Pilates Technique Thursday: Holistic Teaching

A colourful full body figure showing connected movement patterns across the entire human system.

I have just finished running a Level 3 Matwork course for the YMCA. Paperwork always waits at the end, quietly judging everyone. One question stood out. Explain the term holistic.

In medicine, holistic means looking at the whole body. Not symptoms. Not single muscles.

Not one noisy joint asking for attention. It means observing how the body works together. How it moves. How one area influences another.

Pilates sits comfortably inside this idea. The method never aimed to isolate parts. It looks at movement as a full system. Spine, limbs, breath, coordination, control. Teaching only the centre misses the point. Teaching only glutes misses the point. Teaching one area in isolation misses the point.

This question felt like a useful reminder. When a client arrives with a condition or complaint, it is easy to lock onto one area. Knee pain. Shoulder pain. Low back pain. The risk appears fast. Teaching turns narrow. Movement choices shrink.

I often think of a story told by Ron Fletcher. He described visiting Joseph Pilates with a knee issue. Pilates looked at him and said, forget the knee. Let us look at the rest of the body. No drama. No obsession. No tunnel vision.

This mindset matters. Bodies adapt. They compensate. They reorganise. A knee issue often links to hips, feet, pelvis, or spine. A shoulder issue often links to rib cage, thoracic spine, or breath. Teaching only the problem area ignores movement patterns happening everywhere else.

As teachers, the role stays clear. Observe how the whole body moves. Watch transitions. Watch how someone stands up, lies down, turns over, or walks into the room. Those moments often say more than any single exercise.

Holistic teaching does not mean ignoring issues. It means placing them inside the wider picture. It means teaching movement, not parts. Pilates works best there. The method always did.