In the last blogpost I spoke about how the Polestar Pilates Training, allowed me to be a creative teacher because of the system of principles that it teaches. We spoke about breath and using the breath as a tool for movement facilitation, and that led me to tell you, “Why Polestar?” Because with a system of principles I am given the freedom to meet people where they are and am given the tools necessary to create a program geared towards their goals.
Well Breath is just the first principle of Polestar. Axial Elongation and Control is the second.
Now first let me tell you about a little history. This principle used to be called Axial Elongation and Core control. You know “the core” the buzzword of the first part of the century. Everybody was talking about the core and telling people to pull their belly button to their spine. The planking internet craze came out of this movement, and because of this “core revolution” whenever anybody heads into the doctor speaking of some form of musculoskeletal pain the doctor says, “you need core strength.”
This person then heads to the Internet and when you type in core strength up comes an image of a man with his shirt off doing a plank. Because of course the Internet thinks the Plank is the best exercise for core strength and if the Internet says it’s true, then well…
Okay yes I am on a soapbox. One I can get on quite often. The core is not magic and having a strong one is not going to fix all of the world’s musculoskeletal pain. The core is part of a system and if this system is placed in the most advantageous position the core will be strong.
Thus in the Polestar Pilates Training, we teach that the Axial Elongation and Control principle is about finding the longest axis of the body so that the core can work without conscious thought. The best way to feel this is to try it.
Sit in a chair. Without changing anything notice what your belly feels like. Touch it, and notice how the muscles feel. Now begin reaching your head towards the ceiling, and then become aware that your ears and your ribs are centered over the bowl that is your pelvis. Now without moving notice what you feel in the abdomen. You may feel some additional tone and guess what by simply finding your longest axis you are increasing your core strength and endurance.
All this and I didn’t have to say bellybutton to the spine once. Thus within the system of the Polestar Pilates Training, we have the first two of six principles which guide a practitioner’s creative and critical thinking to design the very best program from any person to find. In the next blogpost learn about the third principle spine articulation.