- Strength, flexibility, and stability can all be developed with Pilates, according to instructor Norah Myers.
- According to Myers, Pilates was developed for both injury rehabilitation and prevention.
- It can be adjusted to fit the objectives and skills of each individual.
Norah Myers, a Pilates instructor, says that Pilates is a great way to increase your strength, stability, and flexibility.
Despite its recent surge in popularity, according to Myers, there are still a lot of misconceptions about it. For instance, she claimed that although Pilates is beneficial for all body types, people tend to believe that it is only appropriate for a particular kind of body. In the end, Pilates should be customized for each individual.
Myers and her colleague Lisa Hubbard shared with Insider the five key Pilates principles they believed every student should be aware of.
Pilates was developed to address and avoid injuries.
According to Myers and Hubbard, the best way to understand Pilates is to first comprehend why it was developed.
Joseph Pilates created Pilates in the 1920s to aid in the rehabilitation of injured veterans. His approach quickly gained recognition as a means of injury prevention and rehabilitation among dancers and athletes.
Myers said that a lot of people attended her classes to address injuries from accidents, even though it is obvious that it has reached a more general audience. She mentioned that she had patients who had been in for motor vehicle and bicycle accidents right after receiving physical therapy.
“They came to Pilates after physiotherapy as a form of rehabilitation for their accident and stayed on with it as a part of a lifestyle of exercise,” she explained. “The physio deals with the acute pain and the acute injury, and then once you’re past the acute pain, the Pilates teacher takes care of the chronic pain.”
Myers, a 15-year Pilates practitioner, reported that as soon as she began the exercises, the pain she was experiencing from her cerebral palsy immediately subsided.
She mentioned that Pilates could be a great way to strengthen your body to prevent injury even if you don’t have any injuries or disabilities.
Everybody should have a different Pilates style
Pilates is different from many other types of exercise because each person’s workout is customized. said Hubbard, the creator and instructor of Rhythm Pilates.
She declared, “Pilates is not one size fits all.”
A competent Pilates teacher will adjust your practice to your goals and assist you in making adjustments if you have particular limitations or injuries.
“I have some clients who are professional athletes that need a particular workout,” Hubbard said. “I have to train that person for him. And I have to train this professional dancer for her so she doesn’t go and throw her hamstring or her hip or her shoulder out.”
To ensure that the class is beneficial for each student, Myers begins every lesson by asking if there are any particular areas they would like to focus on. She adapts exercises and props to meet the needs of her clients.
For instance, “a client’s hamstrings were tight, so we did shoulder bridge with the foam roller under his hips, and he felt better,” she explained.
Pilates is a complete workout regimen.
According to Hubbard, Pilates isn’t designed to focus on just one area of your physical fitness, like cardio or muscle growth.
She said that as you continue with Pilates, those aspects will get better, but your overall fitness will increase more comprehensively.
“As we age, we start developing imbalances, so it’s great for posture, alignment, asymmetries, and injuries,” she stated.
According to Myers, her clients frequently saw these improvements after just one or two sessions, but long-term growth is best achieved by consistency.
Pilates enhances other training modalities.
According to Myers, Pilates is a fantastic supplement to other training methods because of its all-encompassing style and emphasis on injury prevention. For instance, she stated that lifting excessive weight can lead to injuries because it uses muscles in the surrounding area in an attempt to move the weight.
She said that straining these supporting muscles can result in injury.
“Pilates is going to give you the basis of strength and stability, and it’s going to teach you how to safely and effectively engage the right muscles,” she stated.
Pilates is easy to learn.
According to Myers, the most common misconception about Pilates is that it’s only for the fit and slender. Myers continued, saying that this notion entirely missed the purpose for which Pilates was designed.
“It was literally created for injury and disability, so the stuff we see on social media is a small fraction of what Pilates actually is,” she explained.
As a plus-size, queer, and disabled Pilates instructor, Myers expressed her hope to change the perception of Pilates as a whole, bringing in more students who may have been turned off by the style in the past.