Pilates has been used more and more for rehabilitation purposes in the last twenty years. Pilates uses a combination of approximately 50 simple and repetitive exercises to create muscular effort.
Proponents of this exercise system claim that exercises can be tailored to provide gentle strength training for rehabilitation or strenuous training vigorous enough to challenge expert athletes.
The exercises are designed to increase muscular strength and endurance, as well as flexibility, improve posture and balance. In addition, the exercises are relatively easy to start and maintain.
All Pilates exercises consist of: breathing, cervical alignment, stabilization of the ribs and scapula, pelvic mobility, and use of the transversus abdominis.
Each exercise begins by stabilizing the core musculature, which includes the abdominal, gluteal, and paraspinal muscles in particular, and then continues through a controlled range of motion.
Pilates exercises can be performed both on a mat and on specialized equipment called a Reformer. In the mat class, participants usually sit or lie on their backs or stomachs and use gravity to help stabilize the core. In the Reformer, a sliding horizontal platform within a box-shaped frame on which a person sits, stands, kneels, or reclines, providing variable resistance to movement through light springs attached to the mobile platform and through a simple pulley system.
Some research on Pilates has focused on the strengthening of the pelvic floor, functional capacity and quality of life of patients with breast cancer, pain and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia and personal autonomy, static balance and quality of life.
what back exercises to do
When we refer to the back, we do not have to look only at an isolated area such as the dorsal or the trapezius, but at everything that encompasses hold and maintain our posture.
cat camel
This exercise is about putting us in cwadrupedia and perform thoracic flexion and extension in order to improve the flexibility and mobility of both the torso itself and the lumbopelvic area.
glute-bridge
The glute bridge is an exercise that, although it is also often seen in gyms in order to increase muscle mass and gluteal strength, It also serves to work the core and improve our lumbopelvic health.
snail pose
In this exercise we will start from a position in which we will be sitting on our heels to perform a thoracic flexion down without separating the pelvis from our heels. By doing this exercise, we will improve our lumbopelvic health.
bird-dog
The Bird Dog is an exercise that at first, although it can be a bit complicated since generates a lot of instability by having only two limbs supportedIt is a great exercise for our back due to the positive impact it has on our entire core.
dead bug
The Dead Bug can have various levels of complexity. We recommend starting to do it in the following way: lie on your back with your knees bent but with the soles of your feet on the ground and with your arms fully stretched. Next, we flex our shoulders backwards without having to move, having to exert great force with our back and core so as not to lose position.
Lumbopelvic mobility
For this exercise, what we will do is lie on our back with our hips flexed so that the entire lower back is in contact with the ground while we perform circumductions with our legs. with this exercise we will improve our hip mobility that will have a positive effect on our back.
push face up
In this exercise we will adopt the same posture as in the previous exercise, but what we will do is grab each other’s legs and we will push with our hips and knees in order to generate strength with our core and lower back and, therefore, improve their strength.
Lumbar hyperextensions or Superman
Although this exercise may seem harmful at first, remember that none is harmful per se (within healthy limits). In this exercise we will lie face down and what we will do is extend our lower back, working the muscles of our lower back and reducing the chances that we will suffer pain.
what arm exercises to do
Pilates also allows us to do exercises for the arms in order to improve strength and help tone them. To do this, we can use some material such as the pilates ring.
arm push with hoop
With this exercise we work the strength of our arms and shoulders. What we will do is take the pilates ring with our elbows semi-flexed and push inwards. If we want to make the exercise more difficult, we can do it with our arms fully extended.
Bicep curl with elastic band
To perform this exercise we will take a resistance band that is long and does not offer much resistance either. We’ll step on the band and we will perform an elbow flexoextension while we take the ends of the band.
Push-ups with knees supported
With this exercise what we will achieve is to work the muscles of the arm that are responsible for extending the elbow, different from the exercise above, which works the muscles that flex the arm. To do this, we rest our knees on the ground and perform a push-up.
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Videos | Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Well+Good, FisioOnline, CuídatePlus, Ninolift, The Running Camp Channel, Xoxe Conde