Why should I do Pilates?
- Pilates on Pointe by Sabina
- Oct 4, 2017
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 7, 2021
Why should I do Pilates?
People get into Pilates for many reasons. It could stem from caring about their health, wanting to look good, or simply because their friends are singing the benefits. No matter what your reason is, it’s always important to know the ‘why’ behind the motives so here’s a little extra inspiration!
For me personally, I see five main benefits that Pilates provides to my students every single day, and if you stick with it then these benefits can become visible in everything you do!
1.- Unshakeable Core Strength
The most obvious benefit of Pilates is how it affects your ‘core’ – basically those muscles in the centre of your body. These are essential for making moving about your everyday life with ease, and need to be looked after if you want to keep it that way! Pilates works to reinforce all of the abdominal muscles so your everyday becomes easier and you feel stronger – all whilst building a lean body.
2.- Mental Health Boost
Most of us can admit to getting caught up in our everyday lives and forget to tend to ‘me’. Taking this time out to focus on how you’re really feeling can give a great boost of self-esteem and a new perspective. Something that may have been troubling you all day suddenly seems smaller, and that class you were too tired to go to becomes a place you can really relax and feel yourself.
Through regular practice, your understanding of how your body works and its limits become clearer. So acknowledging and accepting that some poses may be more difficult is something that motivates rather than discourages you. This change in mind-set can extend to all aspects of your life, and make overcoming challenging times in the future less demanding.
3.- Flexibility Guaranteed
Pilates isn’t just for making you stronger, but it’s also great for stretching and lengthening muscles over time! Not being able to touch those just-out-of-reach toes isn’t your shameful secret anymore – you’re flexible, you just need to let your body know. Pilates helps to gradually work all your muscles uniformly to increase how bendy you can be in a gentle, low impact way. Paired with a stronger core, this makes for one healthy body that you’ll thank yourself for later.
4.- Protect Your Future Self
This benefit applies to a fair amount of exercising in general, however, the specific ways Pilates can prepare you for later life is one of the reasons it’s so popular today.
If you’ve ever been sat at a desk all day or just gotten in from carrying the shopping at some point you may have noticed that annoying back pain is at it again. Pilates works the spinal column and vertebrae overtime to reduce and prevent any discomfort brought on by your daily life. With more of us having desk-based jobs too, taking 30 minutes out of your day to make sure your spine is fine is more important than ever.
Taking care of yourself with Pilates can also help to improve blood circulation in the future, make yourself feel more awake, and make future recovery from injury faster.
5.- Stay Balanced – Inside!
Pilates is an exercise, and most exercises can help support a healthy brain and emotional attitude. But the process of lengthening and stretching muscles has the effect of reducing muscle tension which can either cause or exacerbate stress/anxious symptoms.
Without getting too technical, Pilates has so many great benefits that can become apparent after just a handful of sessions. By being so low impact, yet still challenging, it’s open to anyone who’s willing to give themselves that first step up. Everyone’s reason for taking up Pilates is unique, and finding yours could be the start of getting into shape, beginning rehabilitation, ensuring future health, or simply making yourself happier!
I’ve seen Pilates help so many people through difficult times over the last few years, so whatever your reason for wanting to start, it’s the right one!
See you on the mats soon! Book here.
Comments