Pilates Principles

Pilates is a body conditioning routine that seeks to build flexibility, strength, endurance, and coordination without adding muscle bulk. In addition, Pilates increases circulation and helps to sculpt the body and strengthen the body’s “core” or “powerhouse” (torso).  If you do Pilates regularly, you will develop better posture, be less prone to injury, and experience better overall health.

The essence of Pilates is found in six principles that make up the foundation on which Pilates is built: breathing, centering, control, concentration, fluidity and precision. Their application to the Pilates method of exercise is part of what makes it unique in the fitness world.  These basic principles infuse each exercise with intention and fullness of expression:

• Breathing: Joseph Pilates emphasized using a very full breath in his exercises. He advocated thinking of the lungs as a bellows – using them strongly to pump the air fully in and out of the body. Proper breathing creates endurance and energy, while encouraging relaxation.

• Centering: Physically bringing the focus to the center of the body, the powerhouse area between the lower ribs and pubic bone, results in a stable pelvis. A balanced pelvis will support the lumbar spine and keep the feet and legs in alignment.

• Control: Pilates is best described as a combination of stretch and strength with control. When body and mind operate together, a movement is executed most effectively by using control. Every Pilates exercise is done with complete muscular control. No body part is left to its own devices.

• Concentration: Concentration is the focus needed to achieve quality movements. If one brings full attention to the exercise and does it with full commitment, you are able to visualize a movement and carry it out to the best of your body’s ability.

• Fluidity: Pilates exercise is done in a flowing manner. Smooth and agile movements create an even, flowing routine that is performed without rushing. Fluidity, grace, and ease are goals applied to all exercises. The energy of an exercise connects all body parts and flows through the body in an even way.

• Precision: In Pilates, each movement must be precise due to the fluid nature of the Pilates routine. In Pilates, quality rules over quantity. Thus, fewer precise movements produce the greatest results.

The Pilates principles may sound a bit abstract, but the integration of these principles accounts for the balance, grace, and ease that one can experience as a result of practicing Pilates.

Benefits of Pilates

Pilates is one of the most rewarding types of exercise because it improves the body’s core. Although it became popular as a way of rehabilitating athletes and dancers, pilates is now used by millions of people across the globe because it is one of the safest forms of exercise.

To get started with pilates, all you need is a pilates mat. But for more advanced pilates exercise enthusiasts, a pilates machine and other equipment can be added to perform simple routines. Whatever your level, you will begin to notice healthy improvements in your body.

Pilates can work for anyone – male or female, old or young. No matter what condition you’re in, the health and fitness benefits are endless. Pilates improves flexibility, core strength and range of motion. It is also known to help alleviate chronic health ailments as well as back pain.

The best part about Pilates is that it’s fun! It’s an exercise that bonds the mind and body allowing them to work together to establish balance. Pilates also improves overall body alignment, making it less prone to injury.

Some additional benefits of Pilates are that it:

• Improves breathing.

• Corrects spinal and pelvic alignment through the concentration of slow, flowing, smooth movements with maximum power.

• Builds long, lean muscles that are less prone to injury, while building strength – without the bulk.

• Improves flexibility and range of motion.

• Improves back and abdominal strength.

• Creates balance between muscles – as weak muscles become stronger and the strong muscles also gain more strength never over training or under training any particular muscle group. This balance makes it easier to enjoy daily activities with less risk of injury. Pilates allows you to retrain your body to move in smoother safer, more efficient patterns of motion, which is essential in optimal performance and overall health.

• There is no pounding or bouncing in Pilates. It is the safest form of exercise. This is why it began as a rehabilitation exercise system for sports athletes and dancers. It is an intense exercise system working all muscle groups but still sustaining and improving overall balance.

If you are looking for a fitness routine that’s safe and easy to do, Pilates is an excellent choice. But best of all, with the popularity of this system, it can be performed in the comfort of your own home! Many pilates DVD’s are available for beginner and advanced users alike. So, if you need the right exercise system, pilates may be just the right thing for you. Fun, easy and relaxing exercise that strengthens and restores flexibility… Doesn’t get much better than this!

History of Pilates

The Pilates Machine was the brainchild of Joseph Hubertus Pilates, a German who was born in 1880. As a child, Joseph Pilates suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. Determined to overcome his ailments, he began to study anatomy as well as Eastern and Western forms of exercise, including Yoga, weight training, wrestling, and acrobatics. He was particularly enamored of the ancient Classic Greek “ideal man” who was equally schooled in cognitive thinking, philosophy, and history, but also maintained a finely tuned, athletic body.

When World War I broke out, Joseph Pilates found himself interned in England as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. The health conditions in the internment camps were not great, but Pilates insisted that everyone in his cell block participate in daily exercise routines to help maintain both their physical and mental well-being. However, some of the injured German soldiers were too weak to get out of bed.

Not content to leave his comrades lying idle, Pilates took springs from the beds and attached them to the headboards and footboards of the iron bed frames, turning them into equipment that provided a type of resistance exercise for his bedridden “patients.” This equipment was used to correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength, and flexibility, as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function.

In 1926, Joseph Pilates moved to New York and brought along this method of exercise, which he termed ‘Contrology’. He defined Contrology as “the comprehensive integration of body, mind and spirit.”

The earliest American students of Contrology were professional dancers, because they repeatedly injured themselves. Soon the choreographer George Balanchine and other movement visionaries became believers in Contrology. From there the exercise, but not the name, caught on–everyone seemed to prefer to call it ‘Pilates.’

Today, many famous athletes, dancers, models and actors, as well as business professionals, housewives, and retires have taken up Pilates as their regular exercise routine.

An excellent book on presentation of the original Pilates matwork has been written by Brooke Siler. In The Pilates Body, she provides simple and easy to follow explanations for both novice and advanced Pilates students. She also provides photos, detailed text and analogies that make it ideal for home use.