Pilates for everybody
July 11, 2009 by staff
Filed under Basic Pilates
Pilates for everybody! This is the common shout-out of the proponents of Pilates. For them, the benefits of these exercises are good and should be tried by anyone. And if your try looking around and when you try picking out the latest magazines then for sure you will notice the advertisements pushing Pilates for everybody. Suddenly there is this craze about Pilates in many places. Pilates exercise has been the choice of gymnasts and dancers for decades and not to mention the Hollywood artists nowadays.
Developed in 1920’s by Joseph H. Pilates, the Pilates is designed to improve the mental and physical well being, increase body’s flexibility and to strengthen muscles. Originally this exercise was meant to rehabilitate bed ridden and immobile patients and soldiers of World War I.
Currently, more and more people prefer the Pilates as this exercise works the entire body using the six Pilates principles of exercise, concentration, centering, precision, control, breathing, and flowing movements using both mind and body. Pilates movements focuses on quality instead of quantity thus, the movements are neither rapidly nor repeated excessively. The core strength (torso) serves as the center of all movement allowing the whole body to move freely.
The balance between flexibility and strength constitutes to equal workout of muscle groups, thus producing a leaner, healthier and stronger body. There are two ways to do the Pilates exerciset. The mat exercise and the use of variety of machines use to tone and strengthen the body. Both of them use the principle of resistance which makes use of one’s own body’s weight as resistance. The mat exercise however is mostly preferred by lots of people as it requires only mat and training.
Pilates for everybody as they say has something for everyone. Would you believe that this type of exercise is also widely used by pregnant women? Even our old folks take passion in the Pilates exercise. The advantage of this exercise is that this is open for almost any age group and the exercises can be modified according to age of the person.
Pilates for everybody is indeed a lovely and exciting proposition!
Pilates For Kids
June 18, 2009 by staff
Filed under Basic Pilates
Pilates for kids can be good exercise technique for children because they need exercise too and there’s no better option but Pilates. As your children focus on their schoolwork, they also need time to relax. Yes, they get stressed of course!
So how do you start the Pilates for your kids? This should be a lot of fun. Teaching children is surely different from teaching adults so be ready. With children, try to help on teaching how to focus and understand the benefits of Pilates. At the same time make the activity fun so they will want to make it a habit. Kids do not often respond to exercises unless the exercise seems to be like they are playing. Try to put some strategy like using animal names while doing the activity. Make it fund and do happy things. Try the Happy Cat or Pretty Cat exercise if you can.
Now if you are enjoying Pilates for kids using your unique strategy, you need to trust your instincts. Even if children are different from adults, the fundamentals of teaching Pilates remain. Just like with adults, you will find children who are strong and fit or even more flexible than others. Of course, you will need to start knowing the level of your students/kids. Look at how many of them can do the Hundred with their knees bent or head up. As you can see, this can be a pain if you teach tons of kids! So make sure that you are able to regulate them. Best thing to do is group your kids into two or three.
When engaging into Pilates for kids, make sure that your kids know the benefits they can get from Pilates and fitness. Make sure that they understand alignment, flexibility centering, posture, and concentration. You may start breaking down the letters in the word Pilates and assigning a different word to each letter. Say, P stands for posture. Such kinds of strategy will help the kids remember and enjoy the activity. Kids want to become more flexible and surely, they want as strong as their favorite cartoon hero.
Pilates for kids are for kids who maybe hooked with getting stronger.

