WHAT IS PILATES

Image 1: Pilates material

         The increase in the importance of healthy habits in our society has made that people focus their interest in other types of sport and other forms to have an active life style.
Actually, we can see a lot of adverts, products and clinics with the word Pilates but, do we really know what is it? What are the benefits and contraindications? I will answer this and more questions in the next report.

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was the creator of that modality of sport, which is based on the control movements, breathing and core strength. He wanted to design a training plan for military, but the physiotherapist realized that it was also possible to adapt it for people with any pathology.

If you want to begin Pilates you should practice the follow advices:

-          Lie on your back with a bent towel under your head.
-          Flex your knees and ankles supporting your feet on the ground.
-          Flex your head trying to hang on an imaginary egg with your chin and breastbone.
-          Get a neutral posture of your hip (Image 2)
-          Inhale with the noise and exhale with your mouth
-          Breathe increased your rib grille, not the stomach
-          When you exhale, hide your belly button and elevate your pelvic floor. Increasing the strength of your CORE but not the pression in your pelvic floor

 

Image 2: a) Neutral pelvic, b) Retroversion, c) Anteversion

Core is a muscular box with:

- Abdominal muscles in the FRONT

- Erector spinae and glutes on the back

- Diaphragm as ROOF

- Muscles of the pelvic floor and the hip joint as FLOOR

We must take this into account because CORE helps us to stabilize the body in the different Pilates exercises and to be able to control the movements.

Image 3: CORE muscles

        Benefits:

-          High the strength muscular
-          Increase the flexibility
-          Become aware of your body
-          Correct the posture
-          Improves relaxation

Contraindications:

-          Be careful during pregnancy with posture, tension in CORE and specific exercises
-          Be careful in patients with incontinence urinary in doing well the elevation of pelvic floor in ever exhalation

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