What is Pilates
The philosophy of Pilates focuses in training the body and mind to work together toward the goal of overall fitness, improving strength, mobility and flexibility...
What is Pilates?
The philosophy of Pilates focuses in training the body and mind to work together toward the goal of overall fitness, improving strength, mobility and flexibility. Much emphasis is placed on posture and the part played by the core muscles; many general aches and pains and indeed, some more serious health issues can be traced back to poor posture. Many therapists are advising their clients to practise Pilates for this reason.
Pilates is a form of exercise that if performed regularly, re-establishes correct muscle recruitment which restores good posture. This is achieved by identifying which muscles are weak, strong, short, long etc. and then correcting the muscle imbalances by stretching and relaxing tight, short muscles and strengthening weak, long ones.
The Principles of Pilates
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1. Concentration - With many types of exercise class you can almost ‘switch off’ whilst executing the program but with Pilates, every movement is controlled by thought. The mind creates the body. Pilates is often called the thinking way of moving. So the mind/body part of this exercise program is that you block out other thoughts whilst you focus on the movement.
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2. Breathing - Breathing is a huge part of the technique and often quite challenging for beginners.
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3. Centring - The torso and back are areas that need a lot of attention nowadays. Many of us spend a lot of the day sitting at work so exercises that help improve the way we sit are extremely useful. To do this we need to balance or centre our torso area. In Pilates this area is called the ‘Power House.’ Every exercise is controlled by contraction of the deep abdominal muscles.
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4. Control - By working against gravity we strengthen the body, the slower the movement the greater the strength we can develop.
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5. Precision - We focus on placing the body in a certain exact position at the start of each movement, this leads to control and thus the exact execution of each movement.
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6. Flow - Each movement is flowing and continuous so that through concentric and eccentric movement we develop a balanced and functional training of the body.
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7. Isolation - We learn to isolate muscles and muscle groups as we work them correctly. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and the movements help us to focus on our own bodily requirements for training.
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8. Routine - Repetition and frequency leads to an increase in skill and strength. Pilates does not replace other activity but instead it will strengthen your body for whatever activity you choose to participate in.
The result is a long, lean body with hidden strength. This is all down to Pilates unique effectiveness at restoring the correct way we use and recruit our muscles. In fact, it’s the way we used to move as children.