When you’re recovering from an injury, the last thing you want to do is make it worse. You want to ease yourself back into exercising, regaining your muscle tone and confidence while taking care to keep your rehabilitation on track. As you recover, consider Pilates as an exercise that can help you continue down the path of recovery.

Pilates, developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century, focuses on six principles:

• Centering
• Concentration
• Control
• Precision
• Breathing
• Flow

Pilates focuses on strengthening your core and improving your balance and flexibility – key components of many rehabilitation programs. As a result, it seems natural to bring Pilates into the rehabilitation setting. Pilates benefits you not only by helping you recover faster from an injury, but also by potentially helping you stay injury-free going forward.

Why is Pilates such a good choice for injury recovery? Because Pilates is a low-impact exercise, it is easy on the muscles and joints — key to not exacerbating an injury. And because Pilates movements are slow and controlled, you don’t risk overuse injuries.

Once you have recovered from your injury, continued Pilates practice can help you stay injury-free going forward. With more flexible muscles and increased body awareness, you may become less at risk for injury in the future. How is that?

Have you ever noticed that you favor one side over another – for example, you always wear your purse on your right shoulder, lean on your left leg while standing? This can cause muscle imbalance, which can make you prone to injuries. Pilates helps you become more aware of your body and movements and can repair those imbalances. By promoting core strength and spinal alignment, you are more in control of your body and, then, are at less risk for injury.

Another benefit of Pilates for rehabilitation and injury prevention is how it can be customized to the fitness level and needs of the individual. Each exercise can be made harder or easier, depending on the injury and the participant, while still being effective in promoting healing. This approach differs greatly from that of traditional physical therapy, which can sometimes be more of a one-size-fits-all method.

As always, check with your doctor before starting any exercise program. And if you are considering Pilates as a form of rehabilitation, check to ensure that your instructor has had physical therapy experience to enhance the rehabilitation and to protect against further injury. Contact us for more information on how Pilates can help you recover from — and prevent — injuries.

Share this:

You’ve heard all the talk about the benefits of pilates, and you’re ready to take a class. You’ve signed up for your first pilates mat classes but don’t know what to expect.

Mat exercises are performed on – you guessed it – mats (similar to yoga mats). You will find that many gyms and studios will offer mat classes if they don’t have pilates machines, such as the Reformer. With more than 35 different exercises, Pilates will help you increase your core strength – while also increasing muscular strength by using your own body weight as resistance. If you need increased weight resistance, you may also incorporate custom pilates weighted equipment (e.g., weighted balls or handheld weights).

You can get an amazing workout using just the Pilates mat, or you may use the mat exercises as a warmup to your routine on the Pilates machines. In either case you’ll find that the series of mat exercises will incorporate balance, strength, endurance and breath control. You will find that over the course of several mat sessions, you will see an increase in your overall fitness and well-being, including signs of improvement in:

• Increased balance and flexibility
• Improved muscular strength and tone
• Enhanced posture
• Reduced stress levels
• Increased body awareness

We make learning pilates fun and low-pressure. Whether you are recovering from injury or are just seeking a way to improve your overall health, pilates is an excellent – and low-impact – way of achieving your fitness goals. (Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.)

Contact us today to start your pilates education.

Share this:

When you’re ready to incorporate a little more cardio into your resistance workout, you might wander over to the Aero Pilates machines. With ropes, pulleys, hand straps and a cardio rebounder (kind of a mini trampoline platform), these devices add efficiency and variety to your sessions and take your muscles and circulation to new peaks.

A recent Livestrong.com article offers a good overview of three general types of exercises the machines allow. Here’s a quick hint of what you could try:

• Internal rotation rebounding — A cardio exercise for the legs that emphasizes hip, knee and ankle movements.

• Hundreds — Use the Aero Pilates’ hand straps and ropes to work the abs. (And we mean work: The “hundreds” reference here means reps.)

• Straight-arm triceps extensions — This one’s a seated exercise that strengthens arms and shoulders, but it doesn’t neglect the abs.

And those are just for starters. With our facilities, equipment and professional trainers and experts, we can offer you a wide range of other options if you like the idea of working Aero Pilates into your routine. Contact us if you’d like to talk over your fitness goals. Aero Pilates might provide just the avenue you’ve been looking for.

Share this:

Athletes can realize at least three tangible benefits of Pilates, a health expert says — and if Pilates is good for peak-fitness athletes, you know the rest of us could benefit, too.

“Pilates can be one of the best exercise programs that an athlete becomes involved in,” says nursing assistant Jeanne Rose of the Yahoo Contributor Network. “It can really help an athlete throughout his or her athletic career.”

• Improving strength and flexibility — Pilates stances strengthen legs, thighs, ankles, arms and chests, Rose notes, and over time, muscles will become more flexible. “No muscle will be overworked, and no muscles will be left untouched by the workout,” she says.

• Improving concentration — Because Pilates emphasizes centering mind and body, concentration is vital. Just as muscles get stronger with use, so do mental processes. Strengthening the mind pays off in sharper focus during stressful situations, as well as reduced vulnerability to anxiety or depression, Rose says.

• Improving breathing technique — Pilates participants learn to breathe better, which ultimately improves athletic performance. Getting more oxygen in the lungs boosts blood flow, endurance … and results in a healthier, happier life, according to Rose.

And those are just three of the benefits — we even know a few more. Contact us and we’ll help you get started.

Share this:

Like many of us, doctors and other health care professionals often work in high-stress environments and, at the end of the day, they need a healthy way to unwind and release tension. Even physicians who practice Western medicine for a living can attest to the benefits of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), such as Pilates workouts, yoga and massage.

This article talks about the trend of doctors turning to Pilates and other alternative therapies for promoting stress relief and physical fitness. Not only do they prescribe these activities for their patients, but many of them participate in the workouts themselves. According to the author:

“A study published in the online version of Health Services Research in August (2011) found that 76 percent of health care workers and 83 percent of doctors and nurses used CAM, compared with 63 percent of the general population.”

Furthermore,

“Christy Brave, a nurse in Loyola’s pediatric intensive care unit, said she uses regular Jazzercize, which incorporates yoga and Pilates moves, to relax and take her mind off a stressful job. She teaches the exercise/dance and has offered it free to her fellow nurses.”

Physicians and other healthcare professionals are proving that alternative therapies don’t necessarily have to compete with Western medicine, and that they complement each other quite well.

Personal Best Pilates Studio offers Pilates instruction at all levels, including Pilates equipment training and mat classes. We also feature Reiki and massage therapy.

Whether you’re looking to relieve stress or improve your stamina while getting in shape, contact us to get started with your personalized training plan.

Share this:

Most of us know that sinking feeling: Yowch! — you’ve tweaked something in your back. Believe it or not, though, that could make this the perfect day for pilates workouts.

Just about everyone suffers low back pain at some point in their lives — 80 percent of American adults have been through it, according to Monique Parker of the University of New Mexico-Taos. Next to colds, sore backs are the second most common reason people call in sick.

But Parker is among the fitness experts who’d tell you that back pain shouldn’t stop you from moving. In fact, the odds are good that lack of activity is behind the problem to begin with. (more…)

Share this:

Pilates can be a terrific choice for older adults looking to start a new exercise program. As this article points out, more and more seniors are enjoying pilates benefits such as increased strength, balance, flexibility, muscle tone, stamina, and well being.

As with any exercise program, before beginning Pilates, be sure to check in with your health care professional. (more…)

Share this: