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The Fundamentals of Pilates

admin — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:26:27 +0000

There are people who are fond of getting an exercise for maintaining their body figure as well as to condition their body so to look healthier and sexy. Some do the swimming or others stay in the gym to get their ideal body figure. We all dream and look forward to an exercise program that will always engage us and that will leaves us refreshed and alert with a feeling of physical and mental being. From famous people down to women who are conscious enough with their body, the Pilates can be a great and stunning method in building up your most desired figure.

Well, the Pilates (pu-LAH-teez) Method is a kind of exercise system that focuses on improving the flexibility and strength for the total body without building a weight. The Pilates method is not just exercise as well, but it is a series of controlled movements that engages in your body and mind, and performed on specifically designed exercise apparatus and presided by trained teachers. This Pilates was developed in the 1920s by the legendary physical trainer and founder of The New York Pilates Studio, Joseph H. Pilates.

Joseph Pilates was a performer and a boxer who lives in England in year 1914. During the outbreak of the WW1, he was placed under the forced internment along with the other German nationals in Lancaster, England, and there he taught his fellow camp members about his concepts and exercises that are developed through self-study and apprenticeship in yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman physical regimens. Just then, Joseph Pilates began devising the system of original exercises that is known as mat work, or an exercise that is done on the floor. John Pilates also became a nurse/caretaker to the internees that is struck with wartime disease and physical injury. He then began to devise some equipment to rehabilitate his patients.

The Pilates method provides a refreshing and energizing workout where it gives a physical harmony and balance for people of different ages and with physical conditions. The sessions of the Pilates are done one-to-one with a certified teacher or in close and well-supervised small groups. Each session is fitted perfectly for your specific needs. The Pilates method can also be the dominant mode of body conditioning and injury prevention, and can be integrated into a rehabilitative exercise and physical therapy programs that is designed to a speed recovery of soft tissue injuries. The Pilates method can also be used by pregnant women in a way to learn the proper breathing and body alignment. It also improves concentration, and recovers the body shape and tone of women after the pregnancy.

The founder of the Pilates really designed more than 500 specific exercises using its five major pieces of unique apparatus in developing the body uniformly. Instead of performing many repetitions of each exercise, the Pilates method was designed to have more absolute movements that require a proper control and form. Since the mind is required to engage with your body to perform the movements properly, you are meant to experience a new awareness of muscle function and control. The instructor of the Pilates methods is the only one who has the right to teach, who has completed a rigorous certification program that includes seminar training and 600 apprenticeship hours. This is because the Pilates want to provide safe and effective conditioning for their clients.

There are certain countries that usually practice the Pilates method, in which they enjoy the physical movement that is designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body. The Pilates has an efficient practice of specific exercises accompanied with focused breathing patterns. Well, you could probably believe that Pilates has proven to be helpful and not just as a part of fitness itself, but also a supplement to professional sports training and to physical rehabilitation of all kinds. The Pilates brings out infinite benefits to your body, such as the increased lung capacity and circulation through deep, and where healthy breathing is a primary focus too. The key components in an effective Pilates program is the strength and the flexibility that is particularly of the abdomen and back muscles, with coordination to both muscular and mental. The posture, balance, and core strength are fairly increased in your body and where your bone density and joint health is also improved.

For more information about pilates please goto the pilates resource center

Written By: Michael Sanford

Pilates, the Art of Contrology

admin — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:26:10 +0000

Pilates is an exercise technique, which encourages the mind to control the muscles by strengthening the powerhouse. In Pilates, the powerhouse resides in the middle of the body such as the abdomen, lower back and buttocks.

You will need to support and strengthen the powerhouse to enable the rest of the body to move freely.

Pilates is an exercise that you will perform while sitting or lying down. Thus, it is best for rehabilitation purposes especially for patients with injuries and those that are bedridden.

Initially, Joseph Pilates, the German national who discovered Pilates used this exercise to train police officers. Police officers perform this exercise in 1912 as a means to rehabilitate themselves after a long day of work.

Joseph Pilates also designed Pilates Cadillac, an exercise equipment patterned from an old hospital bed. He did this precisely for the purpose of teaching rehabilitating patients confined in bed and for those officers who are down from injury.

The exercises in pilates avoids too much repetition unlike other exercises do. This exercise uses fewer, but precise movements. These movements employ control and form. These exercises also reduce stress that regular exercise can do for the heart. It is thus safe for older exercisers and even for injured patients.

In almost five hundred exercises in pilates, the most frequent form is the mat work. The mat work involves a series of callisthenic motions without weight or apparatus and are done while lying down.

Additionally, Joseph Pilates believes that mental health and physical health are essential to one another, thus he creates this exercise program based on the belief that a total body conditioning is necessary and beneficial. Total body conditioning emphasizes proper alignment, centering, concentration, control, precision, muscle tone, body awareness, energy and improved mental concentration. These words are the backbone of pilates.

Pilates focuses on the use of the mind to control the body, thus Joseph Pilates who lived his youth with asthma, rickets, rheumatic fever, overcame poor health and grew to be a body builder, diver, skier and a gymnast.

After which, in 1912, he worked in England as a boxer, circus performer and self-defense trainer. You will of course agree with me that this is quite odd for a sickly kid.

This therefore shows that the mind can be more powerful than the muscle. Following this belief, pilates practitioners use their body as weights in training to build strength and flexibility without focus on high-powered cardiovascular exercise.

You will not need to perform those rigorous exercises that put strain in your cardiovascular zone as other exercises do.

Pilates and the environment it evolves in is as an assistive environment that optimizes the acquisition of movement with a reduction of destructive forces. These exercises can be used to progress individuals through more challenging movements that represent day-to-day activities.

In fact, these exercises are an old approach to movement re-education that is coming to be important in physical fitness and rehabilitation from injury.

The method of performing Pilates especially for beginners consist of very gentle exercises done with a mat while sitting down or lying down. It focuses on awareness of the spine, proper breathing, core strength and flexibility.

The desired outcome of Pilates is a balanced body, which is strong and supple, flat stomach, balanced legs and strong back.

In today’s time, physical therapists use these exercises and techniques to help in the rehabilitation of injured patients. Only quite a few use pilates for general health and well-being, this however needs to change because Pilates offers more than just a cure for sick patients, it is in fact helpful for those overweight individuals who cannot find ways and means to lose weight and control their body.

It may be helpful to try Pilates if you want to be healthy and active.

About the author:

Shannon Brown is the editor of PilatesFactor.com. This site caters to Pilates enthusiasts. You can visit the site at: http://www.PilatesFactor.com

Written By: Shannon Brown

Pilates: A Relaxing Way To Exercise

admin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:17:57 +0000

It is perhaps the Hollywood glitz and glamour that has everyone into the dieting and exercising fad. One of the most popular exercise programs is Pilates, which is especially designed to stretch, strengthen and balance the body through a series of routines. It combines both body movements and breathing patterns.

Pilates is known to increase lung capacity and circulation through exercises that focus on breathing. It also promotes strength and flexibility in the abdomen and the back muscles as well as improving on the coordination of the mind and the muscles. And because the program centers and emphasizes the importance of balance and posture, general health improves along with bone density.

It is perhaps these numerous benefits and the fact that Pilates can be tailor-made and incorporated in routines that make each class costly. Prices for classes range from $10 to $20 for group classes and about $50 to $100 or even more for individual lessons with trained instructors.

How did this start?

Joseph Pilates is a performer and a boxer in England. His fascination for exercise and health issues stem from his being a sickly child. Determined to strengthen his body, he studied, practiced and developed exercises that will improve his health. True enough, he grew to be really strong, choosing professions that would utilize body strength and endurance.

When he was detained with German nationals in Lancaster, he taught fellow camp members the concepts and exercises he developed through years and years of self-study and training in yoga and Zen, not to mention all the other Greek and Roman physical regimens.

It was at this time when he began to devise a system of original “Contrology” exercises now known as “matwork,” which refers to exercise routines done on the floor. When he was taken to another camp where he served as caretaker, he devised equipment that would help rehabilitate his “patients. The equipment that he made was not much different from what is being used today by people who subscribe to the Pilates program. Spring tension straps are also used in routines to hold the feet and to support the shoulders, neck and head in routines.

Because of its focus on balance and flexibility, Pilates holds much appeal for dancers and performers. Some celebrities, actresses and models, in fact, are enamored by the graceful movements that are incorporated in each routine. Not only does Pilates help improve health and well-being, it also develops proper posture and blood circulation, preventing the occurrence of osteoporosis.

What is more, Pilates does not involve a lot of muscle stress because the routines are gentle and slow similar to dance. There is no running and jumping around. Practitioners do not even need to lift heavy things. This is the reason why doctors often recommend Pilates to patients who have back and spine injuries as well as those afflicted with Arthritis and other muscle ailments. The routines are also good for people who are undergoing rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Pilates is also good for people who are a bit older and those who are overweight. It is in essence a relaxing exercise program, which not only helps in the reduction of weight and improvement of health but also in de-stressing and relaxing the body, mind and the spirit.

About the author:

Shannon Brown is the editor of PilatesFactor.com. This site caters to Pilates enthusiasts. You can visit the site at: http://www.PilatesFactor.com

Written By: Shannon Brown

The History of Pilates It All Began With One Sickly Child

admin — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:50:16 +0000

A look into the history of Pilates helps you understand the tremendous power that this form of exercise has to help strengthen and transform your body. Unlike yoga, which has a tradition that goes back thousands of years, one individual developed the Pilates Method at the beginning of the twentieth century.

In 1880 in Dusseldorf, Germany, a sickly baby named Joseph Pilates was born. As a young child he watched as his friends ran, jumped and played games activities that he could not do because of his frail, weak body. That is when the Pilates Method really began. Pilates was determined to find a way to improve his health and physical strength and stamina. He set off on a lifelong quest for fitness and exercise. Pilates not only overcame his physical frailties he mastered them. He became an accomplished yogi, boxer, gymnast, and skier.

During World War I, Pilates was interned in England where he worked as a nurse with injured war victims. Pilates was convinced that exercise could help rehabilitate their badly damaged bodies. Many of these patients were not able to move, but that did nothing to deter Pilates determination to help them gain strength and mobility. He rigged up their hospital beds with straps and springs and created a series of exercises to help move their joints through a greater range of motion. The exercises also helped his patients develop muscle strength, flexibility and endurance. Eventually, many of these people were able to get up and move around by themselves.

In 1923, Joseph Pilates and his wife moved to New York City where they opened up a studio and began working to rehabilitate injured dancers. Some of the most famous dancers that they worked with were George Balanchine and Martha Graham. Word of the dramatic results that came from using the Pilates method spread, and soon it became the exercise of choice for not only dancers, but also entertainment stars and professional athletes. For a long time, this unique form of exercise was limited to this elite community.

That has all changed. Now millions of people are familiar with the Pilates method of exercise. They have discovered for themselves that Pilates can help them gain the strength, flexibility, and balance of a professional dancer, without having to spend hours at the gym. They spend less time to achieve better results. No wonder it has become one of the hottest fitness trends to come along in years.

Now that you know the background of Pilates and why it was developed, you can realize how this powerful form of exercise can help you gain strength, flexibility, endurance, and the body of that youve always wanted.

About the Author

Della Menechella is a yoga and fitness enthusiast who has been involved in fitness for over thirty years. Her website http://www.beauty-fitness-yoga-source.com/ is filled with practical information about how you can make yoga and fitness a positive part of your life. Visit the site and get your free meditation e-book.

Written By: Della Menechella

Joseph Pilates: The Man Behind the Movement

admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:20:40 +0000

Joseph Pilates was born in Dsseldorf, Germany in 1880. He was a frail young boy, who suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. In order to overcome his weakened state, he studied body building, skiing, diving, and gymnastics. In time, he developed his own series of exercises. He moved to England in 1912, and spent much of his time working as a circus performer and a boxer. Eventually, he started teaching self defense methods to a group of police detectives from Scotland Yard. In 1914, at the outset of World War I, he was interned at a camp in Lancaster as an “enemy alien”. While in the camp, he spent a great deal of his time developing his exercise techniques.

After his release, Joseph returned to Germany and began teaching his method to dancers. He decided to leave Germany when he was asked to teach his exercise methods to the German Army. In 1926, he emigrated to America and took up residence in New York. He met his wife, Clara, on the voyage. Joseph and Clara opened a fitness studio in New York City, and shared an address with the New York City Ballet.

Joseph spent the remaining years of his life operating his studio. The nature of his work in those years was more akin to a physiotherapist for dancers than an exercise instructor for the masses. He also spent a considerable amount of time designing and constructing exercise equipment for use in his programs.

Joseph Pilates was one of the first fitness instructors to advocate the mind-body connection, which consisted of both physical and mental training to achieve the desired results. His method consists of slow, deliberate movements combined with breathing and a focus on the abdomen, lower back, and buttocks.

As quoted from his 1945 book, Return to Life with Contrology, he states that “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.”

Joseph Pilates passed away in 1967. The studio is still in operation today.

About the Author

Harriet Spinzer is a history student and Pilates enthusiast. When she is not consumed with her studies, she likes to stretch and stuff. When she is not tangled up in her “Reformer”, she like to write freelance articles for websites such as http://www.pilatesinsight.com – a site that offers information about pilates.

Written By: Harriet Spinzer

Love Your Body Through Pilates

admin — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 12:19:43 +0000

So many of Hollywood’s hottest stars rave about its benefits. You can’t walk into a gym without seeing classes. But what is pilates, anyway?

Pilates is actually named for a man named Joseph Pilates. Around 1914, Pilates was a performer and a boxer, living in England. During the outbreak of WWI, Pilates was held in a German prison camp, where he taught a health system, based on yoga, Zen philosophy, and a number of exercises taken from the Romans and the Greeks. This health system helped the prisoners to fight off illness and maintain their strength.

The system that Joseph Pilates taught the prisoners was the start of the current pilates movement. This modern version of the workout is a series of exercises that improve strength and flexibility through a series of stretching and balancing exercises.

Chiropractors often recommend pilates as a way to strengthen the back and spine. After some time using the pilates system, an individual can typically expect to notice an increased mobility in the joints, improved circulation, a flatter stomach, and thinner waist and thighs. Typically, those most attracted to the system of workout are dancers, as dance requires a great deal of flexibility and agility as well as strength, all of which the pilates system provides. It is also said that pilates strengthens the body from the inside out, helps to relieve stress and anxiety, and can even aid in the prevention of injury.

Because it is a low impact routine, pilates is very attractive to those needing rehabilitation from injury, the eldery, and the overweight. It increases circulation and reduces weight gradually. Because of this, many women choose pilates after having a baby in order to shed the post-pregnancy pounds.

No matter what the reason for choosing the workout, pilates is fast becoming one of hottest workout trends, and one of the easiest to adapt to all ages and lifestyles. But like any workout regimen, a person should consult their physician before starting. There may be limitations you may not be aware of, and above all other benefits that a workout may bring, your health should be considered above all else.

About the author:

Amanda Baker writes for http://tobeinformed.com

Written By: Amanda Baker