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Pilates Can Be Tailored to a Full Spectrum of Fitness Goals, Ages, and Abilities: Here's Why You Sho
Pilates has existed since the 1920s, but its popularity has grown worldwide over the past few years as more people focus on their physical and mental health. Today, over 12 million people practice Pilates around the world, and its numbers are expected to rise.
In this blog, Caryn McAllister, PT, DPT, and her highly skilled team at High Quality Home Therapy unpack what pilates is and how it can help you live your best life.
Pilates explained
Pilates is named after its founder, Joseph Pilates, who developed the concept as a therapy to help injured World War I soldiers. Joseph’s father was active in sports and fitness and Joseph embraced holistic therapies of the time like trigger point therapy and breath work. These influences combined with Joseph’s interests in modern dance and meditation to create today’s Pilates practice.
The easiest way to describe Pilates is that it's an exercise program that incorporates functional movements – things we do every day like standing, bending, twisting, lifting, and balancing – all with the distinct purpose of making your body perform more efficiently.
With a focus on control and precision, Pilates is all about intent and strengthening your body’s core. Intentional breathing and intentional movement come together to create a flowing workout that is more about the quality of the movement than quantity.
Pilates is performed in gyms, studios, physical therapy facilities, and at home and includes mat work and exercises that use small equipment like a medicine ball or larger apparatus that can help enhance and restore body alignment, flexibility, coordination, and balance.
The principles of Pilates make it a popular fitness option, but that’s not all. Since it makes your body stronger by making it perform more efficiently, it works well as part of a physical therapy treatment plan to address injuries, and chronic pain, and has sports training applications that can prevent future injuries.
Dialed in for age, fitness level, and health goals
Another benefit of Pilates is you don’t have to be an athlete in your prime to leverage the health benefits of a Pilates program. Pilates programs are fully customizable so they can meet each practitioner where they are.
Each Pilates movement can be modified to allow for differences in body alignment and balance, strength, physical limitation because of injuries, differing abilities, and overall health goals. While the same movement may look a little different for each practitioner, the health goals and benefits are consistent.
30 to 60 minutes to a healthier you
Here at High Quality Home Therapy, we help clients tap into the benefits of Pilates to gain a wide range of health benefits, including:
- Enhanced core strength and control
- Better balance, coordination, and posture, reducing the risk of falls
- Expedited recovery and healing
- Enhanced physical and mental well-being
- Reduced stress
Our therapists are skilled Pilates experts. We infuse our therapy sessions with key Pilates principles and use CoreAlign®, Balanced Body Reformer, and Spine Corrector equipment, along with mat exercises for maximum therapeutic outcomes.
We provide both private one-on-one lessons and group Pilates training classes, which vary from 30 minutes to one hour. Before you begin your therapy plan, your therapy team evaluates your medical history and overall health.
If needed, your team performs a physical exam and asks you questions about your medical and family history, any mobility issues, pain, or other symptoms you may have, as well as past injuries, or medications you take.
Using this data we create a custom Pilates therapy plan of strengthening exercises and stretches designed to address your unique needs and goals. Depending on your therapy plan and your schedule and needs, your Pilates sessions will vary from weekly sessions to several times a week.
If you suffer from pain because of a chronic condition or injury, or if you want to enhance your physical and mental health through the power of Pilates, contact us to learn more. Use our online feature to schedule an appointment or call High Quality Home Therapy in Stamford, Connecticut, today.