What is Pilates? Who is suitable for Pilates?

Pilates is a comprehensive exercise that combines yoga, dance, gymnastics and other sports. It has both the effect of aerobic exercise for weight loss and the effect of anaerobic exercise for shaping muscle lines. The following is a detailed sharing of the movements of Pilates.

Contents of this article

1. What is Pilates?

2. Who is suitable for Pilates?

3. Which is better for beginners: Pilates or yoga?

What is Pilates

Pilates is a comprehensive exercise that combines yoga, dance, gymnastics and other sports. It has both the effect of aerobic exercise for weight loss and the effect of anaerobic exercise for shaping muscle lines. Common Pilates movements include leg circles and side movements.

Pilates is a comprehensive sport that includes yoga, dance, gymnastics and other sports. This sport has both the effect of aerobic exercise for weight loss and the effect of anaerobic exercise for shaping muscle lines.

1. Leg wrap

For the leg circle exercise, you need to first lie flat on the mat with your legs even and together, your arms on both sides of your body, one leg straight up and the other leg bent at the knee, your abdominal muscles tightened, your back pressed against the ground, and circle the raised leg in the air while inhaling. After completing a circle, exhale, and repeat the above movements.

2. Side action

The side movement requires you to lie on your side, ensure that your head, shoulders and hips are in a straight line, slightly bring your legs forward, lift your left heel off the ground, and raise your toes. Lift your right leg to the height of your hip pain, squeeze your buttocks, kick your right leg forward twice, and then change the other leg and repeat the above movements.

Who is suitable for Pilates?

1. People who are eager to lose weight

Yoga's weight loss effect has been widely recognized, otherwise it would not have spread so rapidly around the world. Yoga weight loss is to replace the lifestyle that would cause weight gain with a healthy and self-disciplined lifestyle, so you may not need to go through a painful diet, take drugs that harm your body, or even care about losing weight.

2. People who are troubled by certain chronic diseases

From major diseases that threaten life safety such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, to common discomforts in life such as sinusitis, chronic gastritis, anemia, low back and shoulder pain, they can all be relieved and treated through practicing yoga.

3. People who are under too much pressure and want peace

Stress and anxiety are two issues that cannot be avoided in the fast-paced modern life. However, emotions can be channeled. Traditional Chinese medicine says that "sadness overcomes anger, anger overcomes thinking, and thinking overcomes fear." This means that emotions are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining, and can be channeled with the help of this mutually restraining relationship.

Which is better for beginners: Pilates or yoga?

You can make a choice based on your body.

The difference between Pilates and yoga

Yoge is a philosophy that aims to achieve a certain state through physical practice. It has many postures that imitate animal postures and target the internal organs.

Pilates - It emphasizes the coordination of breathing and movement, and is a static exercise. It is aimed at functional recovery and training, and pays attention to muscle movement and breathing control. Its focus is on muscles, and the movements are designed according to muscle movement, which makes it easier to shape muscle lines and a fit body.

Pilates emphasizes the control process in stillness, so that the trainee can increase muscle strength without increasing muscle volume. Pilates' light equipment exercises follow the method of small weights and multiple reps, making the muscles full of elasticity without increasing the circumference. Its exercise intensity is not particularly high, but it emphasizes control, stretching, and breathing, which is very helpful for shaping the waist, abdomen, buttocks and other key parts of women. This is more suitable for women's requirements for body beauty in real life.

Stretching exercises are an important part of pilates training. They use some yoga postures and make them more gymnastic, bringing rhythm into different postures and posture transitions, beautifying the body while strengthening the functions of the body's organs.

Basic principles of pilates

⑴ Principles of breathing:

①Breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Pay attention to the depth of exhalation and use abdominal breathing as much as possible.

② The breathing speed should not be too fast, it should be basically consistent with the speed of the movement, and do not hold your breath during training.

③ Pay attention to exhaling when exercising and inhaling when still. This can relieve the pressure on the body caused by muscle exertion.

④ By controlling your breathing and focusing on your breathing, you can reduce your sensitivity to muscle soreness.

⑵Principles of body control:

① The speed of movement is slow, which prolongs the time of muscle control and consumes energy of various parts of the body to a greater extent, thus achieving the purpose of fat loss and body shaping.

② Maintaining a good body posture will enable members to experience the physical stimulation brought by training for a long time.

③The fixation of the abdomen and torso is the core of pilates training.