Pilates
stared out as an exercise only wealthy people could afford, because it was done
on an expensive machine called a Reformer. Joseph Pilates designed the machine
to be used for over a hundred different movements. Each movement uses your
body’s weight as resistance, and offers equal intensity through both sides of
each movement, to work opposing muscle groups equally.
Does Pilates
work to help strengthen muscles? Yes,
and it does so without building muscle bulk that body builders go for. Because
the movements don’t have to be repeated many times for you reap the full
benefits, there’s no bulky muscle building involved. Rather, Pilates lengthens
and tones the muscles, which actually makes them smaller and denser.
Do the
exercises work if you’ve had an injury?
Pilates is renowned for helping prevent injury! And even those who’ve
already suffered back, knee and joint injuries can find the slow and soothing
movements of Pilates will help strengthen the muscles around those joints. It’s
a low impact workout, so there’s no strain or pressure put on joints. This
minimizes the risk of someone injuring themselves again.
Will it
really help you improve your posture like you’ve heard? Because Pilates strengthens the core muscles
of the abdomen and lower back, the entire body is better supported. This can
help someone who’s been doing Pilates workouts walk taller and hold themselves
straighter.
Does Pilates
work to improve all the body’s systems?
While this might seem to be a far-fetched claim, think about all that
Pilates does. It strengthens the muscles while toning and trimming them. It
strengthens the core muscles that support not only the spine but surrounds the
body’s organs and holds them firm. So not only is posture improved, but because
the entire abdominal wall is stronger, it offers more support for your internal
organs.
People who
do Pilates benefit from the deep breathing of the exercises and the controlled
breathing and movement. So not only are your organs better supported, breathing
is improved which helps put more oxygen into your bloodstream. It’s starting to
get easier to see how Pilates can improve your overall health, isn’t it?
Does Pilates
work if you’re really out of shape?
Yes! The beauty of Pilates is
that it doesn’t take long, grueling workout sessions to see benefits. A person
who hasn’t exercised in a long time can start out doing just 5 or 10 minutes of
Pilates movements at a time.
Because of
the great strengthening benefits of Pilates, even a beginner can increase the
time spent working out quite rapidly. Does Pilates work? Try it yourself, and you’ll be able to answer
that much faster than you think!