You’ve taken the leap (maybe even taken the leap again) and you are trying to decide what fitness regimen is right for you. You know you want to go to a gym or fitness center, and you know you want to work with an instructor or a trainer. You’ve got a vision in your head of what goals you want to achieve from paying a little more attention and giving a little more dedication to the health of your body. But what now? There are so many ways to work out and so many methods of training!
If you are trying to discover the benefits of Pilates in your search for increasing your fitness and well-being, here is a quick summary of three benefits of Pilates that a newcomer like yourself would probably want to know as part of finalizing your fitness goal:
1. Pilates is a workout that can be used by individuals at any skill level because your own weight is the main source used for resistance. There are two main types of Pilates:
- Reformer Pilates – One of the main benefits of what can be an intimidating-looking apparatus (piece of equipment for doing exercises) is that the equipment provides resistance to your motions.
- Mat Pilates – This may or may not use other equipment besides the Pilates mat, which is somewhat thicker than a yoga mat. Mat Pilates will focus on slow and steady motions and breathing to perform similar movements to those in reformer Pilates.
2. Pilates focuses on lengthening and strengthening through resistance and control. One of the main benefits of Pilates is increased core strength. Reformer Pilates helps with lengthening through low-impact exercises performed against the resistance of the Pilates apparatus.
3. Expect to learn some new vocabulary on your way to a full body Pilates workout. One thing commonly reported as a reason, besides complicated-looking equipment, to slow down newcomers to the benefits of Pilates is that these full-body workouts come with unique terminology which may change a little from place to place. Don’t let that stop you! Knowing in advance that this is part of the deal with choosing Pilates should help.