About Pilates
Pilates is a form of exercise that focuses on using both the mind and the body to achieve optimum physical performance. It helps you work towards functional body movement without pain. From being able to get out of bed every day and go about your working life in a pain free way to participating in sports with less risk of injury.
Pilates works on your body from the inside out and from your feet to your head. The deep stabilising muscles of the body are conditioned and strengthened using sequences of movements that use gravity, body weight and specially designed equipment as forms of resistance.
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Pilates also helps to reignite that crucial connection between the body and the mind as it requires the mind to maintain a constant level of awareness with the alignment of the body in movement.
Benefits of Pilates
Pilates, when done consistently, improves balance, co-ordination, posture and results in a greater control of motion and through the development of the mind body connection, better physical and mental alignment of your entire self.
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Many of my older clients, and often even the not so old, have forgotten, or begun to forget, how to use muscles around their bodies. Their spatial awareness has become impaired and their reaction times have slowed down. This is not just frustrating and incapacitating but the combination of these factors can result in can lead to greater risk of falls and injury. Pilates is an ideal way for individuals to get back in touch with their body and use it to its full potential.
Is Pilates for You?
The answer is quite simply... Yes.
Pilates is for everyone! From athletes doing rehab work trying to regain control of the local stabilising muscles around joints, to those of us trying to maintain a healthy body and ward of the effects of ageing.
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We all need a strong stable core to support our movement since our core muscles stabilise the shoulders, pelvis and the spine. We all need to work on our shoulders as in our contemporary society the shoulder stabilisers are of increasing importance. Strong stable shoulder muscles are compromised by the increasing amount of time we spend looking at computers or flicking through our phones. Pilates helps to improve on this posture and prevent neck and back pain that results from a day at the computer.
Pelvic and lumbar muscles are also often compromised by our sedentary lifestyle spent with our pelvis curled underneath us. This causes weaknesses in the lumbar muscles and pelvic muscles and results in poor posture that does not allow our muscles to facilitate movement correctly and can result in injury. Pilates addresses these issues with its focus on alignment and a greater body awareness to carry with you through your life.