Pilates Foundation member Silvia Gray talks about her Pilates practice, Feldenkrais and Bones for Life in the first of a series of articles celebrating the diversity and creativity of Pilates Foundation Teachers.

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in Monchengladbach Germany in 1883. As a child, Joe had asthma and other ailments so he turned to exercise and athletics to battle them. He became enamored by the classical Greek ideal of a man balanced in body, mind, and spirit, and he began to develop his own exercise system based on this concept.

Asymmetry is something that comes up a lot in my work. My own scoliosis gives me an inherent asymmetry that makes it impossible for me to skip straight to the hundred in my own practice. But my observations of other bodies is that, whilst there may not be a scoliosis, asymmetry is very common.

A common misconception/tale is that Pilates is only for woman. I’m constantly hearing from my male friends in or around the studio, “Isn’t Pilates mostly women?” or “Pilates is just like Yoga right?” I’m here to break that rumor and tell you why Pilates is great for everyone, especially our MEN.

My teaching and my writing is underpinned by a fundamental belief that a.) we are how we move and that therefore b.) we can change our movement to change our bodies. I might also add on a c.) which is that long term, sustainable change must be addressed through movement.

Are you dealing with annoying chronic aches and pains, or have you experienced an injury that seems impossible to fully recover from? Body posture and proper pelvic placement play a HUGE role in how easy (or challenging) it might be to maintain your whole-body health. Doing Pilates can be an excellent way to explore exercises to help you improve pelvic placement, enhance posture and body awareness, and put your pelvis where it belongs to help develop healthy movement habits for better functional movement.

The key hip stabiliser is the gluteus medius. As you can see in the image above, this is the lateral buttock muscle. The ideal movement for strengthening this muscle is a combination of both abduction (lifting the leg sideways) and external rotation (rotating the knee outwards). The side leg lifts that you often see people doing in bum burning gym classes is actually just targeting the TFL, a short muscle that sits at the top of the outer thigh. What we’re after is a movement that takes the effort further backwards towards the back pocket area of the gluts.

The Hip Joint is one of the hardest joints to understand. This is partly because it’s buried deep in the pelvis, and surrounded by strong ligaments and muscles, making it difficult to sense what movement can be accessed through the joint. Like any other joint in the body, there are a number of structural variables that may enhance or reduce movement in the hip. These include the orientation of the femoral head and neck inside the socket as well as the orientation of the socket itself inside the pelvis. The joint is further complicated by its relationship to the pelvis and therefore to the orientation, asymmetries and rotations in the pelvic area.

Ever wondered why the 100 crunches you do in the gym every day aren't giving you the six pack you want?

Well, a pilates instructor has revealed a much easier and more efficient way to get a toned tummy.

If you think Pilates is only for beautiful women with ballerinas' bodies, you're probably not alone.

But you — and everyone else who buys into that narrow line of thinking — are wrong. Despite this common misconception, Pilates can be a great workout for everyone. The practice incorporates all the elements of healthy physical movement: breath, posture, strength, balance, coordination, and flexibility. Guys need to be able to move, too, so beards and chest hair are just as welcome and encouraged in the studio as yoga pants.