Pilates: Precision Exercises That Strengthen Your Body And Mind

Close your eyes and connect for a moment with your power center, that place in the body from where you feel your strength emerging and where your movements are generated when you feel balanced and move with ease and freedom. Where is that center?

Surely you have intuited it: your center of power is at the point that the Eastern disciplines call hara and where the muscles of the abdomen, the lower part of the back and the buttocks converge. It is what in Pilates is known as a powerhouse or “mansion of power”, located in the belly.

If you have connected with your body center, you have just taken the first step, and the most important, to be able to start practicing Pilates, a precise and effective method of exercises, meticulously developed at the beginning of the 20th century by Joseph H. Pilates to develop the strength, enhance balance and improve body posture.

Although in some centers specialized equipment is used to perform some of the exercises proposed in this method, Pilates can be done easily at home with a mat and little else.

What is Pilates and what is it for?

Pilates is, above all, a method of bodily integration and is named after its creator: Joseph H. Pilates, whose history helps us better understand the purpose and benefits of the exercises that comprise it.

Joseph H. Pilates was a child of delicate health, but with a great passion for sports. He didn’t want to give it up. For this reason, and to also improve his own health, he dedicated his life to developing a method of exercises that allowed him to strengthen himself at all levels. Thus he discovered that, by exercising the muscles of the center of the body with control, the entire organism was strengthened and toned at the same time.

These are some of the principles of the method, which are important to keep in mind if you decide to do Pilates exercises at home:

• When we talk about exercising the center of the body we mean the abdominal muscles, the lower back, and the muscles of the hips and buttocks. In this center the movement in the exercises always begins.
• The Pilates method is also a precision gymnastics. The movements are performed with control and concentration during the exercises is one of the pillars of the method.
• Pilates exercises work the body as a whole, taking into account the muscle chains and deep muscles. The little details are important.
• Another fundamental principle is to coordinate the movement with a diaphragmatic breathing that allows to keep the abdomen contracted while the lungs are filled.

Pilates exercises have many benefits and, well practiced, they can be performed at any age, as they can be adapted to the limitations of each one.

It is an ideal method to stay in shape and an excellent complement to any sport or rehabilitation process. They are highly recommended, for example, if you suffer from back pain or want to prevent it, and also to recover from a muscle injury.

If you decide to practice it, even if you start doing Pilates at home, you will see how dedicating an hour, or even half an hour, two to three times a week to the exercises , you will notice changes in your body, among them greater agility, strength and flexibility.

These are some of the specific benefits of the Pilates method:

• By working the body in an integral way, taking into account the muscular chains, it achieves a uniform muscular development that increases our agility, coordination and balance.
• As a method of body reeducation, it is ideal to prevent injuries derived from sports or day-to-day activities.
• Coordinating the movement with the diaphragmatic breathing not only increases the precision in the execution of the exercises. Focusing on movement and breathing also fosters a mind-body connection that makes Pilates much more than just gymnastics, with benefits beyond the physical.
• Both the exercise itself and the awareness of the body help to improve the ability to concentrate, to combat stress, to discover self-discovery and to feel better and more calm.

If you want to start and do Pilates at home, I recommend starting with the basic postures. Here I tell you how to perform six of the most complete basic postures. Connect with your center, work with your breath and enjoy the movement!