My Favorite Things About Pilates

My Favourite Things About Pilates lists down my top ten reasons for loving this exercise. Without further ado, here they are:

1. ABS, ABS, ABS. Pilates works your abdominal muscles constantly since all movements involve the abs, even when you’re just warming up or stretching. Not only does this mean I get to have a beautiful belly, but also that I have a healthy core. The abs is not just the center of the stomach, usually flaunted by those with packs on their bellies. It also involves the sides or the lateral obliques, which in turn works with the back muscles. And when you have a strong trunk, you have a strong center. This determines ALL of your movements, from your posture to the way you walk or pick up something from the floor, which also normally affects your composure, demeanor and confidence.

2. Pilates can be done at any level. As a teacher, one of my favourite things about pilates is that it can be done by anyone, regardless of your fitness level. The key to doing pilates is body awareness, and the most important equipment for it is YOUR body (rather than the ball, the dumbbells, or any other gadgets). It’s like having the raw material and the sculpting tool in one thing. Your body has its own admirable intelligence and voice; through pain it tells you something’s off, and it also manifests (obviously or not) what’s working or not working with your lifestyle. To someone familiar with body work and can pay keener attention, the body is a reflection of habits and personalities learned and carried throughout the years. So this gives you a clue of what you need to work on. But this also means that the best weight to lift or the perfect position to take is whatever your body can allow for using its own weight and extent. For instance, to find the perfect way to sculpt your arms, the instructor will have you lift the weight of your own arms in a set of repetitions. The stronger you get, the more you lift of your own weight by varying the moves into more complex ones. So, as long as there’s gravity and your body, you can do pilates.

3. It is pure exercise, grounded in the mind and body. Music is great for exercise. It can set the mood, motivate people, or even have the steps complement the music. Equipments are also extremely helpful. They create stress to the body that pushes it beyond its shape. Pilates, however, is one pure exercise that can be 100% effective without any of those tools. What this “pureness” brings to working out is a tool called awareness, which is perhaps the best device human beings have in the business of transforming things. What makes pilates transformative is that one learns to listen to the body and to work with what they have. They realize that it is a malleable vehicle (not an immovable mass or a barrier)—the best, perfectly customized tool they need to develop their fitness. Because they quit making their bodies wrong, it gives people a powerful relationship with what they have. And they learn to see their body according to their goals and abilities rather than seeing it through the standards of society. This fully enables them to transform their physique.

4. It can be done anywhere. The best things in life are free—I truly believes that—like gravity, your body, your awareness and willingness. What I love about pilates is that it can be done anywhere because you always have what you need to do it. As mentioned earlier, all you need is your body…AND, you can get creative depending on what’s available—machine, mat, wall, ball, chair, etc.—but the basic ingredients are always with you.

5. I can’t describe what it is! This is how I know that I am seriously passionate about pilates. Like many folks (and websites), I can describe pilates in terms of what kind of exercise it is, who started it and its whole history, the different kinds and variations practiced all around the world, the endless benefits it can give you, what’s unique about it, and many other things. But no matter what I say, nothing does justice to my experience of pilates. It’s like so many other exercises and shares some principles that other workouts have, but it is none of all those things. Having to describe it is like having to describe balance to someone who wants to know how to ice skate or ride the bike. There is a certain depth to the experience of pilates that makes it indescribable, like many other things that matter in life.

6. It is powerfully feminine. What I love about pilates is that the moves are fluid and graceful but they are intentional and precise. This shows how results can be produced without force, aggression, and other testosterone-inspired ways, just as how many fitness programs are represented. Yet at the same time, there is force and power in pilates and it does make use of pushing beyond perceived limits. To an onlooker, pilates seems so graceful and “girly”, but what eludes the vision is the scientific precision and the fierce intentionality of every single move and breath that comes along with it. The kinestheic insight I get is the awareness that I can be any or both, and it is/ I am dynamic, which gives me confidence.

8. It humbles my mind and body. On of my favourite things about pilates is that it always brings someone—ME!—to my real limit. As mentioned, it requires body awareness, but at the same time it also allows me to really check in with reality what I can do versus what “I know”. A lot of times, I think I can do an exercise and my body doesn’t allow it. Effective pilates is getting to the limit and the humbling awareness that there’s always a gap—which is the always the perfect place to be in. 

9. It is the right niche for my body. This is something I’m not quite sure how to explain. But have you tried an exercise and said after, “No, this is not for me.” It really does take some openness to see what the perfect exercise is for you. When I started out with pilates, this is what had me realize that it was the best exercise for me: The Aftertaste. There is always an aftertaste that isn’t like any other cardiovascular, strength, circuit or other kinds of training has. The depth of the soreness had me discover muscles and nerves that I never knew existed. Every time I go for a session, it is always not the same experience but it’s just as perfect as the last one. And each time, it satisfies me fully.

10. It makes me feel like a goddess. Soon enough I realized that I really am one, so there is no need to explain. ;) 

So there you have it. I could easily come up with another set of ten but that’s it for now. When it comes to pilates, these are my favourite things.





Picture taken from http://www. flickr. com/photos/laurentjeanphilippe/6430382247/

Pilates Exercise Mat Asks, "How Does Proper Breathing Lessen Neck, Shoulder, Back Aches and Stress?"

I got to catch up with my friend Janiel the other dayfor lunch and she mentioned how her lower back ached whenever she sat for over an hour in front of the computer. I asked her if she did the morning stretches her doctor suggested her to do. She said yes, and she still has the back ache later on as the day went 'til night time. So I asked her something simple.
"How's your breathing?" and she looked at me with a question mark face and said, "No one's ever asked me about how my breathing is," and laughed.

"So you don't pay attention to your breathing?" I asked.

Janiel, intrigued with the subject of breathing and how it had something to do with her lower backache, asked me, "Why, is it important?"

Our  breath is the core of life, and the patterns of our breathing changes depending on what's on our mind and our emotions. For instance, when we're scared or in a panic, or when we're rushed or tensed, our heart starts to pump fast. On the other hand, when we're present to happiness, and we experience joy, love and peace, how's our breath? You can feel that our breathing is smooth, calm and light. For some, they don't even know that their body is reacting to their breath. To them, it's just how their body is.

I asked my friend to observe her breath for a minute. Nothing to do; just breathe.

She said she feltlike her breathing and her heart slowed down. I told her, she could actually be relaxed in the midst of stress, panic or fear just by taking a moment and tuning into her breathing. Then I asked her to breathe really attentively and watch where her breath was going. Since she wasn't really getting it, I told her to put one hand on the top of her chest and the other hand on her belly to see where her breathing was rising from. Right away, with an astonished look on her face, she said, "It's my belly."

There's no wrong way to breathe. At the same time, breathing from the stomach completely shows why her back aches during the day. When we breathe all from the stomach, the stomach muscle cavity is left loose and the back is left unprotected. That results to higher risks to injuries and lower back aches.
   
It goes the same for breathing from the chest. People who breathe from the chest are overusing the muscles that assist in breathing, but are not solely for this purpose. It's what we refer to as shallow breathing, and it's inefficient to providing blood flow for the body. It also creates muscle tention in the neck and shoulder areas even before the stress. 

Breathing is something I train with everyday as a main proponent of Pilates Exercise Mat. I encourage a diaphragmic breathing technique, that is, breathing from the sides and the back of the ribcage where the muscles can be fully utilized. This expands the lower lodes of the lungs for the blood lymph flow, which allows for efficient gas exchange.

How does proper breathing contribute to lessening neck, shoulder, back aches and stress? 

Breathing awareness in Pilates Exercise Mat relaxes our mind, and has us experience its physical and spiritual benefits. No wonder in Pilates, the breath is the first basic principle, and it always dictates our movements. As we go through our day, our breath functions with the mind-body consciously and subconsciously and this reveals a great deal of our physical and mental state. 

So, in sum...

Reaping the benefits of proper breathing:
* Mind-body connection
* Relief from back aches
* Relief from neck and shoulder aches
* Relaxation

Why is breathing properly critical in your daily life?
* Releases effective oxygen in the cells all throughout the body
* Provides a quick energy boost while moving through our day
* Activates the deepest stomach muscles that provides back strength stability
* Enlivens the body as it makes you aware of your body

Breathing is essential to your happiness, peace of mind and having a pain-free life. As you can see based on what I've explained above, saying this is no exaggeration at all.

Are you presently suffering body pain and feeling stressed out?

Would you like to get immediate help?

Or do you have questions that you'd like addressed? 

Simply join me in Facebook and I will promptly answer your questions and concerns so that you can have relief within minutes. As you can see, proper breathing will reduce your body pain, enabling you to have the physical and over-all capacity to live your life day by day, which is the mission of Pilates Exercise Mat.






Photo thanks to: http:// www. corbisimages. com/stock-photo/royalty-free/42-24647471/young-woman-standing-in-desert