Let’s be specific: not all exercise methods calling themselves Pilates are actually rooted in anything remotely resembling the classical repertoire. Pilates has been successfully healing and preventing physical malfunction in the human body on a visceral, orthopedic/musculoskeletal, and neurological level since the early 1940s, from the camps of World War II in Germany to the United States, where it was further developed by the father of Pilates,
Joseph Pilates.
In turn, his students went on to carry the lineages of Pilates as it was intended ever since. To know and truly understand this repertoire of work is to know, understand, and be a student of control within your body and life. That is why Joseph Pilates originally called Pilates, contrology, the study of control.
Uniform Development of Musculature
Responsible for moving and holding your bones and visceral organs in place.
Important preparation for impact as well as cross-training your body for life movement, including athletics of any kind.
The importance of keeping our body compartments stacked and organized can be most simply compared to the game of Jenga. As each block is removed, the structure becomes more and more unstable. You watch as it begins to wobble and struggle to maintain its structure against the undeniable pull of gravity. That is what happens with the human body and its bony masses and containers. Through a whole-bodied exercise repertoire such as classical Pilates, one practices regularly to maintain musculature that is all working together. Without it, over-stretched and over-contracted muscles worked throughout a lifetime of incorrect breathing techniques will form compensatory patterns which cause incorrect alignment and posture. One will not only suffer imbalance [the known root of all bodily pain] but the body compartments will also eventually look like the failing blocks of a failed game of Jenga.
Circulation
J. Pilates posited the lungs are a graveyard – we must exhale out as much CO₂ as we can to make room in the lungs for the fresh O₂ coming in on the inhale…
Proper breathing increases lung capacity and strength by increasing expansion and strength in the muscles between the ribcage. Correct breathing techniques also positively affect the pressure in each lung cavity as they relate to each other. It further assists with the health and well-being of the visceral organs housed in the thorax, abdomen, pelvis, and head. Blood flow to the brain is affected by many of the Pilates exercises. When these exercises are performed correctly, they strengthen the neck by assisting with head alignment over the spinal column that houses the main artery and nerves connecting the brain to the rest of the body.
Neurological Benefits
The benefits of neurological well-being and increased circulation with more O₂ are so powerful that, for some, it can mean the difference between a longer, healthier life rich in movement, thought, and cerebral activity versus a life that is stagnant and riddled with migraines, shortness of breath, and eventual organ failure.
Balance and Flexibility
Fringe benefits of a uniform musculature and increased awareness by affecting change in our neurological relationship with ourselves.
There is a huge amount of work within the Pilates exercises that focuses on the foot and the power of the foot-to-leg connection and how pivotal that relationship is for the whole body’s link system (I am talking to all my plantar fasciitis, knee, hip, and low back pain people).
Pelvic Floor Health
The pelvic floor is one of our bodily containers stacked without proper musculature. The pressure from within will force the pelvic floor to the path of least resistance, leading to incontinence and prolapse as we age.
As we are in our youth, the strength of the pelvic floor provides for a more healthy and happy sex life, as well as more buoyancy out of the pelvic girdle for sports, jumping, and running, and for protecting from middle-aged onset of sciatica and other pinched nerves. A healthy pelvic floor recuperates better from natural childbirth.
Emotional and Psychological Effects
Control over body and mind through breath as you exhale so completely that you actually use all three layers of rhetoric abdominal muscles. Using all three layers to exhale creates a vacuum that allows us to earn the inhale. To be able to control the inhale after such a vacuum creates a neurological connection between your mind and body through the most personal and necessary life force: breath.
Another fringe benefit of this classical breathing technique is the deep core work it takes to effect the long exhale. The controlled inhale lays a powerful foundation for the superficial core muscles that also happen to look really good, and the deep core muscles that are known to make sex more pleasurable for all parties. Not only does this make us live longer, more fruitful, happy lives and give us a sense of health and well-being, but it also empowers us.
No longer do we need to search for the fountain of youth! It is in us. We are capable of accessing it whenever we are ready to harness control over our own mind, body, breath, and spirit. Get started today! Do not wait. Obtain the power and own your body as you did in your youth. Through Pilates – you can turn back time.
You must receive training in the classical repertoire to receive the benefits of Pilates as intended. A great reference is Joseph Pilates’ book, Return to Life, published in 1945. There are many studios claiming to be teaching classical Pilates; however, I have searched far and wide and know of only a few that truly embody the teachings of contrology and the Return to Life as intended through Pilates.I am glad to see that Pilates is trending now due to some celebrity endorsements, but it is not a fad! It has been a major player in the movement industry since the early 1940s. As long as we continue to practice and carry on the teachings as they were originally set forth, the benefits of Pilates will continue to be provided to the many people that follow it.
Get in touch with Pilates Centered in Boca Raton for help finding
qualified CLASSICAL Pilates instruction near you. Start your
journey to a “younger” and healthier you today.
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