First Few Classes after the Introductory Session
If you are just beginning to exercise Pilates and learning the basics, approach this process as if you were putting together a mosaic. With every class you add another pebble, every day you learn something new. It usually takes 4 to 8 lessons before you teach the muscles of the center (powerhouse) to work appropriately. Then, together with your instructor, you will add other new exercises, perfect them, and increase their difficulty. You should abandon the widely held view that strengthening the stomach is the most important. Although engaging the stomach muscles is the essence of Pilates, it is still only a pebble in an extensive mosaic. To put it together you need to work comprehensively with the whole body. As important as strengthening the belly is stretching the muscles along the lumbar (lower back) region of the spine. If you have had lower back pain until now, then it is very probable that your stomach muscles are flaccid, forcing the lower back to do all the work. Thus by engaging the powerhouse, you are also protecting your lower back.
A similar pair relationship as the stomach and lower back muscles exists between the inner shoulder blade muscles (usually weak, loose) and the muscles of the chest (usually shortened) - “thanks” to which we have rounded shoulders. The same remedy applies to them: while we work on strengthening the inner shoulder blade muscles, we must also work to stretch the chest muscle group. It is not enough only to develop up your muscles, it is also necessary to stretch them! The Pilates method exercise system is based on this principle. J.H. Pilates spent a large part of his life working in a dance studio in New York. Imagine the body of a dancer, the suppleness and flexibility of this body, along with the maintenance of long, slim arms and legs. Imagine the sureness, stability and coordination of movement. This should convince you of the effectiveness of this nearly hundred-year old method.