We seem to always be looking for the simple, singular answer that will solve an age-old question: is there one best exercise that will get in you into optimal shape? But, then again, wouldn't doing just one exercise over and over be kind of boring? After over 30 years of teaching and studying traditional and non-traditional methods of exercise, and having trained in a wide variety of disciplines, I have to say that the only good answer is that you have to do it all. By that I mean that there isn’t one exercise alone that is sufficient to achieve and maintain complete fitness. There aren’t two or just three either. The reality is that to truly achieve complete fitness, you have to do a variety of exercises, much like you need to eat a variety of foods, and you have to do them consciously. This is not to say that your exercise program needs to be complicated. In some ways, doing a variety of exercise is easier to understand and more enjoyable than constantly striving to outdo yourself at the same thing and expecting amazing results. There is one important caveat however; you need to bring the same careful attention to proper form and technique to each and every effort, regardless of the workout. This means you are training the mind as well as the body by increasing your awareness of your body, your balance, your energy, your choices, etc. As opposed to the infomercial tagline “muscle confusion”, the decision to perform different workouts is not to “confuse the muscles”, which sounds like you are uncoordinated in your actions or unconscious in your focus, but rather a multi-dimensional approach to fitness means you have decided to work the body in a more well-rounded and balanced way. One should carefully select exercises that address different areas of fitness, and are appropriate for your body and level. For people lacking in sufficient exercise science knowledge and/or with imbalances/weakness/injury, an appropriate and effective fitness program would be best achieved from an individualized program designed at least partly by a knowledgeable and experienced professional.


Pilates training is one of the best complimentary exercise disciplines anyone can do to help balance out their fitness program. Going beyond cross-training, Pilates develops awareness of how your body moves. As instructors, we can expand on this awareness by also focusing on the forces of gravity and momentum. The jump board is the only plyometric apparatus in Pilates, but from this we can begin to teach proper foot placement when doing jumps. Speed, balance, and stability are all critical components of running and other athletic activities. For my athlete clients, I also include dynamic movements, such as standing leg swings or kicks, body swings, and lateral slides. Taking the client off the machine and teaching them to support their body in planks and other full-body matwork exercises, can be progressed to what is now called “animal” movements, which I’m sure Joseph would have approved of, that includes walking on hands and feet and short arm balances and quick changes of direction. The concepts of working on speed, balance, and stability can be broken down for any level of student as well. Mature clients also need to work on these skills. Foot and ankle strength is critical to our balance, especially in older people. So doing footwork standing, perhaps on the round side of half a foam roller, is a way to expand from the apparatus to help clients improve. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t a “classical” exercise, what matters is if it works. The soft surface is more amenable to weak, tight feet and toes, and the slightly unstable surface develops the smaller intrinsic muscles of the ankle. This is the kind of “conscious” exercise selection that makes your fitness program “functional”. 

The other day I was asked to train someone who had tried Pilates for 12 sessions but was disappointed with the lack of results. I met with him and learned that he had 2 bulging discs in his lower back and a torn meniscus in his knee, but otherwise was very strong. The interesting thing is that he thought that just doing Pilates would cure his back. This is a common misconception in the lay fitness community. For this client, he had been working with a new instructor who indeed knew Pilates, but was not experienced in working with people with special conditions. She had modified all of his exercises and took out so much that his workouts were lacking in energy and effectiveness. Basically, he said he felt like he was doing “baby Pilates”, and his back and knee pain didn’t improve. It takes years of experience and further study of the body to learn how to effectively train such clients. The point is that just doing “Pilates” exercises is not going to fix serious conditions of the spine or joints. In order to help these clients, one must first have a clear understanding of the condition (including a doctors diagnoses and guidance). Then, one can use Pilates technique as guide, but you still have to do rehabilitative exercises that specifically address their needs. Just going through the repertoire of classical or modern Pilates exercises with appropriate modifications is NOT sufficient to effectively train these individuals. 

To come back to the idea of what are the best exercises for someone to achieve complete fitness; we said that you have to do a mix and we said you have to be mindful. But, what would be a good mix? Again, it really depends on the individual and perhaps a professional to help design a personalized program. That being said, we know that cardio training is essential for complete fitness, which is why I included it as a component in my book on Yogilates. With this in mind, I've written up an example so you can get a general idea of what a balanced “beyond cross-training” program might look like for one week.
Sample One:
Sunday - Run 45 min or Walk Briskly followed by 15 min of stretching
Monday – Foam Roller self massage and full hour of Pilates on the apparatus
Tuesday – 30 min bike / Strength train Legs and Shoulders
Wednesday – 30 minutes of yoga and assisted stretches / Swim mile
Thursday – Pilates matwork plus strength train Chest and Arms
Friday – Run 30 min or Walk Briskly followed by 15 min stretching
Saturday – Dance class or Barre class / Strength train Back and Abs

This program includes 4 cardio workouts, 4 integrated exercise sessions (Pilates, yoga, Dance, or Barre), 3 strength workouts, 4 flexibility or massage components.

This is just a start and not a long-term program. For continued improvement, the routines would need to change over time, maybe including a sport practice like basketball or tennis, perhaps substituting an interval training workout for the short run/walk day. For athletes, there would be even more variation in the types of strength training workouts, perhaps just doing bodyweight exercises for a month. Though just a rough sketch, the example program above does show a balanced mix and addresses essential components for a complete fitness program. If you have your own mix of balanced exercises, please share those with me if you want and I’ll be happy to review.

The other day, a student of mine came up to me and told me she heard that it was best to change up your exercise routine every 10 days. I told her I had heard of periodization, where athletes in training would focus on one area of fitness such as speed, or endurance, or strength, for 3 months and switch to another area, and that Russian coaches had promoted this for improved performance. However, I had not heard of the 10-day rule before, so I asked where she had heard it. She said, “Tracy Anderson”. Ah, I said. As a former dancer myself, I understood her perspective to keep pushing yourself with new challenges. However, if you are practicing how to skillfully master your body, whether in dance, Pilates, yoga, or any intelligent system of exercise, with a goal of truly transforming the way you look, feel, and move, then it helps to sometimes keep repeating certain movements just to see if your training is making a difference. Sometimes, that means you need to practice some routines consistently over many years. “Training the body – whether to perform surgery, play baseball or do ballet – requires repetition. You can’t just think about it, you have to do it. Over and over.” – Erika Kinetz, NYTimes reporter in her review of Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit. In her article, Ms. Kinetz explains the concept of how the repetition of a “ritualized set of physical exercises”, provides a time for reflective consciousness, which is to say a time to get in touch with the present (how does my body feel today as opposed to in previous days) and to re-investigate the movements anew. Hence, through repetition, we are not just training the body, but the mind as well. This is the definition of discipline – regular practice with attention. Many people ask me how I continue to teach the same basic Pilates exercises every day for so many years without getting bored. My answer is that they always feel new to me! 

I have had great satisfaction in seeing the few students who take the time to come back consistently to class, growing in their skill and development of their bodies. With no change in the exercises, they find that they now feel the work even more and get better results, not less, from the repetition. Others, who either found the work too challenging or were not committed, come back infrequently and think things are still the same and are bored. But, boredom is never a problem of the exercise, it is a problem of the mind. In my classes, there is always much to focus on. And it is precisely this focus that creates control and develops the body as nothing else can. You can tell you are in a real technique class by the way the instructor is getting you to focus, not on muscles, but on the way you are moving – with direction, quality, ease of effort, grace, and form. I always make students aware of the whole body so they can sense the oppositional forces, the length, the space, alignment, and control from head to toe. This is how repetition leads to better and better mastery. 

With this being said, I am not against learning new things. In fact, I probably challenge my students with more exercises outside of the traditional Pilates and yoga vocabulary than anyone. However, I don’t do it just to have them do new things. I do it to show then how to apply the same exact focus used in Pilates and yoga with any exercise. It is a continuation of the technique, applied to different movements. It is never really about the exercise, but again in how you do it. This is how I approach teaching my Yogilates and Barre Fusion classes. Within the vocabulary of the toning exercises, I integrate the focus on the whole body, proper alignment, centering, fluidity, and balanced development. Needless to say, doing Pilates and Barre Fusion is a natural combination, just like Pilates and Ballet. For me, the goal is still the same – efficient, quality exercises that teach you to move better, as well as look better. 

Take care, Jonathan

The other day, a Pilates instructor friend and I were discussing the future of Pilates and our own inclinations with regards to where we see ourselves evolving as teachers. I related how lately I was looking at how to use Pilates principles and techniques in breaking down and re-creating powerful core exercises that would benefit athletes. In the fitness world, I've noticed a lot of interest in high-intensity exercises and full-body movements, and feel Pilates has alot to contribute to sports training in general. However, what I have seen so far, both in the gym and online, are lot of training to tire you out but little if any awareness of how to position the body or maintain proper alignment in the execution of these exercises. On the other end of the spectrum, my friend was talking about how she was leaning more toward discovering a gentler form of Pilates training, one that breaks down our reflexive patterns of how we move and through somatic (sensory) detailed exploration helps people learn to move with more ease and amplitude. Many people are carrying around huge amounts of tension and dis(ease) in their bodies and are mentally blocked from dealing with the root causes. I too am interested in this approach and have trained in the somatic sciences of Alexander, Feldenkreis, and Laban Bartinieff, and of course yoga. The question is how to reconcile the two widely different focuses? As you know, I am always trying to bridge differing camps and believe in a kind of utopian ideal where everyone of all persuasion can get along healthily and respectfully. It stems from my passion to understand and to see and share all the ways to achieve a higher state of being.

Anyway, Pilates has certainly come a long way from when I first started to study it back in 1996. Back then, I pretty much got the classical approach, focusing on the execution and routines, and not so much on the mental aspects of the practice. I’m sure there were already teachers exploring this aspect, but Pilates was still a few years from going mainstream and the integration of sensory awareness and mindfulness into the technique was idiosyncratic. We still are working at it, but it is much more acceptable now to discuss things like the breath and relaxation and visualizations when teaching Pilates then it was ten years ago.

There is a related issue to this discussion which has to do with letting go of hard, fast rules when it comes to fitness and nutrition. I need a lot of carbs in my diet because I burn a lot of calories on most days. On the other hand, I try to make most of the grains I eat whole grains, which ups the fiber in my diet and keeps me from having sharp insulin drops. Some people eat little if any carbs and they believe it has made them healthier. For many people, cutting wheat products from their diet reduces bloating and improves energy. Someone who is gluten-intolerant has to avoid breads, cereals and pasta, but can still eat rice and quinoa and beans. I know someone like this and I’m sure she eats far fewer carbs than a normal diet, but her energy is better than it was before. The fact is that everyone is different and no one diet is best for everybody.

The same is true with exercise. Some people believe they get all that they need from a fitness routine that doesn’t include any aerobic exercise. On a physiological level, I can’t find any basis for this type of fitness program. Nevertheless, I know a person who only does resistance training and she looks great. I also know some people who only do yoga or pilates for exercise, and who am I to say they need to change or add to their program. I am a firm believer in persuading others through example and not by lecture. One thing I've learned as I've matured, is that you cannot change someone’s mind just by arguing. Most people have too much invested in their own perceptions of their bodies to change their behavior just because someone tells them to. People will change when they are ready and when they have a compelling personal reason to do so.

All of the above being said, there does seem to be a consistent character trait with people who exhibit exclusionary behavior patterns (without medical reasons for it) like severe carbohydrate restriction or limit themselves to only one kind of exercise, and that is they tend to be less tolerant of others in general. Could it be that sub-consciously they feel deprived and this leads to intolerance toward people living more freely? Now, let me be clear that when I talk about exclusionary behavior, I am not talking about people who are just well disciplined. Discipline, as I talk about in my book on Yogilates, does not necessarily restrict freedom; rather it can give you more liberty by providing rational limits and motivations that make choices easier. If you have no limits you would have too many choices which can clutter the mind and stop you from progressing in life. Discipline is a good thing and means you still execute good decisions even when stressed, and you still work out even when you are tired or it is raining, etc. An exclusionary person, by contrast, bases their behavior on a belief rather than discipline, and that belief isn’t grounded in either scientific fact or personal experience. For example, a person thinks they don’t need to do any exercises for their feet even though they have back problems. They want to only do abdominal exercises thinking this will be enough. However, their reasoning is not backed by either science or by their personal experience, since they have never done footwork or know what the effect would be. That is an exclusionary mindset and is detrimental to the person's goals. In addition, this person has a very low tolerance for other people in general. They judge others quickly and unfairly and are openly prejudiced about many topics. These people are difficult to train and not nice to be around for much time at all. What a pleasure it is when a client walks in who is genuinely open to new ways of moving and feeling and understands and appreciates the different perspectives a mind/body approach brings to their way of being.

I recommend to everyone to try to do something new everyday. To resist from judging others or ideas too quickly. To practice seeing things from different point of views. We all could probably use a little more tolerance toward ourselves and to others. This will lead to more personal and universal peace. Hopefully!

One thing that I think most people in this field will agree on is that you can continue to learn completely new ways of seeing, feeling, and moving no matter what age or experience you are. Lately, I have discovered in myself a newfound sense of equilibrium that oddly enough came from beginning rigorous strength training. Like many people, I had hit a plateau in my training and was feeling frustrated. In addition, I was experiencing pain and aches in my joints which I first attributed to aging, but my gut intuition was telling me I needed to change my routine. Stretching and core strength was great, but I needed to get stronger in an athletic way. When I do resistance training, I still bring all my awareness of correct alignment and centering to the workout. I listen to my body and constantly adapt the positioning and motion of exercises to maintain optimal form and control. Nevertheless, it gets pretty intense and I have had to push myself harder than I thought. Long story short, it may seem inconsistent for a Pilates and yoga instructor to use strength training to solve a training issue, but it actually made physiological sense. The ligaments and cartilage in my joints had been getting overstretched from years of doing my practice, and I needed the muscles to get stronger to support the joints. I'm sure that there are many people who have similar experiences, but it is not always easy to know when you are listening to your gut in an intuitive way, and when you are just reacting in reflexive manner.

By the time we reach adulthood, most of us have developed core beliefs about ourselves and our bodies and these ideas affect the way we move and hold ourselves daily. Often, we have ideas or beliefs about our bodies that influence our neuromuscular patterns, which are the way we unconsciously initiate movement and react to instructions. These ingrained reflexes can block the mind/body from connecting and may create inefficient movement and eventually lead to imbalanced development. This is almost impossible to recognize on your own and, even with the help of a trained professional, it can take months to relearn how to initiate movement in a different way. Even then, the changes won’t stick unless you can begin to let go of old beliefs and start to see yourself differently. In my years of training clients, I have often found that the people who have chronic back or joint problems are also the people who have the most ingrained negative movement patterns and have the most difficulty following basic functional awareness exercises. This observation has been proven in scientific experiments where they took two groups of people: one with a history of common back ailments, and the other without, and they gave each of them simple instructions on how to lift objects safely. The group without a history of back pain was able to follow the instructions correctly, where as the problem group totally failed to follow instructions. The conclusion of the study was that people with chronic back pain need training in basic motor skills (mind/body awareness) before therapeutic treatment. In my own teaching practice, I have found that some people have no connection to some parts of their bodies and have exactly the wrong instincts when it comes to moving efficiently. They push the abdominals out, they bend when they are asked to straighten, they hunch their shoulders, they hold their breath, etc. Again, these are the same people that have chronic lower back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, etc. So, we can't say that it is always wise to follow your instincts when it comes to training as, for some, it could mean following negative patterning coming from a deep lack of awareness.

Intuitive learning actually means to be open for different ways of feeling things and seeing things and at the same time reflecting on what your body is telling you and what you have learned from past experiences. It means letting go of pre-conceived notions or expectations and taking your time to experience something new. That being said, the first time you try something, you need to also listen to your intuition with regards to what someone is telling you to do. Try to take into account the whole setting of where you are and whether you feel the instructor is acting on automatic or is connecting to you and the rest of the class. Many times I have seen instructors who think they are there to challenge the class to meet them on their terms. That can be ok if you are aware of this negative energy and stay within yourself. You might not have expected it, but sometimes staying within yourself can be the intuitive way to go. I highly recommend that everyone practice on their own. Not only does this develop independence, it allows you to fully connect with your intuitive guide. The more experienced you are, the greater the benefits from these solo workouts. During these times you can practice doing a different warm-up, one where you fine-tune into your body. You can do similar exercises you have done before but change qualitative focus, such as performing some things a lot slower or leaving the arms relaxed in standing poses. You will be certain to discover something new about your body and this could take you in a direction you might never have thought about before.

Next time, I'll talk about the reality that how you move determines the shape of your body.