Pilates exercises work on the body in a very effective way. Rather than isolating particular muscle groups, they work on the body as a whole, equipping you to perform everyday tasks more efficiently, such as carrying shopping, garderning, and moving furniture. Practicing Pilates will also enable you to become more supple and flexible.
Emotions
Practicing Pilates can contribute to good health on an emotional level as well as a physical one. It can increase your self-confidence and enhance your sense of well-being. It can also reduce your stress levels and help you to be more relaxed.
In a life-threatening situation, or in other circumstances that cause a lot of stress, the stress response, or "fight-or-flight mechanism" as it is known, is activated in your body. As your body gears up to meet the immediate threat, adrenaline is released, the heartbeat, metabolism, and breathing become more rapid, and cortisol and other hormones are circulated around the system. Any function that is not essential to immediate survival-including the immune system and digestion-is automatically shut
down.
This fight-or-flight respone helped our ancestors to run away from predators, preparing the body for physical effort. The physical exertion involved in running away or fighting released the stress. Once the immediate danger was over and the effort has passed, the body would return to normal.
Pilates and the body
Pilates is an excellent body-toning and conditioning system of system of exercise and works on the boby on many different levels:
!Pilates exercises help you to breathe using the muscles of your diaphragm.
Tissue
Pilates exercises can help to tone the connective tissue that surrounds, protects and supports vital body parts, including dones, tendons, and muscles. Regular practice of Pilates over a period of time can strengthen this tissue, which will enhance coordination of movement and reduce the risk of injury.
Nerves
At the center of the nervous system are the brain and spinal cord, but the nervous system is in fact a vast network of cells that carry information between all the parts of the body in order to control the body's activities. It is responsible for movement and coordination. Nerve impulses are sent to and from the brain and tell us how we feel. They also coordinate our movements. Pilates helps us to find a balance between relaxation and tension, and to develop awareness of the nervous system.
!The central nervous system covers the whole body and connects to the brain through the spinal cord.
Muscles
There are over 650 muscles in the body and they do a huge amount of work. They enable the body to move, they allow us to sit and stand, and they control key body functions. The heart, for example, is a large muscle that pupms blood around the body. The stomach and intestines are also muscles that are responsible for the digestive process. Pilates helps to tone and strengthen these muscles so that they work more effectively.
Isolating one muscle or set of muscles in physical exercise is contrary to the principles of Pilates, however. Pilates concentrates on working the whole body, and in this way prepares it more thoroughly for performing everyday tasks. Muscles often work in pairs or groups anyway, and so concentrating on one muscle will only work to the detriment of another. However, it is a good idea to know where different muscles are situated in the body.
Bones
Pilates exercises work to bring the bones pf the body back into their natural and correct alignment. With regular practice, this helps to improve posture and coordination of movement. The exercises also increase stability, which in turn enables you to perform physical movements and exercises more efficiently. Regular practice of Pilates can also mobilize joints and keep the whole body working smoothly. This can be especially valuable as you get older, because you will be able to increase your mobility and stay more active will into your later years.
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