Pilates

“It is the mind that builds the body” – Joseph Pilates

Founded by Joseph H. Pilates more than 90 years ago, and with more than 500 exercises being designed, The Pilates Method is a program that improves muscle control, flexibility, coordination, strength and tone through physical and mental conditioning. Pilates’ work is concerned with the process itself.

Pilates gives us the opportunity to deepen our self awareness and evolve to a higher level of physical and mental heath. It works by building strength from the inside – out and rebalancing the body.

The Technique

The Pilates technique originally termed “Contrology” is divided into two categories. Mat work and equipment work. Pilates is a multi-muscle exercise technique and the following principles are applied.

1. Concentration
With many exercise technique and programs you can switch off while exercising, but with Pilates based exercise every movement is a thought process and every movement is controlled by thought. The “mind body” side of this technique is that you block out other thoughts out whilst focusing on the movement.

2. Breathing
It is a huge part of this technique but you will find the hardest to perfect and yet the most important to be perfected. For Pilates exercise, you may have to retrain yourself to breathe in a new way -learn to breathe into the back in the area that expands the small ribs. In other words, rather than having our breath expand the front of our chest outward or puff our stomach out, we need to concentrate on filling the bottom most portion of our lungs. We should get the sensation that we are breathing into the small of the back. This form of deep breathing allows us to bend and move without restricting the amount of oxygen that we are taking in. we called it posterior lateral breathing - you breathe sideways from the back of your lungs.

3. Centering
Core is the basis of our posture and the way we carry ourselves as we move. The muscles of the torso, as in the back and the abdominals are areas of major focus. We spend most of the day sitting at work, so exercises that improve the way we sit are exercises we require daily. So to sit correctly we need to balance well or train the centering of the core area. In Pilates, your centre is your “Powerhouse”. Every exercise is controlled by the contraction of the abdominal group, also the postural muscles.

4. Control
Control is an essential key to the quality of your movement. With this form of exercise you do not have to overly exert yourself. You do not struggle, you will not be flailing your limbs here and there but you will be moving with the grace of a dancer, having several parts of the body engaged in mindful movement simultaneously.

5. Precision
To get the body to perform a certain exact position at the beginning is difficult but routine in the technique leads to control of the movement and therefore the exact final execution.

6. Flowing Movement
All exercises are a continuous movement as in a wheel turning continuously with the same speed throughout the range of movement. The quality of being graceful while you perform this movement stems from the fluidity of one movement seamlessly blending into the next.

7. Isolation
The Pilates based exercise challenges each person differently as with different body types as we all have different strengths and weakness. The educational side of the technique is that through the balancing effects, we begin to learn our bodies’ structure and therefore the ultimate control of the different muscle groups that we isolate.

8. Routine
The technique and the final routine is perfect through consistent practice. Be patient with yourself through this phase of mind training and you will be rewarded with a new you and a totally different perspective of the power of yourself through Pilates.

Top