Celebrating Small Muscles

The goal of working out is often to make muscles and to get stronger. It can also be to tone those muscles. For some it’s about looking better. For others it’s about feeling better. Regardless of what the pursuit is - engaging muscles are at the core of working out.

We often celebrate the large muscles. We admire a cyclist’s developed calves. We notice a weight lifter’s bulging biceps. With runners, we may notice strong quads. How often, however, do we celebrate or even notice the small muscles? I think it’s time we celebrate those small muscles!

Pilates is all about developing those small stabilizing muscles. You may think if you have the big muscles do you really need the small ones? Yes you do! The small muscles help support and protect the big muscles often playing the role of the stabilizers. The small muscles prevent injury. The small muscles support our spine so we don’t hurt our back while lifting heavy.

I like to think about the large versus small muscles like this: Imagine your car has stalled on the road and needs to be pushed to a nearby driveway. You definitely want a couple of strong guys - we’ll call them the large muscles- to push that car. It’s unlikely you could move that car without that muscle power. But once they start pushing it’s an act of force, not control. How do you get that car actually pointed in the right direction and into the driveway? You need another friend in the driver’s seat - turning the wheel - we’ll call this friend the small muscle. This friend does not need to be huge and it’s not about his/her bruit strength - it’s about control and support - just like our small muscles! We need both large and small muscles to achieve what we want successfully.

It’s much the same in our body - our small muscles provide the support, stability, and control we need. This is why sometimes simple lightweight exercises can seem so challenging in Pilates. Pilates often bypasses the large muscles and forces the use of the small muscles. If you aren’t used to using these little guys, you may feel shaky or weak. Once you can tap into those small muscles, you will more than likely see increased success in your other physical pursuits that use the large muscles. With the support of the small muscles, the large muscles won’t fatigue as quickly and don’t have to work quite as hard.

Small muscles paired with large muscles make a killer team! So let’s celebrate those small muscles and invite them to the party!