What is Pilates?
Pilates is a method of movement that concentrates on alignment and balance while building strength, mobility and length in the body. Most people tend to move with strong surface muscles and weak deep postural support muscles, leading to faulty movement patterns, aches, and injuries. Pilates works to integrate the internal and external muscle structures, allowing for optimal function, postural re-patterning and a strong, supported spine. The emphasis on the core muscles of the torso (the abdominal, back and hip groups) and conscious use of breath allow the exercises to progress smoothly as you learn to connect to the deep muscles. As posture and body awareness improve, so does the ability to work from the smaller muscles that surround the joints. We often hear that beginner pilates seems so easy that it can't be a good work out. In fact, pilates gets harder and harder as you improve. As your body changes and your skills increase, your ability to work with precision will change the nature of each exercise. There is no plateau in pilates!
Pilates can be done in both group classes or private sessions. At Boomerang we offer a variety of mat classes for different levels and involving small props for additional challenge. Private sessions typically include work on the machines, and can also be used to design your own personally tailored mat work out for home. If you are new to pilates, it can be useful to have a private session first, so your instructor can assess your particular needs before you join the group environment.
PIiates can be successfully used for rehabilitation after an injury or post pregnancy, to serve as a safe environment to begin or continue an exercise program, to enhance athletic abilities and simply to have fun with a new way of moving. Good posture, strength, mobility, endurance and grace are all fantastic benefits of the Pilates way!
Pilates can be done in both group classes or private sessions. At Boomerang we offer a variety of mat classes for different levels and involving small props for additional challenge. Private sessions typically include work on the machines, and can also be used to design your own personally tailored mat work out for home. If you are new to pilates, it can be useful to have a private session first, so your instructor can assess your particular needs before you join the group environment.
PIiates can be successfully used for rehabilitation after an injury or post pregnancy, to serve as a safe environment to begin or continue an exercise program, to enhance athletic abilities and simply to have fun with a new way of moving. Good posture, strength, mobility, endurance and grace are all fantastic benefits of the Pilates way!
History of Pilates
Joseph Pilates, born in 1883, created his method in Germany in the early 1900's . Joseph had been a sickly child, and when his doctors recommended exercise as the best medicine, he began a life-long journey of discovery in the field of exercise. Inspired by watching animals he began to design what he called Contrology, a way of exercising that allowed for fluidity in the joints while using the core muscles for support at all times. He became a body builder, did yoga and gymnastics, and worked as a boxer, a self-defence trainer and a circus performer. He was constantly observing and thinking about how bodies move.
Interned in England during WW 1, he began to apply his method to the other inmates and guards. They got stonger and healthier due to the regular exercise and when the influenze epidemic hit, no-one in that camp died. Pilates was assigned work as an orderly, and in the hospital, he modified his exercise routines to be useful to injured soldiers confined to beds with springs and pulleys. This was the beginning of his work inventing the equipment we still use today. The Reformer, Cadillac and Stability Chair can all be used to either ease the difficulty of exercises by providing support or increase it by providing resistance.
Distressed by the developments in Germany during WW 2, Joseph moved to the United States, meeting his wife-to-be, Clara, on the boat. Clara, a nurse, was intrigued by his approach, and they worked together at the studio he opened in New York. Pilates worked extensively with dancers, including Martha Graham and George Balanchine, who greatly appreciated Pilates' method that created the long, strong bodies so sought after in the dance world.
Interned in England during WW 1, he began to apply his method to the other inmates and guards. They got stonger and healthier due to the regular exercise and when the influenze epidemic hit, no-one in that camp died. Pilates was assigned work as an orderly, and in the hospital, he modified his exercise routines to be useful to injured soldiers confined to beds with springs and pulleys. This was the beginning of his work inventing the equipment we still use today. The Reformer, Cadillac and Stability Chair can all be used to either ease the difficulty of exercises by providing support or increase it by providing resistance.
Distressed by the developments in Germany during WW 2, Joseph moved to the United States, meeting his wife-to-be, Clara, on the boat. Clara, a nurse, was intrigued by his approach, and they worked together at the studio he opened in New York. Pilates worked extensively with dancers, including Martha Graham and George Balanchine, who greatly appreciated Pilates' method that created the long, strong bodies so sought after in the dance world.
