I find I need Pilates more now than I ever have done in my
life, so its just as well its my job! I don’t mind sharing I feel quite
frazzled a lot of the time with running a business, life admin, school drop
offs and picks ups and looking after my 3yr olf Hugo and 6 yr old Ella-rose. I
am sure many of you must feel the same as you juggle work life and kids. Even
if you don’t, life can be busy in many other ways so we need something to help
us with the off switch and to be able to relax, stretch out your body and just
breath! Let me share the benefits it can offer you.  Whether you’re a mum or dad juggling work and
school drop offs and life admin like myself; someone with a stationary
lifestyle or an athlete; Pilates has something to offer everyone.

The Benefits based on eight different Principles Body
Control Pilates Method are:

Concentration – focusing on Pilates moves as you are doing them, means you have to concentrate.  We need to connect body and mind together and this in turn improves our concentration and gets the correct muscle recruitment and movement pattern.

Relaxation and Breathing – Moving in sync with your breath and flowing movement really helps to relax your body and mind.  The Breathing we use is Thoracic breathing as this helps us engage our core most effectively whilst exercising.  We change our breathing pattern depending on what we want to achieve in each exercise.  Often we breath in to lengthen the spine or prepare for movement, exhale to connect with the abdominals or stabilise as we move.

Co-ordination – We progressively build Co-ordinated moves that you do in class, helping you develop your body awareness and improve co-ordination in turn.

Alignment – We train you to have good alignment and awareness of this so you can take this into your every day life. This ensures good muscle recruitment and good awareness of posture.  

Core stability : The creation of a “girdle of strength” is one of the aims of Body Control Pilates.  We teach you to engage your abdominals, which is key with every exercise to support and protect your spine.

Flowing movement – When you have flow in your life everything goes well. It’s the same in a Pilates class. It’s so important to have flowing movement so you feel energized, in the zone and connected with your body and mind.

Stamina – When we advance and progress in Pilates, you need stamina to do the exercises correctly, whilst keeping the flow going. We work on lengthening tight muscles and strengthening weak muscles.  Various levels of classes are available to work towards this point. That might be beginner/improver/ Mixed ability/Intermediate advanced class or a restorative class/Healthy backs.

So if you haven’t tried Pilates, I highly recommend you do
for your health and wellbeing. Its something you can do at any age, any fitness
level and challenge you as well as relax you.  

We run local classes in Balham Library and have set up two new classes Wednesday 09:30am PilatesPlusFitness class and 10:30am Mixed Ability Pilates with Cat Lane starting w/c 24th February.

Please get in touch if you would like to join us we’ll give a 10% discount intro offer for joining our new course.

The post How Pilates is vital for your health and wellbeing. appeared first on Pilates Plus Wellness.

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