The Good Workout Trap

“Are you not entertained?!”

-Russell Crowe in Gladiator

One of the important differences between the Pilates Method and other modalities is that Pilates demands that you move in a specific way, with focus on control of the core muscles and how they relate to the spine.  The goal is building supportive muscle and deeper connection between body and mind. When an exercise is performed with sloppy technique it creates a habit of mindless movement that often does more harm than good.  This is a predictable byproduct of modern health and exercise culture, where the focus is on quick results or chasing this year’s “ideal” body type, often leading to a person going from one exercise method to another in search of the “perfect” system. Pilates is more like a slow-moving freight train:  Consistent, solid, reliable movement that carries you through life.  In my last blog, I mentioned the “honeymoon period” in Pilates practice and how it fades.  There is a similar pattern in Pilates instructors. Once you get over the hump of being a new instructor you face the repetitive reality of the daily grind.  This can lead to a type of instruction that eschews sound fundamentals in favor of variety and novelty.  I call this approach the Good Workout Trap.

The Good Workout Trap is a style of teaching that focuses on the lowest hanging fruit:  Keeping students entertained, sweating hard, elevated heart rate, feeling the burn, and/or pushing students to exhaustion in an effort to give students a “good workout."  It’s intensity for the sake of intensity without structure and depth.  To be clear, vigorous exercise has tremendous physical and psychological benefits.  I do this type of exercise several times a week and often recommend it to my students as an excellent and necessary complement to Pilates. If a Pilates class is advertised as a “cardio” class or some combination of cardio/HIIT/Pilates, then this approach is fine as long as the exercises are taught with attention to solid fundamentals and are level-appropriate.  The issue is that when Pilates is exclusively taught this way it loses all distinction from other forms of exercise.  When instructors get caught up chasing the “good workout”, it creates a feeling in class of pushing rather than facilitating. The principles of the method (and the needs of the student) take a back seat and the instructor’s personality becomes the focus.  Instead of building a mind/body connection (THE goal of the Pilates Method), students end up feeling more frantic and disconnected from their bodies.

If you’re looking for sheer intensity, it’s often more effectively accomplished in other exercise methods:  Running, Elliptical Machine, Rebounding, Megaformer, High Intensity Interval Training, and even walking at a moderate pace will burn more calories than a typical Pilates class.  Crossfit and weight training will certainly build visible muscle quicker than Pilates.  If you give your students nothing to focus on but intensity and sweat, they will soon find a better version elsewhere (or with a more “hardcore” teacher).  It’s the exercise equivalent of scrolling through TikTok.

    The most serious concern with the “Good Workout” approach is the potential damage done to your students’ bodies.  I have heard students say proudly, “I took so-and-so’s class and I couldn’t walk for two days!”  This is a recipe for injury, not health. Muscle soreness and fatigue are part of Pilates, but should not come at the cost of flexibility, control, and balance.  Intensity is a poor substitute for competence.

Teachers:  How do you navigate the variety of challenges that group classes present while staying true to the principles of the method?  Find out in my next blog. Be (the right kind of) Flexible.