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Reasons to do Pilates

This weeks show is all about the Reasons you should do Pilates.

As a Pilates instructor for over 18 years, I thought I was quite qualified to do this week’s show on the reasons to do Pilates

Pilates has been around for a long time, Joseph Pilates who created what was originally called Contrology, and Joseph Pilates developed the exercises or some of the exercises when he was interned during the First World War. Physios have been using them for rehab exercises for a long time.

When I first started teaching Pilates there was myself and one other teacher in my area, but in the last 10 years, a lot more people have trained and there classes everywhere. Today there’s no reason not to find a class.

At first it took my physio friends a while to persuade me, that Pilates was for me. I liked teaching Aerobis, circuits and running, things that really made me hot and sweaty. I know a lot of people think that Pilates isn’t for them for probably those sorts of reasons. Men especially see mainly women go to classes so think its not for them.

But classes are for everyone. Any age, any size, any sex, so there’s no real excuse there.

Reasons you should you do Pilates

Most people end up starting pilates due to an injury or being recommended by physios, osteopath, or chiropractor. In reality we should start Pilates before you get an injury and make it part of your training regime.

Pilates should be part of your training regime

If you do other sports, then this is a good thing to do.

If you’re a runner, a strong core helps stabilize your pelvis. That improves your technique and can improve your performance as well. Plus, it reduces injuries.

A recent study by PLOS where they did a study on runners over a 12 week period and introduced two Pilates sessions a week. The results showed that they need to do a lot more study But including Pilates into your training regime improve their running it performance, the VO2 Max, (their ability to take oxygen into their body). Find out more about Pilates for Runners with my blog Why the Pilates for Runners Course will keep you running. Again, for cyclists, it helps to stabilize your centre, which is your pelvis, your core, and your back. This is really, really important when you’re on a bike, the more stable you are, the more power you can put through your legs. Why wouldn’t you do Pilates.

But it doesn’t matter if you don’t do any specific sport. Pilates is brilliant for functional everyday life, for example gardening, DIY walking. By having a strong centre and good alignment in your body, it helps your body move more efficiently. And with this, there’s less injury and less pain.

With more and more people sitting for long periods, over hunched, hunched over laptops or phones, the posture has become a really a problem. And it will become even more of a problem with the younger generation.

Pilates also helps with muscle tone and strength as well improving flexibility. These things combined will help reduce your risk of injury. , there’s a lot of wins about doing this, as well.

Another great reason to do Pilates is that helps with mental health and wellness. We know that exercise generally helps can help that by practising Pilates, focusing on the moves that you do, and learning the techniques, and principles of pilates like breathing and concentration. By focusing on these, and letting your mind not wander onto all the other things that going on in your everyday life, you can forget about them perform your pilates really well. By the end of the session, you can feel really great in body as well as the mind.

Bring Movement into your day

My own personal reason to do Pilates is it can bring movement into your day, especially with more and more of us sitting for long periods. There’s an increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, for example.