Pilates: Ten Reasons To Give It A Go!

New To Pilates?

Pilates is a complete exercise method, developed by German-born Joseph Pilates who believed mental and physical health were closely connected and is suitable for people of all ages and levels of ability and fitness.
Pilates is based on eight principles: relaxation, alignment, control, precision, routine, breathing, centering, and flowing movement, helping you develop an awareness of how your body works. It focuses on building your body's core strength (back, abdominal and pelvic muscles) through a series of low repetition, low impact stretching and conditioning exercises.  
​Exercises can be done on a mat without special equipment. 

Ten Reasons To Give It A Go!

1. Improved posture
Your spine supports the weight of your body and allows your body to move with ease and comfort. That's the theory anyway. But in practice, hours spent sitting in front of a computer screen or slumped in front of a TV means that the spine's natural S shape is lost, resulting in back pain and rounded shoulders. Pilates helps to re-align the spine and with that comes better posture. 

2. Relief from back pain
As mentioned above, a great deal of lower back pain comes from poor posture and our daily mistreatment of our spines. By re-aligning your spine and improving your posture, lower back pain can often be eliminated entirely.

3. A good night's sleep
Ask anyone to name three things essential for life and you will be told, water, air and food. Few people will mention sleep and yet it too is essential to life. Based on a national survey of insomnia symptoms, research has estimated that 13.0% of New Zealanders aged 20–59 yrs are affected by at least one symptom of insomnia. Pilates can help stretch muscles, releasing tension and pain, and it can also help trigger natural sleep responses.

4. Increase your strength and stamina without adding muscle bulk
Pilates helps increase both your strength and stamina without adding unwanted bulk because it focuses on developing your "core" muscles - muscles found in your abdominal and pelvic regions as well as in your back. By toning and stretching these muscles, and by correcting your posture, your natural strength and stamina will improve in leaps and bounds.

5. Pilates can help prevent osteoporosis
In New Zealand, osteoporosis affects approximately 50% of women and 30% of men over the age of 60 years, with bones (and particularly those of the spine, wrist and hips) becoming thin and weak and susceptible to fractures. By promoting good posture and balance, pilates can actively help you avoid becoming one of those people.

6. A great way to relax and beat stress
Pilates is a gentle form of exercise that literally re-introduces you to your own body. And the better you understand your body and how it works, the easier it will be for you to release tension, relax and beats the stresses and strains of modern life.

7. Help with prevention of incontinence
Urinary incontinence is very common in women. Research information shows that 17% of adult women have bothersome urinary incontinence. A common cause of this type of incontinence in women is pregnancy, where the pelvic floor muscles can be weakened, but as we get older muscles in the pelvic area can weaken too. Pilates will help you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, thereby curing what can be a very distressing problem for sufferers.

8. Improve your balance and co-ordination
Pilates helps improve your balance and co-ordination by realigning your spine and strengthening your "core" muscles. Better balance and co-ordination means fewer injuries - hence Pilates' growing popularity among professional sports people - from dancers to rugby players.

9.Helps aid recovery after injury - and prevent injury recurring 
Because of its low impact nature, Pilates is widely recognised as being beneficial to people who are recovering from certain types of injury including whiplash and a wide range of sporting injuries. Indeed, many of the injuries that sports people are afflicted with can be avoided - and pilates can play a big part in ensuring correct body movement and core body strength leads to fewer such injuries. 

10. No pain plenty gain!
In most gyms you will hear the mantra "no pain, no gain", but you won't hear it repeated in a Pilates studio. Pilates is a gentle non-aerobic form of exercise that will tone and strengthen your muscles and transform poor posture without stressing the joints or the heart.