What does Pilates give you?
Pilates is like an invisible coach, always with you, even when the workout is over. Why? Because it teaches your body some of the things we tend to forget in our hectic lifestyles.
Above all, it gives you an accurate body awareness. How can this be? Well, in the exercises we do in Pilates classes, we learn how to engage individual muscles and muscle groups. When we get a feel for how our muscles work during exercise, we can consciously transfer this to our everyday life. This way, we can perform even a simple bag lift with more mindful, controlled muscle work, protecting our spine from overuse. Through conscious muscle work, we can improve our posture, neck and waist position, preventing the development of many diseases.
In addition to all this, Pilates teaches you to concentrate. To do the exercises to the best of our ability, we need to be in the mind. It's not enough to hear the instructor's words, but we need to be aware of how to do it in a way that works the right muscles.
Not only do we move our muscles during exercise, but we also need to keep an eye on our breathing to help our body get the right amount of oxygen to our cells. Coordinating movement and breathing means specific control and awareness.
It's also important to remember that you need to keep certain muscles engaged during the exercises. It is this power centre that provides the basis for our movement. We should think of it as a central unit on which all our movements are focused and based. If it is not switched on, we can easily get injured or the exercises will not produce the results we expect.
The exercises are carried out with precision. The time, intensity and precision are important. Pilates is characterised by slow, steady movements and therefore works our muscles hard.
If we have come this far, if we are in control of the exercises, and the exercises do not defeat us, we will find that each exercise and the succession of movements has a flow, a pulse. Exercises done well bring us into rhythm, and exercises done simultaneously, together, become an experience.