History of Pilates
Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. As a child, Joseph was very ill. He had asthma & a sunken chest among other physical limitations. As a young man, Pilates made a decision to overcome these weaknesses. His plan was to strengthen and rehabilitate his body through physical fitness and muscular conditioning. He was active in boxing, gymnastics, and Ancient Greek and Roman training methods.
In 1912, Pilates left Germany to train as a professional boxer in England. He also worked as a circus performer & taught self-defense to Scotland Yard Detectives. He then became a gymnast, skier, & diver. --very active right!
During World War I, Joseph Pilates started his form of rehabilitation. This he called "Contrology" He explained that it helps to develop correct posture, physical vitality, and invigorates the mind & spirit. He helped soldiers while on the hospital bed by using the bed springs & would attach them to the headboard to get them to use their upper body muscles while their lower body were injured. Joseph Pilates always made a way for finding modifications as he knew not every body were the same. This method named "Contrology" later known as Pilates after the man himself.
Benefits of Pilates
Pilates is a great workout for any age, any fitness level, whether you are perfectly healthy or have some aches & pains. Pilates is designed to be lower impact, full body workout. Pilates works on minor muscles & major muscles, which we both need as strong human beings.
Strength
Pilates works both little (minor) and big (major) muscles, creating a perfect balanced workout for your body. During classes, we will use different props & the equipment to further enhance your muscles to grow.
Flexibility
During every class/session we will stretch throughout the class as well as at the end to elongate our muscles, making you feel refreshed and long. Using our equipment here at Paradiso Pilates, we find ways to tune into your own body and get into stretches you need.
Mobility
Finding your true end of Range of Motion can be tricky some times due to being hypermobile or hypomobile joints. Pilates movements helps to find the true ROM you have and to achieve greater ROM by the end of the class. Especially as we get older, our joints lock up easier. Moving our body in all different directions in a safe way is extremely beneficial.
Posture
Like Joseph Pilates said, Pilates will work on correcting your posture. Between the strength, flexibility, & mobility movements that are combined in classes will help to gain good posture. Emerie loves to work on posture as our culture nowadays are very dominant in looking down at our phones, computers, etc. Pilates will strengthen your upper back muscles to hold your shoulders where they needs to be yet we will stretch your chest out so they can relax and not be so tight.
*Posture Assessments are available to purchase (Private clients that buy packages, get them for free*
Relives Back Pain
Got back pain? Luckily for you pilates can help with that! Pilates improves the mobility of the spine by treating each vertabrae as an individual bone, emphasizing sequencing of the bones of the spine to stack on top of each other in the correct alignment. While pilates uses light stretches to help bend the spine in ways that is safe so our muscles feel happier and our back feels less painful.
Stronger Core
About every single movement in Pilates will be focused around your core and how you are working it. Pilates will not only work on outside core muscles (rectus abdominis) but will also work your deep core stabilizers (transverse abdominis). This will also build your pelvic floor muscles!! As our core gets stronger, our back feels healthier without all the stress our lumbar spine has.
Improve Sleep
Our bodies/minds carry lots of stress on our daily life. Whether some days are harder than others, we will still carry it on our body. Cool thing that pilates does it helps to relieve stress and keep our minds/bodies at ease while working out. Since our bodies will feel refreshed but still worked after a workout, and our minds feel at peace, we will get better sleep the more we continue to practice pilates and getting better control over our breathe.
Improves Balance
Our core is a huge part of having good balance. As well as our stabilizer muscles (minor muscles). By working our core & minor muscles we will gain better balance. Here at Paradiso Pilates we have several ways to modify balance exercises while for our advanced clients we have ways to challenge our balance.
Strengthen your bones
Pilates exercises can help people with weakened bones by: Increasing bone density when body parts move against the force of gravity. Increasing strength and muscle mass, which will help to support the bones. Improving balance, which can help prevent falls that might result in a bone fracture.
Enhances Sport Performance
Emerie grew up dancing her whole life. Pilates became her favorite way to get her body in shape for all her performances. She noticed a big difference from when she wouldn't do pilates consistently to when she did. Because Pilates works on the full body, the length of the exercise, the range of motion, the flexibility, the control and precise movement, and so much more.. Pilates will be your friend whether you are a dancer like Emerie or a runner, boxer, gymnast, swimmer, and everything above that.