What is Pilates?
Your body is designed to move. Pilates is a technique to help you move correctly for maximum effectiveness and minimising pain. It restores the body to it's normal and natural way of working by highlighting and correcting any weaknesses in your body and its movements.
For example, if certain muscles are tight they will be restricting your movement and creating unnecessary tension. Similarly, if muscles are weak, they will not be doing their job properly or working at full power.
By improving the body’s alignment and muscle patterns we can achieve a more efficient and effective way of moving whether you are looking to improve in a particular sport, rehabilitate and prevent injury, general maintenance or to increase a sense a wellness and relaxation.
Everybody’s body is different so movements are tailored made to achieve each individuals needs so Pilates is suitable for all ages and fitness levels from the elite athlete, to injury prevention and rehabilitation, to general maintenance and well-being, to pre and post pregnancy and everything in between. The movements are based on 8 basic principles:
- Relaxation
- Co-ordination
- Alignment
- Stamina
- Concentration
- Centring
- Breathing
- Flowing Movements
To see results, the movements need to be specific, learning which movements are suitable (and which ones aren’t!), and most importantly….how to execute them correctly!
It’s easy to get lost in a big class and to do the exercises wrong, not getting the full benefit or to potentially hurt yourself - especially if you already have an injury. Doing movements that are specific to your needs and avoiding ones that will aggravate your body is the way forward. It’s about working with your body not against it. Precision movements are paramount to change the way your body moves to change its performance or how it feels, so individual attention is the best way to achieve the best results.