What Is Pilates?

The Pilates Method is a physical exercise program designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance your whole body. Instead of isolating muscle groups, your whole body is trained, integrating your upper and lower extremities with your trunk. Pilates exercises focus on 7 key movement principles:

• Postural symmetry
• Breath control
• Abdominal strength
• Spine, pelvis and shoulder stabilization
• Muscular flexibility
• Joint mobility
• Strengthening through the complete range of motion of all joints

What makes Pilates such a valuable exercise is that it’s highly adaptable. Rather than having a person adapt to a piece of workout equipment, Pilates can be customized to fit the individual, no matter their fitness or ability level. Concentration and commitment to doing your best is all that is required. Unlike any other exercise system, Pilates develops long, lean muscles and a strong center - the essential ingredients to maintaining good posture and balanced alignment. Even after one lesson, many find they sit and stand taller, move more gracefully, and are eager to experience more.

What Are The Benefits of Pilates?

• Improve strength, flexibility and balance
• Tone and build long, lean muscles without bulk
• Challenge deep abdominal muscles that support your core
• Engage your mind and enhance body awareness
• Restore postural alignment 
• Create a stronger, more flexible spine
• Promote recovery from strain or injury
• Increase joint range of motion
• Improve circulation
• Heighten neuromuscular coordination
• Help relieve back pain and other joint stress
• Correct over-training of muscle groups which can lead to stress and injury
• Enhance mobility, agility and stamina
• Compliments sports training and develops functional fitness

How Often Should I Do Pilates?

We suggest you begin Pilates by taking five private lessons. In these early lessons, we will modify and adjust the exercises to your own body and teach you to correct any postural problems, previous injuries, or current limitations you may have. 

Initially, you may want to do Pilates every day for better retention of what you learned in your lesson, and become consistent in your practice. The beginning is more about figuring out how to integrate your center and learning the specific exercises, and less about increasing muscle strength and power. As you progress and are able to tolerate a much more intensive workout, we recommend two to three lessons per week.

What Is Pilates Matwork?   

Pilates matwork is a flowing sequence of exercises that are challenging, yet feel good. They effectively integrate breath and movement, core stabilization, and stretching simultaneously. For some, matwork offers an opportunity to slow down and master the method's fundamentals. For others, it evolves into a well-paced, invigorating workout that has the advantage of being completely portable. If you have a strong interest in mastering the matwork in order to practice on your own, let your instructor know so that it is made a priority in your lessons. At Healing Motion, we teach the original Pilates matwork so that clients may accelerate their progress by practicing on their own.