Why Your Brain Creates Movement Inefficiencies

Joseph Pilates created something revolutionary in the first half of the 20th century. He invented a neurological training system, not a new exercise technique.

Working in internment camps during World War I, Pilates observed how immobilization and lack of movement created profound physical deterioration.1 His response was to develop a method that addressed the body as an integrated system, controlled by the nervous system rather than isolated muscle groups.

All these methods of exercises are treating muscles in isolation. Pump, lift, calorie burn. Yet we overlook the origin of the problem: movement quality is controlled by your nervous system.

Our contemporary understanding of motor control and neuroplasticity lends support to intuitively what Pilates discovered a century ago.2 Good movement depends not just on strength, but neural efficiency.

The Neural Pathway Problem

If we see a client making precise movement, something unusual comes into sight. Their nervous system transmits first signals that"go around" but to the muscles that are not meant.

This causes delays. It makes the movement inefficient since the brain cannot directly communicate with the muscle groups.

Neuromuscular coordination studies demonstrate that motor learning involves constructing and reaffirming specific patterns of neural activity.3 When these patterns are weak or ineffective, the nervous system compensates by calling upon other, less efficient paths.

The implication? Compensatory movement patterns, movement energy costs higher, and movement efficiency lower.

Through systematic Integrative Pilates practice, we witness the reinnervation of these pathways. The signal finds its direct route. Movement becomes efficient.

As efficiency of movement gets higher, endurance increases. When endurance increases, strength comes out in the movement pattern.

Proprioception and Body Awareness

To appreciate signals of communication from the nervous system, we first need a definition of proprioception. It refers to your sense of being able to perceive position in space without sight.

Proprioceptors in and around muscles, tendons, and joint areas continuously provide information to the brain concerning body position, movement, and force. Such information from senses provides the movement quality foundation.

As proprioception enhances, the client will be able to perceive subtle misalignments prior to their noticeable occurrence. He/she will be aware if a hip collapses or if shoulder tension arrives when he/she moves.

Proprioceptive awareness is developed systematically in Pilates via movement that requires controlled and precise movement and constant feedback of senses. With practice, the nervous system learns to better manage this information.

This increased awareness carries over to improved control of movement in whatever you're doing, not limited to Pilates classes.

Observable Markers of Neural Connection

We can actually see the moment that a human being really gets neurological connection. Think about Pilates' ultimate exercise, the hundred.

They have issues with the alignment: chest to sternum, arms pumping between mid-thigh and ground. Their alignment appears fragmented.

Then something shifts. We observe perfect kinetic chain alignment from shoulder to ankle. Hip alignment matches knee positioning. Knee alignment corresponds to ankle placement. Even toe positioning becomes precise.

This remains the "apex moment" when neurological communication comes to the forefront. It has found the most effective route for the body.

From a biomechanical perspective, this alignment provides a perfect force distribution throughout the kinetic chain. There isn't a joint being overloaded. It's a whole system.

We can also note breathing patterns. During difficult postures, clients will hold their breath or breathe shallowly. When neural connection increases, breathing gets rhythmic and tied to movement.

Patterns of recruitment change externally. Rather than contracting superficial muscles to grip, patients recruit deep stabilizers. Motion seems effortless when it really involves important muscular work.

The Hundred as a Complete System Intervention

Most fitness specialists rank the hundred in the core strength category. We are observing something totally different.

The arm pumping initiates blood circulation throughout the body. This raises core temperature, which further increases blood flow. Add the layer of controlled breathing, and you have created a fully encompassing movement intervention.

The hundred works simultaneously to deal with circulation, thermoregulation, control of breathing, and powerhouse activation. Power comes from the core and spreads to the extremities.

This accounts for why students always comment upon feeling a deeper connection to their bodies after being taught this single exercise. It provides a neurological wake-up call.

Breathing Mechanics and Oxygenation

This element of the breath in Integrative Pilates deserves more attention. It goes beyond breathing in, breathing out. It involves leveraging the breath as a nervous system regulation and movement help.

Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system to lower stress hormone levels and establish a motor learning-friendly environment. Physiologically, this reorganization provides higher movement quality and adaptive neural capacity.

Proper oxygenation enhances cellular metabolism of contracting muscles. Contracting muscles, when properly oxygenated, will sustain contraction for a longer period and become less fatigued. This widens the time window for good movement practice.

Breathing movement coordination also produces intra-abdominal pressure that stabilizes the spine. This stabilizes the spine internally as it works in conjunction with muscular stabilization when in motion.

Those who become competent in breathing control report that they are more centered and focused, not just when exercising but throughout daily activity. The nervous system learns to associate controlled breathing exercises as being good movement patterns.

The Neurological Timeline

We have a clear-cut progression that comes from regular practice. Within 10 sessions, a client enjoys relief. Within 20 sessions, a client moves better. Within 30 sessions, a transformation that's deep and dramatic.

It demonstrates neurological adaptation, not simple muscle strengthening. With two or three classes a week over two or three months, we see gradual modification: expanded range of motion, enhanced sleep, hormonal balance, and regulation of breathing.

This correlation between movement accuracy and hormonal control surprises many students. Yet when you take into account that control of the breath and complete oxygenation impact every physiological system, the correlation makes sense.

Neuroplasticity research indicates that regular, deliberate practice induces structural alterations in the cerebral cortex. New cellular connections are created, previous patterns are solidified, and movement patterns are automatized.4

10-20-30 session progression equates to levels of motor learning. Phase I demands a consciousness of each movement detail. Phase II shows developing automaticity. Phase III shows integrated, economical movement patterns.

In the course of this, we observe changes beyond movement quality. Sleeping improves as a consequence of preferable regulation patterns, which the nervous system learns. Stress response becomes more balanced. Digestion potentially improves as the parasympathetic nervous system becomes more accessible.

The hormonal shift comes as a consequence of various influences: enhanced circulation, lowered chronic stress levels, improved sleep, and enhanced oxygenation to endocrine tissues. Exercise transforms to medicine for the whole system.

Clinical Use and Rehabilitation

We work with our patients at Monad Pilates along a spectrum of requirements, from post-injury rehab to ultimate sports performance. Integrative Pilates finds particularly strong application as a rehab approach due to the ways it acts to correct movement at the neurological level.

Upon injury, the nervous system engulfs injury sites with patterns of compensatory protection. Long after the resolution of tissue repair, these patterns persist and give rise to chronic dysfunction and susceptibility to re-injury. Traditional rehab seeks to reinforce strained muscles. Retraining the neural control of those muscles is our approach. This approach addresses the root of dysfunction as opposed to symptoms.

In patients whose condition involves chronic pain, this retraining of the neurological system oftentimes relieves the condition when nothing else has. Pain is a neurological condition. When movement patterns are enhanced and compensations clear, the pain messages oftentimes lessen.

The individual style permits us to tailor exercises to personal biomechanical profiles and condition-specific issues. A post-surgical shoulder patient has unique movement progressions compared to a client overcoming lower back issues, despite both functioning out of the same Integrative Pilates program.

Beyond Classic Core Training

Clients who come from a traditional core class to our Integrative Pilates practice are amazed. They see how much further their core can work when the mind communicates correctly to the muscle.

Conventional exercises for the abdomen ignore it altogether. Here, we are concerned first of all to build the neurological pattern, and second, to establish strength in that economical pattern.

The movement cannot be divorced from the breath work. Learning how to breathe properly translates to learning how to provide complete oxygen to functioning muscles while still engaging the core.

Traditional core exercises are generally centered around maximum muscle contraction and tiredness. Striving to do more reps, heavier loads, or higher intensity become the goals.

This approach can build strength in the muscles but will perpetuate bad movement patterns. If the movement patterns are suboptimal, then you just reinforce the strength of the suboptimal patterns.

Integrative Pilates focuses on quality movement, not quantity. WE establish efficient patterns first. WE create strength in those efficient patterns second.

The ultimate product is functional strength that translates to everyday movement. Students don't get strong in the studio. They walk more easily up a stairway, carry larger bags of groceries, or play more assuredly with their children.

The breath work integration creates another distinction. Most traditional core work involves breath holding or irregular breathing under load. We teach coordinated breathing that supports movement and maintains nervous system balance.

This disparity emerges when we shift our approach and the client finds primary engagement they did not experience prior, despite years of traditional training.

The Science of Systematic Motion

Our methodology at Monad Pilates acknowledges that repetition, rhythm, and sequence form mastery. Routine produces flexibility and strength. Repetition creates muscle memory and control. Sequence provides balanced activity and efficient progression.

This systematic approach caters to age-21-to-age-85 clients who are looking for intentional fitness outcomes. They will experience the change in their bodies, not finish a session.

We provide evidence-based Clinical Pilates which addresses injury rehab and prevention in precise movement. Each program gets individualized based on individual biomechanical profiles and individual conditions.

By combining accuracy, control, breathing, flow, and individualization, we have a situation that neurological retraining can happen optimally.

Every session in Monad Pilates follows from the other to create progressive neurological adaptation. We don't just repeat the same set of exercises ad infinitum. We vary and progress the exercises to challenge the nervous system to adapt and hone movement patterns.

This systematic progression avoids plateaus and retains interest. The nervous system demands new challenges to sustain continuing adaptation. Routine gives the base, but variation causes continued improvement.

For our age-21-through-85 range of clients, this strategy is uniformly effective since it acts in harmony with basic neurological tenets and not just based purely upon capacity. An individual of age 85 may have the same quality of neural adaptivity as age-25, despite complexity of movement.

The Transformation

Once you have found efficient movement patterns through proper activation of the neural pathways, your entire methodology to physical conditioning shifts. You understand why Joseph Pilates designed this as a complete system of mental and physical unity and health.

Movement transitions from causing the body to yield to shapes and postures to preparing the nervous system to function best. Outer achievement gives way to inner insight.

Clients report feeling more connected to their bodies in daily life, not just during exercise. They notice when they're holding tension unnecessarily. They can access core stability while sitting at a desk or standing in line.

Our Chelsea studio space makes it conducive to this refinement. If the outer world can be tranquil and elegant, the nervous system isn't pulled toward outer tension but toward inner refinement.

The contrast comes to you when you have to conceptualize motion from this neurological approach instead of seeing it as separate muscular activity.

This is the future of movement practice. With growing insight into neuroscience, we can see that Joseph Pilates was remarkably visionary in his thought. He intuitively knew something that science, now documents scientifically.

Here, we celebrate that heritage and bring to it a modern-day understanding of motor control, neuroplasticity, and system function. Outcome: a practice that changes how, not just what, patients move—and how they experience their bodies.

References

1 Pilates, J.H., & Miller, W.J. (1945). Return to Life Through Contrology. J. 2 Taubert, M., et al. (2010). Dynamic properties of human brain structure: learning-related changes in cortical areas and related fiber connections. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(35), 11670-11677. 3 Dayan, E., & Cohen, L.G. (2011). Neuroplasticity subserving motor skill learning. Neuron, 72(3), 443-454. 4 Kplasticity and behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 49(1), 43-64.olb, B., & Whishaw, I.Q. (1998). Brain