Pilates

Rediscover corestrenght with Pilates, a jargon free course designed to strenghten and streamline your body by working from its center. Pilates aligns the muscles in the back and abdominals, to create a vital support for the torso and internal organs, with a revolutionary impact on posture.

History

Recently it has become almost impossible to open a magazine and not find mention of a Pilates-based exercise programme. Everbody is talking about this new form of exercise,especially having seen the way it has sculpted the celebrities such as Courtney Love, Sophie Dahl, Madonna and Melanie Griffiths. We jogged in the 70's, did aerobics in the 80's, took up weight taining in the 90's; in the new millenium we are discovering te mind-body experience.

In reality, Pilates has been around for a century. For ballet dancers, t has been a well kept secret as the perfect way to become strong and centered without bulding bulk. Only in the past few years has the fitness world embraced Pilates, and this accounts for its sudden well-deserved popularity as a form of exercise.

The Pilates Method is a physical fitness system that was developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates . He was born in Germany in 1880. He as a sickly child and suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever , which left him with a burning desire to become stronger. By the age of 14 he was an avid body-builder with a well sculpted physic. He practised all types of sports, uch as skiing, diving and gymnastis. At 32 he moved to England,where h made hs living as a boxer, circus performer and self-defence insructor for detectives.

When World War 1 broke out he was interned in the Isle of Man. Being such a keen fan of exercise, Pilates decided that his fellow internees should get fit under his training. He also worked as a hospital orderly, encountering many war casualties. He started working with some of the disabled patients, using his own body weight to move their limbs and devising special equipment to aid their progress. This consisted of springs attached to their hospital beds which gave gentle resistance to aid muscle strenghtening and stretching: these were the prototypes of the machines that are use today.

Pilates believed that imbalances in the body and habitual patterns of movement cause injuries. He observed the link between weak areas of the body and over-compensation (if you are weak in one area the rest of the body has to suport the imbalance), and the exercises he devised were based around re-education and the re-allignment of the body.

In 1926 Pilates and his wife Clara moved to New York where they set up an exercise studio.By 1940 the dance community had become aware of his fitness programmes, including George Balanchine and other members of the New York City Ballet.

Pilates had a number of students who went on to set up their own studios and so the method spread., each teacher adding their personal twists, as they continue to do today. It would be rare to find two instructors who teach Pilates in exactly the same way.

Since Pilates's death, followers of his methods have modified the original 34 exercises and made them more userfriendly. The Pilates method is exercised in one of the two ways; using equipment called a re-former, an updated version of the original springs, or as free body exercises using only a mat.

Pilates practitioners use their own bodies as "weights" in training, to build strength, and flexibility. This is targeted without a focus on high-powered cardiovascular exercise. Today, Pilates is used in the rehabilitation process by many physical therapists. Pilates is an old approach to movement re-education that is becoming popular in the field of fitness and rehabilitation. The Pilates environment can be used as an assistive environment that optimizes the acquisition of movement with a reduction of destructive forces and can be used to progress individuals through more challenging movements that represent their day-to-day activities. Research and theories in motor learning, biomechanics, and musculoskeletal physiology help support the phenomena experienced by many Pilates-based practitioners; however, the Pilates-based approach needs to be subjected to the rigors of research to better evaluate its efficacy in the field of rehabilitation.

The Benefits of Pilates

The Pilates programme is very enjoyable and you should soon feel results which will motivate you to continue. If you adhere to it you will be rewarded by improved posture, an enhanced feeling of balance, reduction in aches, pains and stiffness, greater flexibility and a longer, leaner, more toned body. As your posture improves , you will look as if you have lost weight, an done of the most frequently heard comments heard from people who are new to Pilates is that they feel ‘as if they were grown'. This is because they have learned to lenghten up through the spine to its maximum potential, making them look slimmer and feel more confident. Regular Pilates sessions will help your co-ordination and enhance your balance, which is of special importance through theaging process. You will gain strenght in a balanced way, so that tight, tense areas are streched and weak ones strenghtened. The realignment of your body will also make it easier for you to use it correctly. You will feel more relaxed and less stressed and will possibly benefit from other ‘by-products' such as more refreshing sleep, more energy, extra alertness during waking hours and a general sense of well-being.