Health & Fitness : Pilates for Beginners

Christina Helen Brown — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 11:50:58 +0000

Pilates is an excellent exercise to help tone and experience the strength of your own body. The wonderful aspect of pilates is that it can be done both at home and also in a professional gym space.Flat Abs:

Lay on the floor
Hold on behind the knees
Keep your belly in
Lift your upper body up and hold
Lower body to hover just above the flower and hold
Keep arms up
Sit up and repeat for a total of 100 pumps.

Shoulder Bridge

Lie on your back with your knees bent
Feet hip-width apart
Keep your arms at your sides
Raise your hips without arching your back
Tighten muscles of your buttocks and hamstrings
Hold for five breaths
Come down and repeat

Upper Back

Lie face down on a mat with your feet together
Raise your head and chest slightly
Extend your arms perpendicular to your body, palms down
Exhale and sweep the arms back as you lift your chin and chest higher
Keep your waist on the mat and use your upper back muscles to bring your arms closer to your body
Return to starting position
Do five reps

Tendon Stretch

Sit with your legs straight in front of you,
Feet together and flexed
Press your hands flat on the mat, look down
Use your upper body strength to lift your backside and upper legs
Swing yourself forward and backward before lowering slowly to the mat
Do five reps.

Kneeling Side Kicks

Begin by kneeling
Lean to the left
Place your left hand on the mat under the shoulder
Place your right hand behind the head with the elbow pointing up
Raise your right leg until it is parallel to the floor
Holding the torso steady
Kick the leg to the front and then to the back
Keep your knee straight
Do five reps on each side

Cardio

Stand with your belly pulled in and your arms overhead
Exhale and lower your head
Bending the knees
Swinging the arms back
Inhale and jump up with straight legs
Reaching the arms overhead
Land with the knees slightly bent
Return quickly to starting position
Do 8-10 reps quickly

Health & Fitness : Pilates Exercises

Christina Helen Brown — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 08:18:58 +0000

Pilates is an exercise which emphasizes the balanced development of the body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness in order to support efficient, graceful movement.

Pilates is a gentle, low-impact form of exercise, that focuses on stretching and strengthening the whole body to improve balance, muscle-strength, flexibility and posture.

Pilates is suitable for people of all ages and all levels of fitness.

Positive effect of Pilates

Muscle tone, increased strength and flexibility and improved overall mobility and precision at which you move. It’s perfect for people who like a meditative element in their exercise regimes.

Why you’d Choose Not to do Pilates?

Pilates will not help you lose weight.

You need at least three cardio workouts a week plus two to three Pilates classes and follow a healthy eating pattern for overall results. If you’re used to high intensity workouts with loud music and a pumped-up instructor than you may find the Pilates classes too slow and monotonous.

What Will You Need?

The Pilates equipment uses the resistance of springs to create effort. The principle piece of equipment is called the reformer and consists of a sliding platform anchored at one end of its frame with springs. The platform is moved by either pulling on ropes or pushing off from a stationary bar. Another Pilates machine (Rowing Machines) is called the cadillac and consists of a padded platform with a cage-like frame above it. From this frame various bars or straps are attached by springs.

Mat exercises primarily focus on strengthening the muscles of the trunk and hip and increasing the flexibility of both the spine and hips. Lately, pilates has merged with other movement techniques, such as yoga, or use of an exercise ball.