All You Need To Know About Pilates

Asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever – yes this is what a young boy named Joseph was born with in Germany in the 1880s. Due to his poor health condition, he started trying out different martial arts like boxing, jiu-jitsu and gymnastics. As Joseph got older, he realised the importance of breathing, maintaining the correct posture and balancing a healthy lifestyle.

As he grew, he started joining the dots and developed a concept which was an integration of mind and body in performing physical movements, which he called Contrology. He started using this concept for his own health benefit on a regular basis.

After he got married, Joseph started his own dance studio in the USA, which become famous due to his exercise regimen that was used on his students to improve their strength, flexibility and endurance. With his growing fame, people started following his exercise plans on a regular basis not only in the USA, but worldwide!

This young man was nobody but – Joseph PILATES – the inventor of the famous concept of exercises- Contrology, which is now well known as Pilates!

Pilates is the use of core muscles (abdominal, pelvic floor and back) in combination with an appropriate breathing technique to provide a strong support to the spine. It is said that, the stronger the core, the less the chances of having injuries to the extremities, that is arms and legs.

As a simple example, regular runners would load their hips and knees a lot less if they have a stronger core as the body weight transmitted to these joints would be controlled or would be taken care of by the core muscles. This leaves them with less susceptibility to injuries like gluteal tendinopathy, patella-femoral pain syndrome, osteoarthritis, meniscus or ligament damage, etc.

Pilates as a form of exercise is also beneficial to people who have an ongoing pathology or who want to prevent any kind of injuries in the future!

There are different TYPES of PILATES:

1. Mat Pilates – This form does not need any equipment other than a mat. There are more than 100 types of exercises that can be done on the mat!

2. Reformer Pilates – Special kind of machines called reformers are used in this type of Pilates exercise and they all have fantastic names! Classic Reformer, Wunda Chair, Cadillac and Ladder Barrel to name a few!

3. Stott Pilates- This is mainly to restore the normal curvature of the spine by re-aligning the muscles around the spine.

4. Winsor Pilates – This is a concept which is a combination of performing the Pilates exercises along with breathing exercises with an ultimate aim of weight loss.

To conclude, I would say, Pilates is not for anyone in particular, it is for everyone! Get yourself a mat, choose a form of Pilates and reach out to find someone who can teach you how to do Pilates.

Get your core strong and get rid of unnecessary aches and pains!