If you are looking for health benefits or are new to Pilates, Pilates can play a role in Wellness but Pilates may not be the most effective or efficient option for positive health changes. With that in mind, here are a few things you need to know.
Origins of Pilates
Pilates is a form of exercise, developed by Joseph Pilates while interned as a prisoner of the English during World War II. He was trying to keep fit and developed a system that emphasizes the development of the body with body weight exercises, through trunk or core strength, flexibility, and movement awareness. He was a circus performer and he did this in order to support efficient, graceful movement of his craft. Reports are that he would do these exercises all day long.
He eventually moved to New York and opened a studio that put him in close proximity to a number of dance studios. This led to his “discovery” by the dance community. Many dancers and well-known persons of New York used the Pilates system to train for the strength and grace it developed over time, as well as for its rehabilitative effects. Until exercise science investigated the Pilates exercise principles in the 1980s and the surge of interest in Pilates that we have today got underway, it was chiefly dancers and elite athletes who promoted this approach as a way to crosstrain and round out their activities.
Pilates and Wellness and Change
Pilates today is best suited to a one-on-one program with an instructor to get to a level of substantial movement ability before being a part of a group class. It seems like everyone is either doing Pilates, or interested in starting a Pilates exercise program because at the one-on-one level it can work well for a wide range of people. Athletes and dancers find it useful, as do seniors, women during post pregnancy, and people who are at various stages of physical rehabilitation. So at a basic level you can get a great Wellness experience and a bit of a Change result.
Principles of Pilates:
The six concepts of Pilates are; Centering, Control, Movement Flow, Breath, Precision, and Concentration. Pilates emphasizes quality of movement over quantity and Pilates exercises do not include a lot of repetitions for each move. Instead, doing each exercise fully, with precision, is the goal. As Pilates was developed without the use of resistance equipment, precise body weight movements are the focus. The trunk muscles are a big focus which involve the deep, internal muscles of the abdomen and back. When the core muscles are strong and doing their job, they work in tandem with the more superficial muscles of the trunk to support the spine and movement.
A better option for Change;
Our goal at Well Effect is to be your guide and get the change you are looking for with our comprehensive approach to Resolve Injuries, Transform Body, Align Posture, and Food Intake. We have spent a lot of time researching the most effective and sustainable methods to create “Change”. We carefully evaluate the current popular paradigms and explain their pros and cons. We teach you what activities to do in the right mix for what your body needs and guide you towards optimal health based upon the principles of Soma Science℠. Weight gain, declining physical ability, nagging injury or pain is not inevitable. Our clients’ successes are pretty incredible. We see them evolve and change as they start to look better, live better, and feel better. As they do, they develop a feeling of wellness and empowerment that gives us our name. They experience a Well Effect™.
We have had fantastic success helping guide our clients to strengthen their trunk muscles, align their posture, addressing any deficits at the source of the problem in a once and for all solve it for good approach. Our ability to balance your body and give it the strength and awareness of proper form is a great way to start a program and be successful.
Learn more about our “Complete Core Strength” program and take advantage of our current promotion!
Oh, one last thing, our Complete Core Strength program, doesn’t make you do any sit-ups or planks
Be Well,
John Jamesapollos