Pilates is a unique and magical combined exercise system therapy, which has a history of more than 80 years and is named after its founder Joseph H.pilates.
Mr. Pilates was born in Germany on 1880. Since childhood, I have been weak and sickly, determined to be strong, and studied various exercise therapies. /kloc-at the age of 0/4, he is strong enough to be a model in anatomical pictures! Later, he gradually formed a systematic exercise therapy through practice.
19 12, moved to Britain at the age of 32. During the First World War, Pilates' unique and effective exercise therapy attracted public attention because it helped a large number of prisoners recover!
1926, 46-year-old Pilates immigrated to new york, USA, and met his fiancee Clara, who was a nurse, on the boat to America. In new york's Eighth Avenue, Pilates and his wife set up Pilates Studio to provide targeted exercise therapy training for famous dancers, actors and athletes. Since then, it has become famous in the United States because of its remarkable effect, and it has gradually been recognized and affirmed by all countries in the world.
Until about 1960, 80-year-old Mr. Pilates and his wife still managed the studio by giving lectures in person. Today, the studio is still managed by her main student, Ms. Romana kryzanowska!
1967, Mr. Pilates passed away at the age of 87.
"The first requirement of happiness is health. Our understanding of physical health is to achieve and maintain the unity of body and sound mind, abundant natural exercise ability, and happily and calmly complete various tasks in daily life. " Joseph Pilates wrote the above passage in 1945, which also fully explained the true meaning of Pilates.
Now, Pilates has evolved into a noun, referring to all courses that use Joseph Pilates to exercise. This course can be a group fitness course or a private training course set up by a coach to correct special injuries, muscle imbalance or other physical problems. Pilates group fitness classes are specially designed for people who work in offices. Because of working at a desk and computer for a long time, muscle development is unbalanced. This lesson mainly focuses on the muscle training of abdominal muscles, gluteal muscles, shoulders and back. Regular pilates exercises can correct body posture, relax waist and neck, solve shoulder problems and tighten loose muscles in arms and abdomen. Nowadays, many professional athletes also use Pilates to avoid sports injuries. [Edit this paragraph] Pilates' characteristic sports never mean sweating all over your face. Today, when aerobic exercise is advocated, gentle and graceful movements are more conducive to the consumption of excess fat, just like Pilates.
Pilates is one of the most popular and fashionable fitness programs at present, and you can feel the full swing of Pilates atmosphere in major fitness centers. Its prosperity today may be attributed to its founder, Joseph Pilates, hence the name Pilates. He is a sickly man. For the sake of health, he gradually integrated the eastern and western health preserving methods, such as yoga and Tai Ji Chuan, with some movements designed by himself, and later gradually formed the Pilates of today.
The biggest feature of Pilates is that it is easy to learn. It not only moves gently, but also exercises the arms, chest and shoulders purposefully, and at the same time enhances the flexibility of the body. Moreover, this sport is not limited by the location of activities, and can be practiced in professional gyms and living rooms.
1. Pilates is a combination of eastern and western sports concepts.
Westerners have always paid attention to the training of physical muscle ability, such as waist, abdomen, back and chest. Orientals, on the other hand, pay attention to the training of breathing and concentration. Meditation, yoga and Tai Chi are good examples. Pilates combines the flexibility of the East with the fortitude of the West. Its movements are slow and clear, and every posture must be coordinated with breathing. Therefore, Pilates is suitable for people of any age, especially those who lack exercise, need to touch the computer for a long time and work from nine to five. Stretching and lengthening is also one of the most important exercises in Pilates. Its special feature is that the muscles will not thicken after exercise. By exercising the core parts of the body (waist and abdominal muscles, including transverse abdominal muscles, oblique abdominal muscles, oblique abdominal muscles, rectus abdominis and erector spinae), the spine will become soft and tough. Therefore, Pilates can not only improve the body lines, but also have a very good effect on correcting the neck and spinal cord.
2. Pilates is safe
Its movement speed is relatively peaceful, it is static, and it will hardly cause damage to joints and muscles. At the same time, the combination of static and dynamic movements makes the body nervous and relaxed, including the change of pace and meditation, which makes it easier for exercisers to control their own bodies and reduce the negative effects caused by posture errors. Pilates brings comprehensive exercise to your body with very simple equipment. As long as there is a quiet space and a soft carpet, you can practice and achieve the perfect combination of body and mind.
3. Pilates emphasizes the control process during rest.
This enables the trainer to enhance muscle strength without increasing muscle volume. Pilates' light equipment practice is to follow the principle of small weight and multiple times, so that the muscles are full of elasticity and will not be too prominent. Its exercise intensity is not particularly great, but it pays attention to control, stretching and breathing, which plays a very good role in shaping women's waist, abdomen, buttocks and other key parts. This is more suitable for women's requirements for physical beauty in real life.
In China, Pilates has quietly entered people's lives, opened corresponding courses in various gyms, and formed a certain scale group.
The Star Effect of Pilates
Elva Hsiao Elva, an Asian diva, is a fanatic of this fitness method.
Elva became attached to Pilates in 2005. When she first came into contact with Pilates, she was deeply impressed by this simple but effective exercise of muscle strength training. At first, Elva did Pilates for half an hour before going to bed every day, and lost 3 kilograms in 14 days. From then on, Elva fell in love with Pilates. Elvia is preparing a book about Pilates because of her success in practicing Pilates diligently. Among many Pilates moves, Elvia will recommend those that she has personally exercised and have remarkable effects to everyone to share the fun of Pilates.
Some big-name Hollywood stars, such as Madonna's pilates exercises to restore her figure after childbirth, have achieved amazing slimming effects. In addition, jennifer lopez, Sharon Si Tong, Julia Roberts and others also rely on persistent Pilates to keep their impressive figure. The huge star effect also makes the popularity index of Pilates rise sharply, which has set off an upsurge of Pilates movement around the world.
Let the muscle lines stretch
The main function of practicing other sports in the gym may be to exercise the heart and lungs. Pilates stretches your muscles directly, so it will make you feel awkward and uncomfortable during exercise. You want to turn left and right, you want to turn up and down, you want to inhale and exhale, and all kinds of postures incredibly strengthen your coordination and mobilize the muscles that you may not be able to mobilize in your life. If you think a posture is not so difficult to look at and uncomfortable, it is quite comfortable to do. Needless to say, it must be wrong.
Rigid-flexible exercise
One of the important reasons for the recent popularity of Pilates is that it is not limited by the venue. You can practice on the mat or even on the floor. Compared with yoga, it is more prominent in the combination of Chinese and western, which not only combines the "rigidity" of westerners who pay attention to physical muscle and functional training, but also integrates the "softness" of orientals who emphasize the integration of body and mind during practice, and each posture should be coordinated with breathing.
Pilates can not only improve the external shape of human body, but also have special effects in treating some diseases. For example: body edema, low back pain, constipation, fatigue, varicose veins and so on.
Relax in stretching and breathing.
Most people who work in offices have fat around their waists, and Pilates is a very targeted exercise. In any case, your muscles should be tense, and your legs should be stretched as far as possible to match your breathing. Imagine that your head is about to hit the ceiling. In the beautiful music, the fitness instructor is guiding you to practice. No pressure, no irritability, in this environment, I really feel that I am a person above everything, only intoxicated with sports.
Doing Pilates can get the following benefits:
A healthy and soft back
Pilates can give more support to your spine and create more space between your vertebrae. These extra spaces will not only make you look slimmer, but also give you more flexibility and turn your spine from a hard stick into a string of pearls. This new soft spine can help you avoid spinal degeneration problems, such as slipping. It can also help you become more elegant and relaxed in your activities.
Gentle training
If your figure is out of shape, Pilates can easily join any of your body-building plans. Pilates will not bring any pressure to your joints, and will not bring any damage to the cartilage and ligaments around your joints, especially your knee and shoulder joints. This will make your muscles more coordinated and draw your attention back to your inner worries. Pilates recovered quickly, more like going to physical therapy. In fact, unlike other sports, you can do it safely every day without worrying about excessive muscle and joint pressure. But in order to achieve the exercise effect, you only need to do Pilates three times a week. However, you must persevere, which is the key.
Improve your mental outlook and vitality.
Pilates can promote your emotional health. Smooth movements can calm your mind and relieve mental tension. When you lengthen and strengthen your muscles, it can help you to promote the operation of the circulatory system and eliminate your nervousness. Every movement will make you feel calm, coordinated and full of energy. Focus on getting rid of your stress, and you will get physical and mental health.
Better balance and coordination
When you are in your forties and fifties, your balance ability will deteriorate due to muscle atrophy and loss of sensitivity of nerve receptors. Pilates reverses this aging process by stabilizing your core. Pilates will move to your delicate deep muscles to help you keep your body stable and make your spine softer and stronger.
Relieve pain and stiffness
If you are troubled by the pain of osteoarthritis, you will find that doing Pilates can lengthen your body and reduce the pain. Proper exercise is very important for treating arthritis, because stretching can increase your flexibility and reduce your pain and fatigue. Stretching allows nutrients to flow to your muscles and tendons. They can make your muscles healthy and minimize the possibility of injury. Pilates can also stimulate the production of joint lubricants, which can relax the muscles of your legs, back, neck and shoulders and relieve pain and tension.
Quickly return to the body shape before pregnancy.
Many female friends will ask me why my stomach is still so flat after giving birth to two children. It's not long, but you need to do some exercise often and you will see the effect. Muscles have a good memory. You just need to do a little exercise and they will return to their original state. [Edit this paragraph] Six Principles of Pilates 1 Focus
While doing Pilates, you will think about what to eat later, where to go for happy hour tonight, and what programs to watch on TV. You will never achieve anything in your life, and you may even hurt yourself if you are not careful.
Only concentration can connect the mind and the body and feel the nuances of every movement. With concentration, posture will be constantly adjusted and improved, injuries will be reduced, and control and fluency will be improved. Have you ever heard the phrase "dedicated people are the best looking"? If you want to practice your pilates well, you should concentrate.
2 control control
Pilates' "control" is about "from the inside out". Too profound? Actually, not at all.
Concentration combined with breathing will produce great control. At the beginning of each action, you need to use controls. When your body reaches a certain posture, you need to maintain it with control. Over time, your muscles will be strengthened and stretched and your figure will become more and more beautiful.
When you do pilates, you will find that it is not enough to use only large blocks and main muscles such as thigh muscles; You have to wake up those little muscles that are ignored in deep peace, so that you can control your movements.
Strengthening from the inside out, those soft thighs that you think you can't control, the fat arms that will shake when you hold lemon tea, and the streaky pork hanging on your pants will suddenly be recruited into the battlefield.
When you control your body, you also control yourself.
Triaxial centering
Imagine that your shoulders and pelvis are the four corners of a box. Pilates focuses on the strengthening of this box. Many people's "axle boxes" are very weak, or they seem to have been punched in the middle or twisted into an S shape. Pilates emphasizes the use of "deep abdominal muscles" to consciously contract the muscles of the body axis, correct and maintain its strength.
Hand melon protruding, thigh thicker than waist, does not mean strong body; On the contrary, the muscles of the whole body are greatly aging, which only gives people a clumsy feeling. In fact, the starting point of every kind of exercise is pelvis and trunk. By strengthening this axis, you can control your limbs more freely, even when you walk, your appearance is different.
4 Breathe, breathe
When we concentrate, we will unconsciously hold our breath. In fact, this will only make us more nervous and reduce our flexibility and responsiveness. Breathing is very important for any exercise, especially doing Pilates with correct breathing can stimulate your abdominal muscles and make your movements smooth. Inhalation helps you adjust your posture. When you exhale, you will find that your spine can stretch a little further and your muscles can stretch a little longer, reaching a range of motion that you have never reached before.
The correct deep breathing can also discharge the residual waste in the body and release the pressure in the heart.
In the next chapter "Pilates Basic Skills", Maggie will teach you how to breathe Pilates.
5 Accurate precision
When I went to the gym, I found a group of enthusiasts, most of whom were girls in their teens and twenties clamoring for fitness. They do sports seven days a week, take boxing classes, weightlifting classes and rhythm classes, and train hard. Almost a year has passed, and their fat has not been reduced, and their muscles have not been exercised.
The problem is that what they do is also mixed in casually. When they punch, their hands hang down on their waists, but they refuse to bend their legs when they squat. When you think a move is easy, you must have done something wrong.
Pilates emphasizes accuracy and lifts the legs to 90 degrees and 990 degrees. Too big an angle will hurt muscles, and too small an angle will have no effect at all. In order to be accurate, we must bring our thoughts into the movement and concentrate on constantly adjusting our seats. It is these subtle differences that will make you feel completely different.
6 Smooth flow
Speed should be even, don't throw your limbs to a certain position. There is also a need for fluency between movements. You imagine yourself dancing, completing a jump, and twisting your waist will not suddenly freeze like a robot, right? Yoga mostly requires you to maintain a certain posture for a long time, while Pilates rarely requires you to "freeze".
It is not easy to be fluent. Fluency is not equal to speed, but emphasizes continuity. When you try to make your movements elegant, you will naturally use the concentration, control, axis, breathing and accuracy mentioned above.
When you are fluent, you will like Pilates more and more. Because when Pilates is done well, it looks really pleasing to the eye!
Pilates has too many benefits: firm hips, abdominal contraction, slender figure, reducing low back pain, improving sexual life (don't worry, I will explain this in detail later), increasing softness and balance ... People who are usually too busy to exercise, for these benefits, watch TV less for half an hour at home, and you will soon see changes.
Pilates can improve the performance of other sports for people who have been exercising regularly, and can also be used as physical therapy to reduce sports injuries.
Hate to pull the pants chain is to inhale hard. I have enough back pain and want to wear better clothes. You don't want to lose weight or go to Shenzhen for a massage, but you want to change your body. What Pilates can do is let you regain control of your body.