Most people hear the word Pilates and think of working the “core” muscles and think of their abdominals and complementary exercises for the back muscles. Pilates is more than just a set of exercises performed in sequence targeting the abs. There are also many pieces of equipment, apparatus, props etc. used in Pilates all adding to the challenge.
The principles behind the particular style of Pilates are what truly help gain the desired benefit from the individual exercises. The general 8 principles of Pilates are control, breath, flowing movement, precision, centering, stability, range of motion and opposition. Applying these principles to the exercises will allow you to get more out of the exercises for that particular muscle group. The repertoire of Pilates exercises incorporate movement in all planes of movements, transverse (dividing the body into top and bottom), sagittal (dividing the body into left and right) and coronal (dividing the body into front and back), including rotation about the spine.
The repertoire includes exercises for all the major muscle groups of the body. Some muscle groups that aren’t commonly associated with being targeted by Pilates exercises are arms, upper body, glutes, legs. Among the mat exercises you may be doing to target your glutes are hip rolls, shoulder bridge, heel squeeze prone, one leg kick prep, side leg lift series (for gluteus medius, abductors), single leg extension and swimming prep (hip extensors).
Props may be added to these exercises to add to the challenge, for example using the foam roller or ball during hip rolls or Shoulder Bridge. Many of these exercises are compound exercises working more than one muscle group. For example, when doing swimming prep the muscles in the back and along the spine are working to extend the spine as well as the glutes and hip extensors to extend at the hip. The scapular and pelvic stabilizers are always active
Certified Stott Pilates instructor in mat and reformer Pilates.