10 Benefits of Pilates

Pilates

6 Apr

Pilates can not only help strengthen your powerhouse (abdominal, lower back, glutes, and pelvic floor muscles). But also bring multiple other benefits to you both for your mind and body.

Interested in how Pilates could impact your overall health? Here are 10 benefits of Pilates:

1. Whole Body Workout

Pilates consists of flowing functional movements which means you will be working the whole body. Pilates helps to strengthen your core, the centre of your body from where all movements stem. This is a key factor in helping to reduce back and hip pains.

Pilates classes will help to stretch and strengthen all your major muscle groups. This also improves your fluidity of movement and balance.

2. Improves Sports Performance

The physical benefits are that it brings balance to the body. Pilates once a week conditions your core muscles to be neither loose, weak or rigid.

The focus is to build dynamic strength to help support and stabilise your joints during motion. Research also suggests that it is effective in reducing injury risk in sports.

3. Improves Balance and Coordination

Balance is important in whatever stage of life you are in. It is necessary for all movement from walking and running to twisting and turning. We aim to increase your body awareness giving your body stability during motion.

With regular practice, you will become stronger and develop a greater sense of balance and coordination. This is achieved through core strengthening and the focus on alignment with whole-body exercises.

4. Improve Bone Density

Bone is a dynamic tissue (like muscles) that responds well to resistance and bodyweight exercises. The majority of exercises use your body weight as resistance to strengthen tissues (bone, muscle, fascia, tendons, and ligaments) whilst having a low impact on your joints.

If you have reduced bone mineral density like osteopenia or osteoporosis then Pilates is a great form of exercise to help strengthen your bones in a safe and low-impact manner. At Wellthy Clinic our instructors are highly skilled and will modify exercises accordingly specifically to your needs.

5. Enhances your Mind-Body Connection

Mental health is probably not spoken about often enough but regular exercise does improve your mental well-being. The mental benefits of Pilates come from concentrating on your breathing while performing exercise movements.

Focusing on breathing whilst ensuring correct spinal and pelvic alignment helps you become more in tune with your body. With regular practice, you will develop a greater awareness of your movements. You are encouraged to bring your attention to different body parts and focus on how they are feeling at that moment. This intentional breathing will also help you relax, unwind and reduce stress.

6. Reduce Back Pain

There are many studies which suggest that Pilates is a safe, effective treatment method for people with low back pain. The method uses many active rehabilitative strengthening and stretching exercises specifically core strengthening which has been shown to help reduce low back pain. A recent Cochrane review (2015) suggested Pilates is more effective than a minimal intervention for patients with low back pain disability and pain levels.

Moreover, Pilates exercises are great for keeping your spine healthy. The meaningful movements help maintain your joint mobility and keep your intervertebral discs lubricated. In addition, exercise has positive benefits on how you think and feel about your pain levels which can also have an important impact on injury rehabilitation.

7. Can help you Lose fat

Pilates gives you the foundation to support more demanding activities. It involves muscle strengthening exercises which can contribute towards weight loss. For best results combine a healthy diet and aerobic activity (walking, cycling, or swimming). To increase efficiency try Pilates where there is added resistance, for example, reformer Pilates, to increase the difficulty and help burn more calories. A recent study showed an increase in Pilates activity has shown a positive reduction in weight, body mass index, and fat percentages (Savkin 2017).

8. Tone and Define Your Body Shape

We often get asked, “Does Pilates tone your body?” The simple answer is yes, it does tone your body. Modern-day postures can lead to hunched shoulders and poor upper back mobility which can create muscular imbalances. It helps to proactively support demanding job roles and bad postural habits by creating better muscular balances through symmetrical exercises.

Beginners Reformer Pilates is beneficial as it gives you feedback on your right alignment so you can self-correct. Furthermore, regular practice will transfer into your everyday tasks to support your active lifestyle. Improving your alignment will help reduce aches and pains, improve your breathing mechanics, and digestion and make you appear slimmer.

9. Aids Lymphatic Drainage

The lymphatic system is a key part of our immune system which is primarily used to recognise and eliminate bodily waste and toxins. The cellular waste products are carried around the body in the lymph fluid (similar to blood) into the lymph nodes. However, unlike your blood circulatory system, there is no heart to pump blood around your body. The lymphatic system requires muscular contractions, breathing and good digestion to flow around the body.

The lymph movement is important for a functioning immune system and getting rid of waste and toxins from your body. Exercise is the best form of lymphatic drainage and Pilates is unique as it focuses on moving joints in different planes with twisting and rotating movements. The main lymph nodes are located by your joints so flowing movements that articulate these joints will theoretically help with your lymphatic drainage and help optimise your immune system. Pregnancy Pilates can be particularly useful as congestion issues when pregnant like swollen ankles are common.

10. Boosts Energy Levels

Exercise is known to boost not only your body’s fitness level but also your energy levels. When you are exercising you experience an increase in your endorphins. These are natural hormones that get released when we are doing exercise that requires a burst of energy and they also make us feel good.

It is very common for people to say they feel great after a session which is partly due to these energising endorphins. This is also one of the reasons exercise is a great way to support your everyday stresses. Interestingly due to the low-impact nature of Pilates, it doesn’t put excess stress on the body meaning it causes less fatigue and helps to maintain that energised feeling.

Exercise also has knock-on effects on your everyday energy levels. It boosts your cardiovascular health which helps you to have greater endurance throughout the day. It can also help improve your sleep patterns meaning you are more likely to have better quality sleep and having better quality sleep means you are likely to feel more mentally alert, energised, and more productive.

Want to feel these benefits for yourself?

At Wellthy Clinic we are dedicated to helping you reach your health and well-being potential. Our skilled team offers private Pilates classes meaning your sessions will be individualised for you and your needs. Take a step towards a healthier future and book a Pilates session below.

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Benefits of Pilates References

Angin, E. Erden, Z. Can, Z. (2015) The Effects of Clinical Pilates Exercises on Bone Mineral Density, Physical Performance and Quality of Life of Women With Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Journal Back Musculoskelet Rehabil (2015);28(4):849-58.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26406222/

Yamato et al (2015) Cochrane review: Pilates for low back pain https://www.cochrane.org/CD010265/BACK_pilates-for-low-back-pain

Savkin & Aslan (2017) The Effect of Pilates Exercise on Body Composition in Sedentary Overweight and Obese Women https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27607588/