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FOUR CORNERS RULE – “The Deal”

ONLINE PILATES MAT CLASSES BY THE LIFT GIRL www.liftgirlpilates.com

I learned a lot about the term, “four corners,” when I was setting up my Online business through our attorney. I don’t speak attorney-ese so he had to explain it to me a few times, but then I got it.

The definition of FOUR CORNERS: A rule holding that if a document (as a contract, deed, or will) appears on its face to be complete, no outside evidence may be used to challenge it.

For example, if you had a sheet of paper with information about a subject, you could ONLY use the information in between the FOUR CORNERS of that particular sheet of paper to convey your idea or point. At no time (okay, now I’m speaking attorney-ese; it’s contagious) are you able to use any outside information to make your case. You had better have what “the deal” is on that sheet of paper. Otherwise, you will not achieve your goal. That’s why it’s called the FOUR CORNERS rule…meaning “the deal.”

Well, in Pilates, the Four Corners rule comes up all the time. The Pilates FOUR CORNERS are the shoulder bones and the hip bones. If you were to draw a line between those four points, you would have a rectangle. Joe often called this area the Powerhouse. All the energy is supposed to emanate from within those four corners going outward. This is hard to achieve because most of our lives are spent using our extremities.

I never introduce clients to the equipment until most of their movement comes from their center. Otherwise, they’re just pulling on the straps, using force and momentum to open the spring…and that’s not Pilates. That’s something else. The extremities should be used for support and perhaps a little bit of balance, but that’s it. These particular muscles should be long lean and useful, not big, bulky, and tight.

If avid runners and cyclists were to spend a third of their time on strengthening their core, they would be able to achieve better results. They would be faster, have more endurance, recover quicker, and be able to do all of these things even well into their seventies!  So many of them over-use their extremities until they have tendinitis somewhere in their body. It’s completely unnecessary and totally avoidable. When you’re strong in your core, you’re lighter in your joints. It’s really that simple.

So, spend time strengthening what’s in between your four corners. If your “deal” is strong, powerful, useful, dynamic, and flexible, you won’t have any trouble making your case!

…And that’s the Deal with Pilates.

Bye for now!