Pilates - What Do You Need to Know

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

12 Jan 2007 11:26 AM

Joseph Pilates created Pilates (pih-lah-teez) is a mind and body workout that engages the whole body. The former gymnast designed the workout based on yoga and poses based on animals. His goal was to create a workout that helped injured dancers to recover and grow stronger. Like yoga, Pilates focuses on the core of the body (abdominal, obliques, lower back, thighs & butt). It is a flexibility workout, a strength workout, an endurance workout, a coordination, balance and good posture workout.

In other words, it does a little bit of everything. Pilates can be a demanding discipline, but like all other forms of a workout, you should start off slow and build up through the beginning workouts. If you can't reach as far or as deeply as the demonstrated workouts, you need only reach as far as you can without hurting yourself.

Form

The discipline of Pilates focuses on the correct form of the exercise and not the calorie burn. You'll work through a variety of progressions and like yoga, there are a great many different forms so it's going to be hard to get bored with it. Because of this and because we've got a great yoga writer here, I'll be giving greater focus and emphasis to Pilates over the next few weeks.

Many fitness clubs offer Pilates and there are nearly as many workout DVDs and tapes out there to keep you engaged and motivated. The moves will require you to get your whole body involved and you will need to concentrate. The great thing about Pilates is the level of mental and physical engagement. The way the workouts are designed, you can't just go through the motions.

I remember trying Pilates about two years ago and not caring for it too much. It was too difficult and it was too hard. Yet when I revisited my Pilates workout just a few weeks ago, I found that what I perceived as too difficult then was no longer as difficult now. Perhaps the yoga increased my core strength or perhaps my habit of working out regularly widened my perspective, whatever the reason --- I'm giving Pilates a chance and if you do Pilates, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the workout form.

Have a great Friday.

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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