Every time I attend a Pilates conference or Summit with multiple presenters and topics, I always find a central theme that emerges for me. This past week at the PMA conference in Monterey was no different. I took classes on tech neck, neurological conditions, the relationship between hips and knee issues, creative uses of the magic circle, using the trap table to facility mat work, and more. At first glance, these topics are quite different. But each session hit on one thing for me - Permission.

What does that mean when it comes to Pilates? Well, let’s take a step back for a moment to where the Pilates industry was a decade ago when I began my teaching career. At that time there was a pretty big divide between classical and contemporary teachers. There were lots of rules. It was not uncommon to hear comments about other teachers not teaching correctly. I fall into the camp of more contemporary but even in this vein, there were rules. Rules can be good and necessary but sometimes they don’t make sense for everybody. As I continued to learn and grow as a teacher, I began to see where the rules worked and didn’t work. I adopted the philosophy of making the work work for the student not the student work for the work. That is not to say we don’t work hard … but instead, we work smart.

Hearing so many different teachers on very different topics address the need for permission to modify the work for the client was refreshing. Hearing teachers say this is not the classical way but this is the way that allows a student with this circumstance to do the work was encouraging. Hearing my mentors and friends accept and give permission was inspiring.

I think it’s important to remember Joseph Pilates taught during a different time when tech neck wasn’t an issue and neurological conditions weren’t really understood. I like to believe given the knowledge we have today, Joseph would have given permission, too.

I also believe it’s important to remember the intent and the principles of Pilates when deciding what liberties or permissions to take. If the goal is to teach someone to connect with their center, to find balance and breath properly, then we make take some liberties to accomplish this. If the goal is to make it harder and make students sweat … neither of these are Pilates principles and aim to accomplish a uniform Pilates body.

There is a place for rules. There is a need for the Pilates principles. To these, we should still adhere and be clear … but there is also a need for permission to work appropriately with the body in front of us. Permission allows Pilates to be a accessible to more people. Permissions allow more students to have success with Pilates. I am grateful to see so many embracing this permission.