing the weight of the legs so that her legs could lower through space with no effect on the rest of the body. Her legs the current, pulling the hips along and her hips the fish swimming up stream. This falls under a major building block in Pilates, Opposition. And yet that isn’t specific enough because you can be opposing and still moving through space.

Opposition is a concept I never struggled with as a dancer. We use opposition to create length in our limbs, to give the appearance of reaching though we don’t actually grow. Perhaps the ease with which I tucked this tool into my belt as a student of Pilates has hindered my ability to articulate it well to my clients. I never had to struggle, to search and reach and work for this concept, so in many ways I know less about how to get there.

Opposition is everywhere. Our bodies walk through life erect, working in opposition to gravity, every moment of everyday. Our cellular walls work in opposition to atmospheric pressure. Too much work against the atmosphere and we would explode; too little and we would collapse in upon ourselves.

I wonder sometimes if this client had difficulty with this particular concept because she is an avid runner, addicted, in a fashion, to the sensation of moving her body forward through space. Perhaps she has trouble finding the work and balance it takes to remain perfectly still or perhaps it is simply uncomfortable to her. Or perhaps I was simply not communicating well. But each of us should strive to be aware, strive to sense the effort in stillness, the work it takes to stay balanced and poised in our daily lives.