BENEFITS OF PILATES

• A stronger healthier back.
• Better posture.
• Better co-ordination.
• Better balance.
• Better body shape, with a flatter stomach.
• Injury prevention and rehabilitation.
• Improved sporting performance.
• Relief from stress.
• A sense of calm and well-being.

WHAT IS PILATES?

Pilates is a method of exercise developed by the late Joseph Pilates. He explored many forms of exercise, initially for his own benefit, using what he found to work for him to develop a system of exercise for others.

Essentially this system aims to retrain the body to use its muscles for their proper functions, and to move with correct movement patterns and in correct alignment.

"If at 30 you are stiff and out of shape, then you are old. If at 60 you are supple and strong, then you are young." Joseph Pilates.

Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880 and became a fitness trainer with the Metropolitan Police and the German Police. He emigrated to America in the 1930s, where he set up his first fitness studio in New York, initially training mainly dancers, but soon attracting sports people and then actors, actresses and other famous people. They were all attracted to a system of training that complemented their other forms of exercise, and which built strength and flexibility without building bulk. He adapted his programme of exercises to the individual needs of his students. And from a core of exercises this process is still carried on with the various forms of Pilates that are being taught today.

Body Control Pilates has been developed by Lynne Robinson, Gordon Thomson and others over the last 15 years with the aim of making Pilates more accessible to the general public by building up the exercises through their component parts; from simple basic moves that can be safely attempted by those who have injury or posture problems. Muscle control and patterns of movement are developed first, and the gain in strength follows as the exercises become more challenging.