In case you missed my blog post “What exactly is Pilates?” here is a quick overview:
Pilates is a mind/body exercise, combining gentle stretching, stengthening, body awareness and deep breathing.
So all that sounds great, but how does that translate into real results I can see?
When Pilates becomes a regular practice for you, you will notice some changes…
- Your body becomes better aligned– which helps improve posture (which we all need – hello “tech neck”) and helps prevent injuries.
- You will become more aware, more in-tuned with your body, which leads to better coordination and improved balance.
- As you do Pilates consistently, you will notice a change in the shape of your body. Pilates helps to lengthen and strengthen – giving you a leaner more toned physique, distributing body mass where it is designed to go.
- Build up core and back strength to help support the spine, helping not only with posture but those suffering from back pain (which is most of us at one time or another!).
- Along those lines – the stretching and lengthening of the spine helps to increase the space between vertebrae which minimizes pressure on the nerves and discs.
- All of your muscles are worked, even smaller less targeted muscles, allowing the whole body to work together more efficiently, instead of certain areas being overloaded.
- You will become more flexible and improve mobility, which is key as we aim to age gracefully and not be at the mercy of our body.
- An import benefit for all of us, but women in particular, is the strengthening of your pelvic floor – and there are a lot of health benefits to a strong pelvic floor.
- You will learn to breathe correctly and more efficiently – which will improve your oxygen levels throughout the body, especially the spine. Deeper breathing increases energy, reduces stress and anxiety, and has a whole host of health benefits.
- And the last point I am going to make (because I could go on and on) is that exercise/movement in general increases your levels of serotonin and endorphins naturally – giving you more energy, and improving your mood and overall sense of well-being (another way of connecting your mind to your body)!
Are you convinced yet?
As you can tell I am very passionate about Pilates and its many health benefits – because I have personally seen every single one of these changes happen to my body, and health.
I will tell you these changes did not happen overnight, consistency is key, but trust in the method and the process.
Take the time to invest in yourself, this includes BOTH your mental and physical health, you will not regret it.
with Grace,
