Pilates - Tones the Torso like nothing else.

September 29, 2007 by Lucy

Pilates is fun to learn and can help you gain the long, lean and shapely body that you’ve had your eye on for years and when you realize that Pilates - Tones the Torso like nothing else - it will become a way of life for you.

Contrary to popular belief, Pilates doesn’t have to cost you a great deal.

Studios do charge a little on the high side for instruction and use of their equipment, but you get a fair amount for your money and an entire session can actually be done using nothing but a mat.

Although it’s preferable to take a few sessions being guided by an instructor, you certainly can reap all the benefits without it. The Pilates exercise program focuses on the core postural muscles which helps keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine.

In particular, these exercises teach awareness of breathing and spinal alignment, as well as strengthening the deeper torso muscles, which are important in helping to alleviate and avoid back pain.

Pilates training helps to increase body strength and flexibility, stretching the body, and aligning the spine. This method of fitness training doesn’t build muscle mass, but focuses on strengthening core muscles and improving postural awareness.

Interpretations of Pilates are for example - centering, concentration, control, precision, breathing, and flowing movements all of which are similar to yoga.

Mind over matter

According to practitioners, the central element of Pilates is to create a coming together of mind and body, so that without thinking about it the body will move with grace and balance, using the body to it’s greatest advantage, making the most of its strengths, counteracting its weaknesses, and correcting its imbalances. The goal is to produce an attention-free union of mind and body, the method requires that one constantly pays attention to one’s body while doing the movements. Paying attention to movement is so vital that it is more important than any other single aspect of the movements or the method.

Breathing

Circulating the blood so that it can awaken all the cells in the body and carry away the wastes related to fatigue is an important part of these exercises. For the blood to do its work properly, it has to be charged with oxygen and purged of waste gases through proper breathing. Full and thorough inhalation and exhalation are part of every Pilates exercise. Forced exhalation is the key to full inhalation. Breathing too, should be done with concentration, control, and precision. It should be properly coordinated with movement.

Centering

The very large group of muscles is our centre – encompassing our abdomen, lower back, hips, and buttocks – it’s the powerhouse of our body. All energy for Pilates exercises begins from the powerhouse and flows outward to the extremities. Physical energy exerted from the centre, coordinates the body’s movements. It’s said that it is important to build a strong powerhouse in order to rely on it in every day living.

Control

The Pilates idea is a method built on the idea of muscle control. This means no hap-slappy, uncontrolled movements. Every Pilates exercise must be performed with the utmost control, which includes all body parts, to avoid injury and producing positive results. It’s not about intensity or multiple repetitions of a movement, it’s more about proper form for safe, effective results.

Precision

Every movement in the Pilates method has a purpose. Each instruction is vitally important to it’s success as a whole. To leave out any detail would be to forsake the value of the exercise. The focus is on doing one precise and perfect movement, rather than many half motivated ones. Eventually this precision becomes second nature, and carries over into everyday life as grace and economy of movement.

Fluidity

The Pilates mat exercises are supposed to be performed fluidly. There are no static, isolated movements. Concentration and body awareness replaces the quick, jerky movements of other exercises. Grace of motion is emphasized over speed; ultimately the movements are meant to feel as fluid as a long stride or a waltz. Uniformly developed muscles are then developed to compliment good posture, suppleness, and natural grace.

Getting the long, lean body that you’ve always wanted, can take a little time. On the upside - Pilates, once learned - Pilates becomes a way of life and certainly tones the torso like other exercising method.

There should not be any other workout so popular as is pilates. This workout focuses the pilate muscles and gives the lean figure that u can not get with any other physical exercise. But before you start, attending some pilates classes is a must to make sure that you do the exercise correctly. These sessions may cost you a lot but will give you pilates training on professional, modern and specially designed pilates fitness equipment.