5 advantages of Pilates
1
_
What is the purpose of Pilates?
Many link Pilates to “core” strength, but there’s so much more involved than simply leading you through crunches. While it’s true Pilates will strengthen your abs, it also strengthens and balances all of the other muscles in your body by helping you move from your “powerhouse.”
Your powerhouse is everything from your ribcage to your hips/pelvis area, basically your trunk and lower spine. When you’re more connected to this area you help yourself move in the way you are designed, leaving joints decompressed, soft tissues and bones happier, and room for internal organs to function optimally. We think of Pilates as a whole body movement experience, intended to uniformly develop the body through intentional exercises and healthy movement patterns.
2
_
What are the benefits of Pilates?
Pilates exercises encourage you to move in alignment from a strong and organized powerhouse, which leads to improved posture, hip mobility, joint health, improved breathing capacity, spinal decompression, toned muscles, and increased circulation.
The concentration and focus required in a Pilates session gives it a meditative quality as you leave all external problems at the door and focus solely on your present physical sensations. You will leave a Pilates session feeling more alive, integrated, lengthened, calm and strong.
3
_
Who does Pilates?
Everyone. Our clients include a wide variety of individuals looking to improve their health, well-being, and performance. People use Pilates to find structural alignment, calm their mind, improve body awareness, and prevent injury. Athletes come to Pilates as a means of cross training and muscle injury prevention, spinal injury prevention, and hip injury prevention.
Pilates corrects muscle imbalances and creates a greater connection to your body that can be applied to any sport. Everyone from your next door neighbor to professional athletes benefit from the holistic whole body approach of the Pilates method.
4
_
What is Pilates good for?
The benefits of Pilates include improved overall fitness and health, injury prevention, and injury rehabilitation. People with existing injuries or movement limitations incorporate Pilates into their lives for a catered exercise routine that’s free from additional harm and tailored just for them. Many Pilates exercises are safe and therapeutic for common spinal conditions like herniated discs, vertebrae fusions, spondylosis, stenosis, sciatica, etc.
Healthy individuals incorporate Pilates as a means of self-care, stress reduction, and holistic exercise. Pilates exercises help iron out maladaptive movement patterns in the spine, hips, knees, shoulders, etc. to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on our parts that can lead to future injuries.
5
_
Why does Pilates work?
Pilates effectiveness stems from its precision, individual instruction, and intelligent use of equipment and exercises that train your body in a variety of planes of space and ranges of motion. A Pilates session requires all of your focus as you become more aware and therefore more in control of how you move through space. The movement intelligence gained in a Pilates session translates to how you use your body throughout the rest your of life, reinstating healthy supported movement patterns.