THE BEST PILATES FOR BEGINNERS

Do you know what Pilates is? Would you like to start doing Pilates exercises? This article is for you: let’s discover together Pilates for beginners.

What is Pilates?

Pilates is a type of re-educative, preventive, and hypothetically therapeutic gymnastics focused on postural control. Especially the spine and balance control should benefit from regular Pilates exercises.

Unlike many types of gymnastics, the Pilates method follows principles based on a precise philosophical and theoretical basis. It is therefore not a simple set of exercises, but a real method that, in the last sixty years of practice and observation, has developed and continuously refined.

The goal of its creator, Joseph Hubertus Pilates, was to make people more aware of themselves, their body and their mind to unite them into a single, dynamic, and functional entity.

Are you interested in Pilates for beginners? Keep reading.

Pilates benefits

If practiced with continuity, Pilates improves:

• Flexibility
• Isometric force and resistance
• Control and balance.

In general, Pilates is beneficial especially for sedentary people, but there is no evidence that it can be more effective than alternative therapies.

Pilates for back pain? Yes, Pilates can counteract back pain by acting directly on the underlying cause.

More precisely, thanks to this method you can improve posture by eliminating general stiffness and tension, which are some of the main causes of back pain.

Pilates for beginners

Sometimes you don’t have time to go to the gym or go for a run. Would you like to try Pilates at home but don’t know where to start? Pilates at home can be done without the use of machines.

Here some exercises and tips about Pilates for beginners:

THE HUNDRED. Useful for strengthening abdominals. To perform it, lie on a yoga mat, face-up with your legs bent, the lumbar area perfectly adherent to the floor, palms of your hand facing down. Start by slowly lifting your legs upwards, until you completely relax them.

At the same time, place your arms parallel to your body and lift your head and shoulders, keeping them relaxed and away from your ears. At this point, continuing to keep the palms of your hands facing down, make 20 small pushes to the ground with your arms, without touching the floor.

Keep your abdomen rigid for the duration of the exercise. These movements allow you to improve coordination and flexibility.

STRETCH SPINE. Useful Pilates exercises to strengthen the spine. To perform it correctly, start on a yoga mat, with the legs stretched and distant from each other with the opening corresponding to the width of the shoulders. Arms should be stretched and parallel to the legs.

From here it is advisable to exhale and flex, bringing the torso forward and contracting the abdomen. The head must be lowered between the legs, while the arms go forward, always stretched and parallel to the floor, until you get to the maximum deflection possible. Stay a few moments in this position, then inhale and return to the starting position.

Deflection should not be painful, do the exercise within the limits of your possibilities. With the stretch spine, you stretch the muscles of the neck, of the bust, and of the back of the legs.

ROLL OVER. The starting position is on a yoga mat, with the back to the floor, legs stretched out, arms laid down along the sides, and palms of the hands towards the floor.

From here, breathe in and with a light and controlled thrust, bring your legs backward making sure they are as parallel and taut as possible until they touch the floor. From here exhale and return to the starting position slowly, touching the vertebrae with the mat one at a time.

This exercise improves the flexibility of the spine and positively affects the toning of the abdomen and legs.

Pilates at home, as in the gym, has no particular contraindications. It can be carried out by anyone who is in good health. However, Pilates exercises must be carried out in the correct way to avoid muscle strains and other types of problems.

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