What Are Your Goals?
When you achieve your goals, you boost your confidence and it gives you satisfaction in your day to day life.
So what are your goals?
How Pilates Gives You a Better Booty
All humans need strong glutes, and it doesn’t matter if you’re an athlete or not. Literally every step you take, your glutes are working to stabilise your hips and lower back. And if left unchecked, weak glutes can lead to lower back and hip pain.
At Bodyfirst Pilates, we make sure you work your stabilising glute muscles and your superficial glutes. In other words,:your tiny tiny glute muscles and your glute muscles that are for show. Both are important and both need strengthening.
Some reasons why glute strength is at the forefront in Bodyfirst Pilates workouts:
- Help prevent injuries
- Improve posture
- Improve balance
How Does Pilates Strengthen Your Core?
Why is strengthening your core so important? It’s a key factor for balance, your performance and mobility. It is the link to helping your lower body and upper body function altogether. Plus, it improves posture!
Why Is Breathing So Important?
Why Breathing Is So Important for Pilates
How often do you breathe while exercising? Do you feel tension in your neck or shoulders? Do you find yourself stopping mid exercise to catch your breath or reset?
If this is you, you might need to become more aware of your breathing. Your breathing should be LOUD. Being physically aware of your breathing, means we should be able to hear your breathing.
But when do you exhale and inhale?
For each Pilates movement, there is a breath in or out that accompanies each movement.
Try these breathing exercises next time you’re in the studio
- E X H A L E when exerting. You gain energy by releasing a breath and connecting your core. Think EXERT≠ EXHALE
- I N H A L E to relax, slow down or reset.
The Pilates Reformer
Exercising with the reformer is possible for anyone, at any level of fitness!
The instability of a rolling carriage and the option to set springs at different levels of resistance provides all kinds of stability challenges that develop core strength and promote better balance. Not only can you increase or decrease spring tension to make the exercise more challenging you could, for example, have less of the body on the carriage meaning more bodyweight has to be supported by the practitioner, and the body and machine has to be controlled even more by the core. Paradoxically, when the springs are in a lighter setting, some exercises are more challenging for the core because it has to work harder to control and stabilize the movement.
A History of Pilates
The story of how, in the first half of the 20th century, Joseph Pilates developed his method, which he fittingly called “Contrology”. Pilates’ series of rehabilitative exercises, designed to create total balance of the body and mind. It was revolutionary and Pilates, a true believer in his own method, knew it.