Brenda Murillo, 4th year Kinesiology student at UofT & Soccer Varsity Athlete.

Before this past week I had never really known much about Pilates. If I could sum up my thoughts about it, Pilates was for dancers and for older people who wanted to get back into fitness. I was aware of my ignorance on the topic and was excited to learn more about it. As I began working with Dorothy and observing clients, I quickly could tell that it was more challenging than I had previously thought. Although I knew it was good for core, the first thing that became apparent was just how great it is for core - literally every exercise includes core engagement. The question of if my core was strong enough was a thought passed through my mind many times in the days leading up to my first session. I went back and forth between thinking that it was going to be extremely hard, to convincing myself that it wouldn’t be too hard since there is quite a bit of core work included in my workouts for soccer. Then came time for the actual session, excited and nervous I took off my socks and shoes and stepped into the Pilates room. Right from the warm up, being on the reformer with the springs providing resistance was a much different feeling than I imagined it being. Just as I was becoming acquainted to the feeling and settling my emotions a bit so I could focus on the movements, I started to notice that my quads were burning already…. My QUADS. I did not expect that, being a soccer player I work my quads pretty frequently and so for them to be the first thing that was feeling fatigued, and for it to be during warm up, was quite surprising. Then we moved on to the bulk of the exercises. Something that right away was pretty surprising to me, was the amount of mental effort required. In the sessions that I had observed, the client was pretty proficient with the exercises and made things look fairly simple. In my session, I learned otherwise; there was a lot of coordination involved in most of the movements, so it took a little time to get the hang of it. It was really neat to gain an understanding about my body in a way that I hadn’t really had before. The control needed for the movements was very precise and caused me to focus on using the smaller (accessory) muscles in conjunction with the major muscles that generally just overpower my movements. Adding on to that, it was way more than just my core that was worked. My Pilates session was perhaps the most ‘full body’ workout that I have ever actually done. During the session I could feel many of my muscles working, and even immediately afterwards I felt sore, and knew that I definitely made gains in not only my core, but also my quads, glutes, inner-thighs, triceps and shoulders. It was such a well-rounded workout that I asked my strength and conditioning coach for the night off of our lift, and she happily complied. I walked around that day and the next feeling the satisfactory soreness that is always a sign of a good workout. What was even better was that at practice that night, my core was extremely engaged. I was definitely more solid - I didn’t move in tackles that were comparable to once that typically would knock me off balance a bit. This is a HUGE benefit that I experienced. Not only is being solid and balanced beneficial for performance and ball control, but also for injury prevention. This is probably the primary reason that I would continue doing Pilates as an athlete. The core engagement training and the amount of focus on knee movement combined with strengthening the muscles that primarily protect your knees (glutes and inner thighs), would definitely help decrease the chance that I might suffer from a knee injury - an injury that is quite common to female soccer players as well as many other athletes. Overall, while Pilates is quite different than any other training that I’ve ever done, it is something that I definitely see great value in, especially for athletes looking to improve performance and decrease injury risk, as well as for anyone else interested in gaining strength and overall fitness.