To Pilates or not to Pilates? That is the Question!

March MATness is here - the month where people all over the world come together to celebrate their love of pilates. This week Naomi is sharing why she loves Pilates, plus all the wonderful benefits it brings to you.

Pilates has changed my body in ways I could not imagine – I feel taller (yes, even taller than I already am), more toned, more in tune with how I move, and more flexible. It has also allowed me to build a lovely bond and community with all you lovely people who already come to my classes.

^{I could sing Pilates’s praises all day because it enables us to move our body together in the most optimal way we can, like a fine tuned orchestra. Still not sure if you could benefit from it? Read below about the top 7 benefits of Pilates.}

Pilates – Clinical vs Classical

Starting to exercise can feel daunting and worrying, especially if you have previously had a nasty injury. Physio’s who are also trained in Pilates can give you more confidence you are doing the right thing for your body. They have a more in-depth knowledge of both the injury and rehabilitation process needed to get you back to living life to the full. That is why we make sure we assess and teach you the basics before you come in – especially if you are new to Pilates.

Working in smaller groups with your therapist come Pilate’s instructor gives you more hands on time and corrections during your workout. For many, doing regular classes like this saves them having to have more costly one to one appointment with their therapist. They get to do their physio during their workout. Fantastic! This also means that your Pilates classes can be more tailored to what you want to do. Want to work on abdominal strength? Right on. Maybe you want to improve your balance? No problem!

The 7 key benefits:

Body Awareness

Pilates is a mind-body practice that enhances our body awareness of where your limbs are in space (proprioception). The attention inward and focus on working certain body regions allows for a deeper feeling of comfort, emotions, and your environment. This is often why we start classes with breathing practice.

Better body awareness allows us to respond to stimulus better, preventing injuries and falls. A study from Health Psychology in 2018, showed that it can even help with overeating as you become more in tune with your cues.

Alignment

Pilates helps you gain more optimal alignment in how you hold your body (posture) and how you maintain this as you move. You learn where your weight should be, so your limbs and trunk work in the best possible way. Using both verbal and hands on cues, you will learn to co-ordinate muscles to lengthen and shortening, whilst maintaining the most optimal postural alignment available to you, as you move.

We are all different and need different cues. We need to avoid bracing and tense positions. When standing developing the ability to get your weight over your midfoot with knees slightly soft (not locked) is a great place to start.

Strength

Pilates teaches you how to activate your muscles throughout movement. This is great when you’ve been protecting or compensating for injuries.

Pilates exercises are easily adapted by a skilled therapist, to support your joints with bands, pillows or straps. Starting with lower impact exercise, in positions that don’t involve gravity, is key to starting the strength building process then SLOWLY adding load. Pilates is a great start point with easily progressed levels, to add load, make movements harder and build overall strength.

By doing these things you will get stronger throughout range and co-ordinating muscles. This type of strengthening is crucial in stopping the impact of arthritis on your movement. Building strength like this has been shown to help with balance, as well as injury and fall prevention.

Here's what one lovely client said after joining Pilates classes to help with her knee injury:

Here's what Emily said after joining Pilates with the Health Hub

"After injuring my knee skiing, Pilates classes helped with strength and recovery and stiffness, as well as understanding how to prevent further injury"

- Emily

Flexibility

As we age, we become less flexible, and sometimes stretching doesn’t make any difference. This is a common concern we hear, as well as struggling to kneel or get up off the floor!

All muscles need to learn how to lengthen AND shorten under load, whilst working on precision and alignment too. The repertoire of exercises can be adapted to the individual, enabling you to develop strength over bigger ranges of movement. Pilates allows you to stretch and work on joint and whole-body flexibility in a really controlled, supported way.

Opening more movement in your body allows you to optimise posture corrections that previously were stiff or blocked to you. This is often why people feel “taller” after a class.

"my mobility has improved and my new found “needle thread” from pilates meant my golfing improved too - I even went on to win the Captains Prize!"

- Harry (Farmer H)

Shape and Tone

When done right, Pilates helps work on all your muscles on the front, back and sides of your body. By strengthening them, you increase their “tone”. This is because muscle and fat tissue look different under the skin, so by increasing muscle you will develop a different “shape”. This is a great way of noticing if muscle groups are or aren't working correctly.

If you notice certain muscle groups aren’t shaping up, it is likely your brain can’t “find” them due to how you’ve got used to moving. This can sometimes happen. A catch up with your therapist for a one-to-one can figure out why and get you on track with activating them properly.

Endurance

You will develop the strength first, then get the endurance over time as you persist with your practice. Initially you may need some breaks between exercises (as your muscles tire) but over time the goal is to fluidly move from one movement to the next.

Always focus on your form and correct especially when tiring. This will pay dividends with your overall strength and lead to far better endurance. Remember quality over quantity!

Stress Relief

There is no hiding from it, stress is having a massive impact on our physical and mental wellbeing these days.

Practicing Pilates can play a pivotal role in relieving stress as follows:

• You get much-needed time to focus on yourself and your body. You become present to the moment.
• The focus on breathing is key. The calming effect of a simple breath practice can be felt for hours, if not days after.
• Your brain responds when you exercise by releasing endorphins. These natural chemicals give you a sense of wellbeing, and act as a natural pain killer. 

Pilates is hard when done right, but so rewarding. If you're not already part of our wonderful community, come and give it a go, or speak to one of our fabulous team about what it can do for you.

What's your favourite thing about Pilates? Let us know in the comments

With love

Vic

and the HealthHub Team

P.S. We only have a few spaces left in our Pilates classes, so if you want these wonderful benefits give us a call quick to find out how to join, before they fill up. Call 01548 852 355 or contact [email protected]