No Music in Pilates

This issue just lit up a major online Pilates group just as it does every time I’ve seen it raised in the past anywhere!

Is music helpful or not in your Pilates classes?

This brief post by Alycea Ungaro covers all the ins and outs with great thought behind it. (Stay tuned tomorrow for her second post on this issue where she argues for it!)

Interestingly, when I see a poll of this issue, about half like music with their Pilates and the other half don’t!

What’s really fun is hearing how passionate many become!

Very thought provoking post. What do you think?

Take a look!

Exercise is a truly personal experience. There are hundreds of ways to keep fit and healthy and just as many ways to personalize the experience. Music is a common thread across multiple exercise disciplines.  Whether it’s a group class or an individual treadmill run, you’ll find the playlist phenomenon to be the standard practice among those working out. In Pilates however, music is not universally adopted….

Music during exercise has been shown to blunt the emotional and physical response to the experience. It distracts the exerciser from what they are feeling and pulls the attention away from the body and towards the music, the lyrics and rhythm which are all external.

But Pilates is all about the internal experience. A Pilates student should be internalizing cues and imagery provided by their teacher or themselves, not abstract unrelated lyrics.  Rhythm and tunes can work fine when you have to pedal a bike reflexively, but Pilates is not reflexive. Each exercise is about perfecting your form, exercising maximum control and working with modulating resistance….

With a song in the background your odds of getting into the real “zone”, where you tune in to your body completely, are dramatically reduced….

There are good reasons to use music when you workout, but for Pilates find a quiet space and leave the musical accompaniment out of the picture.

For the complete post go to http://pilates.about.com/od/faq/fl/Opinion-Piece-The-Case-Against-Music-in-Pilates-Class.htm.