Fit Talk

I am excited to say that today I went to my first Pilates class! It was fun (and challenging). I’m glad to have the opportunity to actually go to a class and have a real live instructor. All I had to bring was an exercise mat (in my case a nice beach towel:) I enjoyed the challenge and new routine.

I thought you might enjoy a few Pilates workouts for free!

Here are four workouts to help you achieve your goal of a fit life:

1. Pilates: How to get legs to die for

2. 10 min Pilates abs

3. 10min Pilates butt & thighs

4. Advanced Pilates: Rollovers

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 imprioving 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. A disturbing ten million prescriptions for sleeping pills are issued every year in England alone - a figure that gives you some idea odf the numbers of people who suffer from insomnia. Pilates can help stretch muscles, releasing tension and pain, and oit 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 nantural strength and stamina will improve in leaps and bounds.

5. Pilates can help prevent osteoporosis
One in two women and one in five men over the age of 50 in the UK will break a bone, mainly because of a bone disorder called osteoporosis. Osteoporosis affects three million people in the UK every year, 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.

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10 Reasons to try Pilates

These days, it is hard to know which exercise programs are fads and which are here to stay. And it is equally hard to know which offer real benefit for your particular needs. If you have a spine condition or are concerned about keeping your spine healthy, you may have heard of Pilates. You may have wondered, “What is it?” and, “Could it be good for me?”What is Pilates?
Pilates has been around a long time and has recently received popular attention. More importantly, the key concepts and principles of Pilates are backed by current scientific knowledge. It is a low-impact form of exercise that focuses on spinal range of motion, abdominal and back strengthening, flexibility, and breathing patterns. For a variety of reasons Pilates has become an exercise program recommended by many healthcare professionals for those with certain spine conditions, as well as for the prevention and wellness benefits it offers.

History of Pilates
Pilates is not a newly created form of exercise; ballet dancers have been using it for decades to keep in top physical condition. Pilates is named for its developer, Joseph Pilates. Born in Germany in 1880, Joseph was a sickly child. His childhood experiences with rickets, asthma, and rheumatic fever stimulated his abiding interest in physical fitness later in life. In early adulthood, Joseph was a boxer and circus performer. As a nurse in a war camp in Germany during WWI, he worked with wounded soldiers doing physical training to help them recover. It was during this time that he began to develop the exercises and equipment now identified as “Pilates”. He immigrated to the United States in 1926 and opened a studio in New York City offering his clients the unique and specialized form of fitness training that he developed. Joseph Pilates described his method as one that “makes us responsible and in control of our own bodies and health.”

Six Basic Principles
Pilates is a dynamic and total body exercise program that focuses on 6 basic principles: concentration, control, centering, fluidity, precision, and breathing. While performing any of the more than 500 exercises, these principles are applied whether you are on the mat or on one of the five specialized pieces of equipment used in Pilates.

To continue reading visit:

http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/article2700.html

Joseph Pilates

Pilates was formed by Joseph Pilates during the First World War with the proposal to improve the rehabilitation program for the many returning veterans. Joseph Pilates believed mental and physical health are essential to one another. He recommended a few, precise movements emphasizing control and form to aid injured soldiers in regaining their health by strengthening, stretching,and stabilizing key muscles. Pilates created “The Pilates Principles” to condition the entire body: proper alignment, centering, concentration, control, precision, breathing, and flowing movement.Pilates sessions help increase strength and flexibility, lengthen the body, and align the spine. The method does not build muscle mass. The fields of fitness and rehabilitation ^{[citation needed]} often encourage Pilates for its focus on the muscles of the abdomen and lower back. The focus on strengthening the core muscles and improving postural awareness especially relieve and prevent back pain.

Joseph Pilates wrote two books concerning the Pilates method: Return to Life through Contrology and Your Health: A Corrective System of Exercising That Revolutionizes the Entire Field of Physical Education.

To continue reading visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilates