Sean Vigue - Pilates for Athletes

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PILATES FOR ATHLETES

Text copyright 2021 Sean Vigue

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-57826-839-9

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Cover and Interior Design by Carolyn Kasper

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L ower! Go lower, Sean!

The choreographer was yelling at me, as I struggled to squat lower and lower into what I now call the Russian Dance of Death from Fiddler on the Roof. It was 2004, and I was in rehearsals for this classic show at the Actor's Playhouse in Coral Gables, Florida, when I found myself thrown into a horrendous dance number which involves squatting low and then popping up with great force, all while keeping your arms crossed and maintaining a pleasant look on your face. The more we practiced, the more I felt my legs and back getting exhausted.

Lower, Sean! Go lower and jump up faster! she yelled again.

All at once I heard and felt a POP in my lower backwhich was not supposed to happen. It was the kind of POP which you know immediately is not going to disappear after a few seconds or go away on its own. Nope, that was the kind of POP a serious strain makes, and I knew right away I was in trouble.

For weeks, I would attend rehearsals only to lay in the aisle of the theater while everyone else sang, danced and stepped over meincluding the choreographer, who seemed to be oblivious to my newfound aching and sedentary condition.

Lying on my back whenever I could, walking hunched over... I felt 100 years old. I felt inadequate. I felt depressed. I had just finished three months doing a production of West Side Story a few weeks earlier that had me lifting weights every day. I was feeling in tip top shape without a hint of back issues.

How did it come to this? Why had it come to this? And how could I fix this and make sure it never happened again?

My name is Sean Vigue, and this is how I came to be introduced to Pilates... and how the book you're holding came to be. If you would've asked me then if I was a fit and healthy personif I trained every day to stay fit and healthyI would have told you emphatically, Yes! I was addicted to the gym. If I didn't make a daily pilgrimage to the gym, I would feel inadequate, out of shape, pointless, sad, you name it. When I was traveling for my professional theater jobs, one of the first things I would do upon arriving in a new location was to find and join a local gym. I loved to strength train with weights; in fact, that's all I ever did. It wasn't until I hurt my back that I realized a piece of my training was severely lacking.

My conditioning was inadequate in three crucial areas: 1) core training, 2) flexibility training, and 3) mobility training. Long story short, I was not training my body to move in a graceful, fluid way and as a result, when faced with a new way of movingthe Russian Dance of Deathmy limited core strength, flexibility and mobility talents were not sufficient enough to withstand the strain, and my body reacted by seizing up and not permitting me to continue. It's very difficult for your body to lie to you... and mine was screaming at the top of its lungs that I needed to change my fitness ways. The days of coasting on my youth were over. It was time to take charge so this wouldn't happen again.

The style of Pilates featured in this book is referred to as Pilates mat. Pilates mat is just as the title implies: Pilates workouts using only an exercise mat. No equipment, no apparatus, no machinesonly your bodyweight is needed for these exercises, workouts and flows.

When I injured my back, I had only briefly heard of this training program called Pilates (I didn't even know if I was pronouncing it correctly). The only mention I'd heard up to that point was at the Broadway Dance Center in New York where I would take jazz classes in between my theater gigs to stay limber and improve my poor dancing skills. (I was a park and bark kind of guymeaning I preferred to plant my feet, stand tall and deliver my lines or songs with great strength, volume and gusto.)

So, no surprise: I attended my first Pilates mat class and was struck by three things: 1) I lacked body control, 2) my core (abs, low back, glutes, hips... in other words, the center of my body and the source of all power and support) was weak and imbalanced, and 3) I was in love with this new way of moving. I had never experienced a workout like this. The emphasis was all on things I never much thought about before: namely, good form, breath, fluid movements, constant improvement through a particular exercise, and a large dose of endurance training.

It's rather difficult for me to put into words how I felt during and after that first class. The feeling was overwhelming. This is because watching Pilates and doing Pilates are a universe apart. Watching someone perform the Pilates 100 exercise has nothing to do with getting on the mat, extending your legs, pumping your arms to a 5-count rhythm, all while stabilizing your core, lifting your legs and tightening your abs on the exhales. When all these actions are mixed into one purpose-filled exercise, the amount of exertion, release, challenge and enjoyment is... well, indescribable.

I began to train my fellow actors in Pilates and core strengthening to keep us healthy through endless rehearsals and 8-10 shows per week. Singing, dancing and moving on stage requires a lot of control and spatial awareness, and Pilates was perfect for helping us hone these skills. We found we had so much more energy for performances now, because we were no longer suffering from the energy depletion of poor posture, shallow breathing and a compressed body from lack of flexibility.

Eventually, I was teaching and building my own Pilates classes for whomever wanted to attendpower lifters, desk jockeys, triathletes, dancers, golfers, former athletes, couch potatoes, weightlifters, stay-at-home moms, coaches... the list goes on and on. If you came to class, I would make sure you worked to your level. Pilates is extremely versatile that way; it meets you exactly where your mind and body are waiting. It guides you. It pushes you with a firm gentleness. It wins you over on those days when you absolutely don't want to train. It is a conditioning partner for life. It is yours.