What is Pilates?
Pilates is a physical fitness system that was created by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century. German-born Joseph Pilates was often sick as a young child with asthma and other physical ailments. Determined to strengthen his body as a young adult, he began studying yoga, meditation, martial arts and various other exercises.
During World War I, he was serving as an orderly at a hospital and developed a rehabilitation program for non-ambulatory soldiers. In fact, he crafted the earliest version of the Pilates Reformer by attaching springs to hospital beds, and doctors observed the patients he was working with were recovering more rapidly.
Joseph Pilates spent the next few years developing the Pilates method and brought it to the United States in 1923. By the 1960s, the Pilates method had become popular among dances in New York before making its way to Hollywood in the 1970s. It was found to be of great benefit for anyone seeking to improve their fitness.
Pilates practiced precise movements with fewer repetitions, focusing on control and technique. He believed mental and physical health were essential to one another, creating what is a method of total body conditioning. Pilates uses correct alignment, centering, concentration, control, precision, breathing and flowing movement (the Pilates principles) to establish a perfect working body from the inside out.
Pilates classes build strength, flexibility and lean muscle tone with an emphasis on lengthening the body and aligning the spine, rather than bulking and shortening the muscles. Pilates has a focus on the core which can basically be thought of as the “powerhouse” of your body. Your core is the area between your shoulders and your pelvis (without your arms and legs) and encompasses all the muscles within this area. The essential, intrinsic core muscles are your transverse abdominus, pelvic floor and multifidus muscles, which we learn to train as part of the Pilates method.
Because of its core focus, Pilates is popular not only in the field of fitness but also in rehabilitation. It can be used to progress individuals through movements that represent their day-to-day activities. The focus on strengthening the core and improving postural awareness are especially well indicated for the alleviation and prevention of back, neck and joint pain.
What are the benefits of the Pilates Reformer?
The Pilates Reformer is a popular piece of equipment, featuring a sleek pulley system consisting of a sliding carriage and springs with varying degrees of tension. The Reformer is an adaptable apparatus full of various movement options that are perfect for beginners, challenging for the avid fitness enthusiast and suitable for those recovering from an injury. The Reformer can build muscular endurance efficiently in a non-weight-bearing manner, making it more comfortable for the joints.
How is a Pilates Reformer used?
One of the biggest advantages of the Reformer is the versatility it offers. A wide range of exercises can be performed using a variety of options and positions, including:
- Lying down
- Sitting
- Standing
- Perched on the footbar
- Pushing the footbar
- Perched on the shoulder blocks
- Upside down
- Sideways
- With additional equipment
- Pulling the straps
The equipment’s versatility and required, dynamic movements keep the body and the mind guessing, making Reformer Pilates a workout that never gets boring and always keeps muscles challenged.
Why Pilates Reformer?
Suitable for All Fitness Levels: All levels are welcome for Reformer Pilates. Whether you are completely new to Pilates and working out or are an advanced practitioner, there are always ways to challenge yourself with the Reformer.
Core Strength: Pilates is famously known for its emphasis on the core — the center of the body from which all movement stems. Pilates improves core strength and function. Core strength helps to decrease back and hip pain while reducing pelvic floor dysfunction. The core, nicknamed “the powerhouse,” is the area from which explosive movement begins!
Improves Posture: Pilates focuses on the full body’s alignment, ideal range of motion at the joints and a balance of all opposing muscles. It improves posture by bringing awareness to your alignment and strengthening neglected postural muscles.
Pilates Can Help Reduce Back Pain: Pilates targets the deeper abdominal muscles and the pelvic floor to both contract and release — a true sign of strength. These muscles work like a brace to lift and support the organs while protecting and stabilizing the back.
Pilates Can Help Prevent Injuries: Pilates helps balance the muscles of the body, neither loose and weak, nor tight and rigid. Muscles that are too loose and weak or too tight and rigid can make the body more susceptible to injury. Pilates focuses on developing dynamic strength, which means you are better able to support and stabilize your joints while moving.
Pilates Can Help Us Increase Energy: Focusing on breath through Pilates stimulates feel-good hormones, oxygen flow and blood circulation; Pilates can do all this and leave us feeling energetic!
Pilates Can Improve Flexibility & Mobility: Flexibility is the amount of passive stretch in a muscle and mobility is the range of motion at a joint. Good mobility requires flexibility but also strength. Mobility is something you should strive for, while flexibility in and of itself isn’t functional. You need a balance of strength and flexibility to optimize mobility. Pilates practice keeps moving with smooth transitions between precise and slow, controlled movements. Instead of stretching after a strengthening exercise, most Pilates exercises are a combination flexibility and mobility.
Improves Balance: Balance is important at any age, and Pilates improves balance and gait not only through core strengthening but also because of its focus on alignment and whole-body exercises.
Pilates Boosts Your Mood: Exercise of any sort offers that magical elixir of mood-boosting endorphins, and Pilates can help reduce anxiety, fatigue and depressive symptoms.
Benefits of Pilates in Pregnancy: Modified Pilates supports the ever-changing body throughout pregnancy. It alleviates the pressure from a growing baby with its target on the muscles of the butt, core and pelvic floor. Pilates, through its focus on the breath, body awareness and strengthening benefits, can prepare you mentally and physically for labor and birth.
Benefits of Pilates for Weight Loss: Pilates can change your shape through toning and its emphasis on alignment and improving posture. It’s known for working from the inside out and can give you the appearance of being taller and slimmer.
What is an EXO Chair?
Originally designed by Joseph Pilates as a compact workout system for apartments, chair workouts enhance stability, balance and body control. Chair Pilates tones the entire body from head to toe and improves balance by challenging the muscles with bodyweight, coordination and spring resistance. The chair is excellent for both seated and standing work. The padded, split pedal adds rotational and reciprocal movements of the joints and extremities. This full-body exercise experience, focusing on upper- and lower-body strength and conditioning, makes the chair a great tool for all types of athletes.
What is a Wall Tower?
Wall Towers provide trapeze table function in a very compact space. The Wall Tower is great for beginners, perfect for range-of-motion-improving exercises as it helps to build long, lean muscle; tone the body; and adds a greater challenge to simple floor exercises. Unlike the Reformer, which moves back and forth on metal rails, the tower remains stationary. Positioned on the wall, movement occurs by holding onto to either handles or the group of grab bars attached to springs of varying tension (light or heavy). Lower body work can be done by placing feet inside loops that attach to springs to work the lower body. The stable base of the tower can make it less intimidating than the Reformer with its moving parts. In fact, the Tower can be ideal for beginning students as well as those who are recovering from injuries.
The ideal range of motion in Tower exercises is moderate so as not to over-stretch the joints; many of the exercises are performed in a seated position or lying down face up, which is grounding both physically and mentally, a plus for those who get dizzy or have a fear of heights. There’s something almost mesmerizing about watching the movement of the springs, but at the same time, feeling safe and supported by the apparatus.
