“You are only as young as your spine is flexible.”
As quoted in the Times Newspaper “Pilates not painkillers the best cure of backache”
Pilates is TRULY wonderful.
Pilates is your secret weapon to a pain free body and the perfect posture. I love pilates.
The unique method of body conditioning known as Pilates was invented nearly 100 years ago in Germany by Joseph H. Pilates. Plagued by childhood ailments causing physical shortcomings, he explored various practices, including yoga, gymnastics, meditation, Greek and Roman regimes, before developing his own exercise technique. His genius was to realise that if one system of your body fails, you must develop and strengthen another system to compensate, in order to restore overall body balance. He refined his exercises whilst held in an English prisoner of war camp during the First World War and then later in the 1020s he opened a studio in New York where his teachings became popular with dancers.
Pilates looks deceptively easy. However it's the tiny movements that improve balance and core strength. Pilates blends strength and flexibility, helping you establish strong foundations, develop a body that is more efficient in daily actives and less prone to future injuries. It can help you get toned, strong and conditioned from top to toe. A brilliant practice for injury rehabilitation and prevention, you'll also learn much greater awareness of your posture, so expect to reduce back pain and be less inclined to slump at your desk.
PILATES FOR SPORT
Andy Murray, Gareth Bale, Ryan Giggs, the New Zealand All Blacks, Freddie Flintoff, Tiger Woods, Darcy Bussell, Martina Navratilova, Pat Cash, Washington Redskins, to name but a few have all used pilates to prolong their careers.
Whether it’s in team sports such as rugby or football, individual sports like tennis/athletics or endurance events, pilates is playing a bigger and bigger role in elite sports and more and more teams and athletes are making it an important part of their training regime. The attention to detail on muscle recruitment can be of enormous help to most sports. Pilates has been used by dancers for many years. Ballerinas incorporate the pilates techniques into their training regime, paying particular attention to re-balancing symmetry in the body upset by repetitive movement patterns and overuse injuries. The body becomes evenly balanced and conditioned, and so is less prone to injury. Darcey Bussell is a Pilates devotee.
Pilates is especially effective in building core stability, improving focus and injury prevention. All sports have their own key patterns of movement and repeated use of these movement patterns can result in muscular imbalance. Less relevant muscle groups can become weak and inefficient, with the more predominant muscles becoming bulky and tight. Pilates focuses on the body as a whole, aiming to rebalance muscles and improve postural alignment.
