Health Benefits of Pilates
Pilates is an innovative and safe system of mind-body exercise using a floor mat or a variety of equipment. This form of exercise is all about slow, controlled movements, but the fitness and health rewards are supercharged!
Pilates exercises mainly target the deep core abdominal muscles, glutes, hamstrings, hip abductors, lower back muscles, and calves to help build spinal stability and promote better-aligned posture. Pilates helps by balancing these muscles with your quads and hip flexor muscles. There are many different types of Pilates, including Mat, Reformer, Studio, and Clinical Pilates. Whatever way you get your pilates fix, read on for the significant health benefits you’ll take away.
Mind-body workout
Pilates is a great mind-body workout that is perfect for everyone. This form of exercise helps create a body and mind relationship, where concentration, focus, and meditation come together, which can help boost your overall mental health.
Many workouts these days focus on strength and forget the importance of proper breathing. Proper breathing will help you execute movements with maximum power and efficiency. Pilates will help push you to focus on your body, full breathing, and how they all work together.
Develop a strong core
Strengthening your core is one of the best things you can do for your overall fitness. A strong core, which includes your abdominal muscles, obliques, lower back muscles, hip abductors, hamstrings, and your glutes, helps keep your body balanced and stable. Most Pilate movements require you to keep proper alignment and challenge your stability to stay balanced, which can help you develop a strong core.
Most weight training exercises focus on strength, whereas Pilates combines strength with proprioception balanced training and neuromuscular feedback. These are absolutely imperative to minimize injuries, maintain your spine health and your lower extremity joint health for the long term.
Improves your posture
Extremely poor posture could be causing your chronic upper back pain. Fortunately, Pilates can help fix that issue by helping you maintain good posture. As mentioned above, Pilates helps strengthen the core muscles, which can also help support your posture. There are many benefits of good posture, including:
- Pain relief throughout the body
- Allows for efficient movement
- Improves muscle function
- Increases range of motion
- Improves circulation
- Takes pressure off of compressed organs
Increases energy
The more you exercise, the more energy you will have, and the more optimized your immune system gets. A good Pilates session shouldn’t tire you out. Rather, it should energize and invigorate both your mind and body. Focused breathing itself can increase circulation, which can increase your energy levels alone.
Gives you better spinal health & strength
Pilates focuses on developing the body’s core postural muscles to promote the proper support and alignment of the spine. Pilates exercises teach awareness of neutral alignment of the spine, which is important to help alleviate and prevent back pain.
You should always speak with your healthcare provider before beginning a new exercise routine. If you are unsure how to perform an exercise without hurting yourself, always seek professional guidance.
For chronic back pain that does not subside after three months with conservative treatment, contact The Spine Pro, Dr. Hooman Melamed.
