Pilates : A Low Impact, High Result Workout

Enjoying a pilates workout is the “in” thing these days, from sports and Hollywood personalities to your neighbor, are into this popular exercise.

Pilates is not only a way to exercise your whole body, it is also a way to stretch and to make your body stronger. But Pilates is not a workout for our cardiovascular system.

There is no pressure to over strain your body.

Pilates is a scientific exercise which improve our body through breathing, strengthening, stretching and balancing and works best when done with resistance training and aerobics. 

Pilates History

Pilates was invented by a German named Joseph H. Pilates born in 1880. In the First World War, Joseph was a trainee in a hospital in England.

He found out that soldiers that were injured  just stayed in their beds and had little exercise.

Therefore Joseph Pilates made an apparatus taken from springs and materials from the bed in the hospital and created an exercise that help soldiers to recover fast.

He transferred to New York in 1926 with the idea of this new form of exercise which he called “Pilates”.

Making Pilates Work

Pilates is a mixture of breathing methods with stretching techniques simple apparatus. Pilates exercise concentrates on developing the body’s center by creating a stronger and flexible body. Pilates is more active than Yoga since it makes the body to stretch and be more flexible, improve posture and flexibility. 

The Pilates machine makes people  undergo systematic movements, but maintain their torso position and swaying one’s limbs in various ways. This exercise is a challenge to a person’s flexibility, strength and a person’s balance.

Pilates Benefits

The effect of Pilates can easily be seen and Pilates enthusiasts attest that performing Pilates exercises regularly improve their body tones, strength and balance. After the Pilates exercise, you could immediately sense changes in their legs, abs and backs.

Positive effects of Pilates are increase in strength, loss of weight and better sense of oneself. Pilates is a low impact exercise but effective. It is a good exercise for people recuperating from injury, women that are pregnant and senior citizens who could not anymore perform high impact exercise.
 
Benefits from A Workout:

• Helps to develop and maintain good posture
• Hasten recovery from injuries
• An efficient work out for the abdominal muscles
• Strengthens and stretches one’s body
• Pregnant women can now exercise through Pilates
• Loss in weight
• Wellness
• Increases endurance

Samples of Pilates Exercises

The Ballerina Arms

1. Sit in a cross-legged position.
2. Make your spine straight by imagining that your are standing beside a wall.
3. Try bending your elbows at a ninety degree angle as a protection on the shoulder.
4. Put your arms back but be careful not to hyper-extend it, this connects the shoulder  blades.
5. Put down your arms making the blades of the shoulder move down the spine.
6. Put up the arms above while bent like a ballet dancer.
7. End the exercise by putting back your arms in front.

This exercise should be repeated three times a day, the result can readily be seen just after a week.

You should notice a big change in the way you sit and walk now that you have a stretched and elongated the spine.

So you do not need to do hard and high impact exercise that could give you potential injuries because you have a safer and less strenuous alternative.