In my previous post, I went into more detail about our lesser-known sensory systems and explored how they each relate to Pilates. Today I want to encourage you to think about your goals for Pilates and consider setting SMART goals, to make sure they are clear and achievable. From lifting shopping bags to picking up grandchildren, this post explains how to set Pilates goals that support real-life.

What Are Your Goals for Pilates?

It’s something I ask on the enrolment form I ask you to complete before your first class which helps me guide your sessions. Some examples that people have written on their form:

•  For general body fitness and stamina
•  Strengthening
•  Improve my core stability and strengthen bones/muscles
•  Maintain flexibility and mobility
•  Balance

Let’s Define Flexible and Stronger Goals

I’ve heard I want to be ‘more flexible’. But what does more flexible mean? Does it mean touching your toes with straight legs? That’s certainly a goal. But how does that benefit you? How do you measure it?

Here are some questions to have in mind when you are considering your goals:

• Is it can you touch your toes with your legs straight? Or maybe they need to be bent legs, but you can still touch your toes?
• Is it how good your golf swing is? Or how to improve your golf handicap?
• What do you want to be more flexible for?
• Is it to pick up those socks off the floor? Or the dog poo?
• Do you want to do a cartwheel with the grandchildren? Or rotate with ease as the dog switches directions to follow a sniff?

Maybe the goal is to be stronger. What does ‘stronger’ mean to you? Is it lifting a 20kg bag of dog food without hurting your back? Or carrying a two-year-old child with ease? Or maybe your goal to become stronger is so you can carry four bags of groceries back to the car rather than using a trolley?

Think about giving detail in your answer on the enrolment form. This helps me shape your class to support you in achieving your Pilates goals.

When we write goals it is recommended that we create SMART goals.

What Are SMART Goals?

SMART is an acronym you can use to guide your goal setting. To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, they need to be specific, achievable, relevant and time bound.

So back to the “I want to be more flexible”. We need to be specific: touch my toes without bending my legs, which is also measurable. But is it achievable? Are there any genetic factors? Length of arms? Length of legs? A fused spine? These will enable or limit this goal from happening. Or do we need to be more specific and say how you are going to do it? A roll down or a hip hinge, for example?

R is for relevant – does the goal align with your life? Is it relevant to your health needs and overall interests? Lifting a 12kg child (average for a two-year-old in the UK) is irrelevant if you don’t know any children, improving your golf handicap is irrelevant if you don’t play golf.

It seems a bit bizarre, why write a goal for yourself if it’s not relevant? This is where being in a group can hinder things but what also makes group classes work. You might want to lift the 12kg child, your neighbour in class might want that lower golf handicap, and I will want to lift my dogs into the car as they get older. So, we write goals that are relevant for us. Very simply, the body only moves in a limited number of ways, so our goals will naturally overlap within a class.

The last part of SMART is time bound. When do you want to do this thing? To lift the two-year-old. How old are they now? How long before they are two? To improve the golf handicap. Do you play now? To lift the dog into the car. Do they need it yet? To be more flexible. Is that now? Next Wednesday? Or are you planning for the future?

When I started Pilates, my goal was to attend an exercise class once a week with my mum, that was the goal, to do something with my mum. Twenty three years later I still go to class and now teach it, she stopped.

What’s your goal? Email me and I’ll make sure we enable you to achieve it in your class.

Check out my previous Pilates posts if your goals include increasing your bone density or taking part in weight bearing exercise.