Knowing Pilates

By Angela Winter


A type of exercise developed by Joseph Pilates of Germany, Pilates is being practiced by a lot of people already. It is also known as one of the most widely-practiced type of exercise. The main focus of this type of exercise is balanced development of the body that can be attained through core strength, awareness and flexibility and body conditioning. If done appropriately and regularly, Pilates can give a lot of benefits to the body.

Effects of Pilates to the body:

1. Pilates helps in toning the body and enhance its overall flexibility. But unlike other forms of exercises, Pilates is not focused on using weight lifting exercises to tone the muscles of the body. Instead, it makes use of other different apparatuses to achieve this goal.

2. To perform activities that require agility and muscle strength, it is important for a person to have these abilities or at least to develop these abilities. Another good effect that one person can get in doing Pilates is developing agility and muscle strength making him perform a lot of tasks that require muscle strength and agility.

3. Another benefit that one can get in doing Pilates is the pevention of injuries and opportunity to properly use correct body mechanics and appropriate posture.

4. Doing Pilates will not only make your heart and lungs healthier, it may also help you to improve your breathing efficiency.

5. If you are suffering from injuries, practicing Pilates will also aid in the recovery and rehabilitation of that injury.

6. Practicing Pilates may also help in alleviating chronic pain sufferings. Thus people will be able to enjoy improved quality of life.

These are some of the benefits we get in doing Pilates exercise but it is also important to remember to ask the help of a Pilates instructor on what form of Pilates exercise is appropriate for you individually. Also, for pregnant women, Pilates exercise is not prohibited but doing this exercise, as with any other forms of exercise, should only be done with the approval of your doctor and with the guidance of a trained Pilates expert.

Philip Friedman and Gail Eisen, two students was able to outline the six principles of Pilates exercise. These are the six principles of Pilates:

1. Centering is the first principle of Pilates that is mainly focused to achieve control over the body with the use of a starting point.

2. The second principle of Pilates is control which makes a person concentrate on ahchieving control, specifically musle control, over his own body. This principle can be achieved by properly doing every aspect of the Pilates exercise.

3. Flow or moving with efficiency-One goal to be achieved when doing the Pilates exercise is to attain the proper flow of exercises in a way that the movement of the body should be well-coordinated. In this way, body precision will be achieved resulting in increased stamina and stronger body.

4. Breathing-this is one of the most important principle in Pilates. Once a person is practicing Pilates appropriately, breathing pattern is expected to improve and will improve oxygenation on the body.

5.The fifth principle of Pilates is Precision. This is mainly defined as having people who perform Pilates do the exercises with 100 accuracy to ensure that the benefits of doing the exercise will be maximized.

6. Concentration-extreme focus is also one important principle in Pilates exercise. An individual practicing Pilates need to fully concentrate on their body while doing the exercise to achieve smooth transition of movements.

As with any other kinds of exercises, one must do Pilates properly and accurately to obtain the result that they are looking forward to. Aside from that, an individual must have proper discipline for them to actively participate in doing Pilates exercises. Also, for beginners, they might want to consult or ask help from Pilates experts before performing the different kinds of Pilates exercises and making use of different Pilates exercise tools for safety purposes.




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