Services - Pilates

What is Pilates?

The Pilates Method is an exercise system focused on improving flexibility and strength for the total body without building bulk. Practiced faithfully, Pilates yields numerous benefits. Increased lung capacity and circulation through deep, healthy breathing is a primary focus. Strength and flexibility, particularly of the abdomen and back muscles, coordination-both muscular and mental, are key components in an effective Pilates program. Posture, balance, and core strength are all heartily increased. Bone density and joint health improve, and many experience positive body awareness for the first time. Pilates teaches balance and control of the body, and that capacity spills over into other areas of one's life.

A physical and mental conditioning program that is today being recognized the world over as an optimum conditioning method for those seeking a long, lean body. It is designed to stretch and strengthen muscles, while simultaneously eliminating the stress normally placed on the joints in other exercise programs. Pilates can be adapted for people at any level of fitness, including those with injuries and limitations.

That work is both intriguing and beneficial because it is a full-body movement system, utilizing full mental engagement or concentration. We actively stabilize certain muscle groups as others move in a coordinated fashion. To achieve proper form and full muscle exertion, we must sustain as much mental concentration as possible because we are always in motion, we're aiming for proper alignment, and we initiate movement from the correct muscle groups.

Each exercise must build upon the proper placement, articulation, energy, flow and shape of the preceding exercise. Pilates exercises are performed on specialized equipment, as well as on the floor.

Reformer Work
The reformer glides forward and backward on rollers and uses springs for resistance, along with other attachments, for a wide variety of exercises and positions. Reformer work improves strength, stability, mobility, endurance, coordination and balance. As we age, our posture tends to deteriorate and can cause spinal degeneration. Reformer work is profoundly helpful at restoring mobility, strength and stability to the spine. Whenever someone has soft tissue damage, there will be neuromuscular compensation in other body parts. For example, if your right side is dominant and our right shoulder rides high, your left shoulder tries to compensate and can hurt. If you do exercises such as lunges and lat pull-downs, you become stronger but not necessarily more in balance. Reformer work helps re-establish balance. When balance is restored we feel better.

Pilates Principles

Concentration - That all-important mind-body connection. Conscious control of movement enhances body awareness.
Control/Precision - It's not about intensity or multiple "reps," it's more about proper form for safe, effective results.
Centering - A mental focus within the body calms the spirit. A particular focus on the torso (abs, pelvic girdle, lower back, gluts), as develops a strong core and enables the rest of the body to function efficiently. All action initiates from the trunk and flows outwards to the extremities.
Stabilizing - Before you move you have to be still. Makes for a safe starting place for mobility.
Breathing - Deep, coordinated, conscious diaphragmatic patterns of inhales and exhales initiate movement, help activate deep muscles and keep you focused.
Alignment - Proper alignment is key to good posture. You'll be aware of the position of your head and neck on the spine and pelvis, right down through the legs and toes.
Fluidity - Smooth, continuous motion rather than jarring repetitions. Pilates has a grace and elegance to it.
Integration - Several different muscle groups are engaged simultaneously to control and support movement. All principles come together, making for a holistic mind-body workout.

Why Pilates?

Change your quality of life Pilates has the ability to change your quality of life. Pilates has been made famous by its ability to lengthen and strengthen muscles, while sculpting the abdominals. In addition to abdominal tone and control. Pilates will improve clients' sense of balance, flexibility, posture, neuromuscular coordination, and grace. Pilates challenges the mind and body, brining a new meaning to the term "full body movement." A Pilates program can be made to fit the lifestyle and goals of anyone, as well as be tailored for any level of student. Most people do not utilize their body's full capacity for movement, striving to improve everything from typical daily activities, to athletic sports and hobbies.

Pilates in Daily Life

• When we walk down the street, we maintain good carriage by lifting and lengthening up through the abdominals.
• When we throw a football or hit a tennis ball, we enjoy enhances coordination and mental awareness by establishing movement in the center and direction effort through our limbs.
• When we ride a bike or ski down a mountain slope, we scoop the abdominals and allow relative suppleness in the torso and limbs.
• When we walk down a staircase, we negotiate improved relations with gravity by stimulating our abdominals inward and upwards.
• When we are in the kitchen reaching into the refrigerator, washing dishes, lifting a heavy cooking pot or gently grasping a Champagne glass, all the core muscles are working in concert to provide balance and grace.

Benefits and Results

• Core strength and stability
• Lean sculpted muscles
• A taller, more poised posture
• Increased flexibility
• Enhances coordination
• Balanced and control of the body
• Increased energy
• Increased bone density
• Increased lung capacity and blood circulation through breathing practice

Pilates work is intriguing and beneficial because it is a full-body movement system, utilizing full mental engagement or concentration. We actively stabilize certain muscle groups as others move in a coordinated fashion. To achieve proper form and full muscle exertion, we must sustain as much mental concentration as possible because we are always in motion. Expect to feel invigorated after every session and have a deeper awareness of your body throughout the day.

Pilates for Athletes

Pilates exercise can be a great primer for various sports and activities, as it develops core stability, flexibility and range of motion.

Pilates addresses the body's core (abs, low back, glutes), where all movement is initially generated and where stability for that movement is a must, especially important in athletes. Pilates teaches body awareness and good posture, it improves flexibility and builds strength, without excess bulk. It is the perfect complement to cardiovascular exercise, sports, rehabilitation and life. Pilates will change the way your body looks, feels, and performs.

Today, Physical Therapist and professional sports athletes include regular Pilates training due to the incredible benefits of strength without rigidity, muscular endurance, increased flexibility, improved balance and enhanced coordination athletes, and attainable (yet challenging enough) for moderate or even occasional exercisers. With hundreds of exercises and hundreds more variations, it can be gentle enough for seniors, pregnant women, those with injuries and post-rehab patients. No matter what your fitness level, a Pilates

History of Pilates

The Pilates method of exercise was developed by Joseph Hubertus Pilates. Born in 1880 in Germany, he was a sickly, frail child who became interested in physical fitness to improve his strength. He became an athlete, participating in such sports as diving, boxing, skiing and gymnastics. Interned in England at the outbreak of World War I, he developed a fitness program for his fellow internees. Pilates claimed it saved them from the influenza epidemic of 1918. Pilates called his method "Contrology", claiming, according to the ancient Greeks' philosophy that "the nearer one's physique approached a state of physical perfection, the nearer one's mind approached the state of mental perfection." He incorporated resistance using springs into rehabilitation programs for hospitalized patients, later translating the springs into machines to create the unique Reformer equipment now used in Pilates training.

Developed in the 1920s by Joseph H. Pilates, this exercise regimen combines elements of Yoga and Tai Chi with Western emphasis on strength and stamina by focusing on the core muscles of the abdomen while increasing flexibility in the legs, arms, and smaller muscle groups without building bulk. Concerned with the process itself, Pilates method uses specifically designed exercise apparatus for a series of controlled movements condition your body and mind aiming to create a balance in the body, and specifically designed to cater for the needs of each individual. He incorporated resistance using springs into rehabilitation programs for hospitalized patients, later translating the springs into machines to create the unique Reformer equipment now used in Pilates training.

Pilates set up his first studio in New York City, attracting the elite of New York and dancer from the neighboring New York City Ballet. Joseph Pilates' work grew in popularity and for many years has attracted dancers, athletes, actors and other in search of a beautiful, balanced body, one with strong but not bulky muscles.

Pilates' work is now taught worldwide and there are many certifying institutions that claim linkage to Pilates' original work. While each Pilates institution maintains and individual style of teaching and instruction training, the basic values are the same: exercises executed with attention to correct postural alignment, effective use of breath, strength, flexibility, muscular endurance and neuromuscular coordination. Pilates is a true example of mind-body fitness.

This unique training form will ultimately increase tone, flexibility, postural alignment, coordination and endurance by working on deep muscles and the spine, the most important structure in the body and the source of the nervous system, it works by building strength from the inside out. Through continuous involvement in the process of movement, the goal is reached by a natural evolution, in contrast to a forced result.