Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Normally, when you walk into a gym, yoga or Pilates studio, there is usually one long wall with floor to ceiling mirrors.
There are intentionally no mirrors in my studio.
Developing Stronger Proprioception
The first reason has to do with proprioception, or the body’s awareness of self in space. Proprioception is about 75%-80% visual, meaning we use our vision to tell us where we are, what we’re doing and how close we are to other objects. The other 20%-25% is non-visual.
As a Pilates instructor, I am highly interested in that 20%-25% of non-visual proprioception because that’s where we see the body + brain connection really show up. How well do you perform when you can’t see what you’re doing?
Without mirrors, there is no external feedback to rely on to tell you what you’re doing. You have to think, feel and move on your own. What this means, is that your brain and body have to work harder to connect with one another and you really have to focus and build the body awareness.
This is also why we only teach private sessions. In group classes, it’s very easy to copy your neighbor and mimic what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. The problem is two-fold. One, by watching your neighbor, you’ve lost your brain-body connection and any proprioception work. Two, is that your neighbor’s body moves and responds differently than yours and it’s easy to train yourself into habits that don’t belong to your body. Our instructors do not demo entire classes physically with their own bodies for this same reason.
We want the work we are doing to become intrinsic to your body, so we remove as many sources of external feedback as possible.
Trauma Informed Safe Space
Pilates Native is a trauma informed studio. This means the studio space is purposely designed to be a safe space for folks struggling with various forms of trauma.
Mirrors can be highly triggering for people who are actively engaged in or are recovering from eating disorders, body dysmorphia, gender dysmorphia or negative self image.
Exercising in front of a mirror can be especially triggering and/or intimidating.
Distractions
The third reason we don’t have any mirrors is because they’re highly distracting. Instead of focusing on our form, posture or connection, we start analyzing what we look like or what we’re wearing. How many times have you gone to the gym and mid-rep noticed that your hair’s a mess or your socks are different colors? Maybe you use the mirrors to covertly copy the person next to you.
We live a very noisy world visually, so the less distractions we have, the better we can help train our focus and give our nervous system time to settle.
By removing mirrors from the studio space, we can focus on developing proprioception without external feedback, provide a safe space to practice and limit our distractions.