MAT PILATES

This class is in the Classical Pilates style. The Mat Pilates class is designed to strengthen your core. This method of Pilates utilizes a core stabilizing system called the Pilates Pillar in order to maximize the strengthening of your core while minimizing the strain on your neck and spine.

This class is broken up into two levels: Level 1 is a back to basics Pilates class that will teach you how to activate your Pilates Pillar, proper breathing techniques and will also build on each movement. Classes will begin at the Basic Modified level and will work up to the Beginner level by the end of the 10 week session. Level 1 & 2 is a mixture of the Beginner and Intermediate mat workouts.

YOGA/PILATES FUSION

The Yoga/Pilates Fusion is a vigorous class that incorporates Vinyasa(flow) yoga and core-strengthening Mat Pilates. The two complement each other nicely and help to create a toned, flexible body and ease stress away. The Classical Pilates style utilizes a core stabilizing system called the Pilates Pillar in order to maximize the strengthening of your core while minimizing the strain on your neck and spine. Props are used in this class to enable all levels of participants to fully enjoy the class. Pranayama is also explored and this deep relaxation is a perfect end to a great class!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Pilates?

The Pilates Method (sometimes simply Pilates), pronounced ("Pih - LAH - Teez"), is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates. Pilates wrote two books concerning the Pilates method: Return to Life through Contrology and Your Health: A Corrective System of Exercising That Revolutionizes the Entire Field of Physical Education. Pilates called his method Contrology, referring to the way the method encourages the use of the mind to control the muscles. The program focuses on the core postural muscles which help keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and strengthen the deep torso muscles, which are important to help alleviate and prevent back pain.

Who is Joseph Pilates?

Pilates was formed by Joseph Pilates during the First World War with the proposal to improve the rehabilitation program for the many returning veterans. Joseph Pilates believed mental and physical health are essential to one another. He recommended a few, precise movements emphasizing control and form to aid injured soldiers in regaining their health by strengthening, stretching,and stabilizing key muscles. Pilates created "The Pilates Principles" to condition the entire body: proper alignment, centering, concentration, control, precision, breathing, and flowing movement.

Pilates sessions help increase strength and flexibility, lengthen the body, and align the spine. The method does not build muscle mass. The fields of fitness and rehabilitation often encourage Pilates for its focus on the muscles of the abdomen and lower back. The focus on strengthening the core muscles and improving postural awareness especially relieve and prevent back pain.

What are the Pilates Principles?

Pilates follows principles based on a philosophical and theoretical foundation. It claims not merely to be a collection of exercises but a method developed and refined over more than eighty years of use and observation. Pilates is a physical fitness process that requires the control of the mind, strengthens the body's core, and provides a self-confidence and well-being. While Pilates draws from many diverse exercise styles, there are certain inherent ruling principles that bring all these elements together under the Pilates name. One interpretation of Principles: Centering, Concentration, Control, Precision, Breathing, and Flowing Movement.

According to practitioners, the central element of Pilates is to create a fusion of mind and body, so that without thinking about it the body will move with economy, grace, and balance; using one's body to the greatest advantage, making the most of its strengths, counteracting its weaknesses, and correcting its imbalances. The goal is to produce an attention-free union of mind and body, the method requires that one constantly pays attention to one's body while doing the movements. Paying attention to movement is so vital that it is more important than any other single aspect of the movements or the method.

Breathing: Joseph Pilates believed in circulating the blood so that it could awaken all the cells in the body and carry away the wastes related to fatigue. For the blood to do its work properly, it has to be charged with oxygen and purged of waste gases through proper breathing. Full and thorough inhalation and exhalation are part of every Pilates exercise. Pilates saw forced exhalation as the key to full inhalation. "Squeeze out the lungs as you would wring a wet towel dry," he is reputed to have said. Breathing, too, should be done with concentration, control, and precision. It should be properly coordinated with movement. Each exercise is accompanied by breathing instructions. Joseph Pilates stated, "Even if you follow no other instructions, learn to breathe correctly".

Centering: Pilates called the very large group of muscles in our center – encompassing our abdomen, lower back, hips, and buttocks – the "powerhouse." All energy for Pilates exercises begins from the powerhouse and flows outward to the extremities. Physical energy exerted from the center coordinates one's movements. Pilates felt that it was important to build a strong powerhouse in order to rely on it in daily living.

Concentration: Pilates demands intense focus. For instance, the inner thighs and pelvic floor may be accessed when doing a standing exercise that tones the triceps. Beginners learn to pay careful attention to their bodies, building on very small, delicate fundamental movements and controlled breathing. In 2006, at the Parkinson Center of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon, the concentration factor of the Pilates method was being studied in providing relief from the degenerative symptoms of Parkinson's disease

Control: Joseph Pilates built his method on the idea of muscle control. That meant no sloppy, uncontrolled movements. Every Pilates exercise must be performed with the utmost control, including all body parts, to avoid injury and produce positive results. It's not about intensity or multiple repetitions of a movement; it's more about proper form for safe, effective results.

Precision: Every movement in the Pilates method has a purpose. Every instruction is vitally important to the success of the whole. To leave out any detail is to forsake the intrinsic value of the exercise. The focus is on doing one precise and perfect movement, rather than many halfhearted ones. Eventually this precision becomes second nature, and carries over into everyday life as grace and economy of movement.

Fluidity: Pilates mat exercises are supposed to be performed fluidly. There are no static, isolated movements. Concentration and body awareness replaces the quick, jerky movements of other exercise regimes. Grace of motion is emphasized over speed; ultimately the movements are meant to feel as fluid as a long stride or a waltz. Uniformly developed muscles are then developed to complement good posture, suppleness, and natural grace. However, with the usage of the apparatus, clients will need to take at least some time to adjust their equipment settings and props.