Build up your inner core muscles with a Pilates class.

Pilates is an approach to physical fitness that centres on the importance of having a strong core at the centre of our body. The classes involve a series of movements and positions that you hold your body in, with the aim of building up strength and increasing your overall flexibility. Pilates is in effect a body conditioning routine that will also develop your endurance and general coordination.

The fundamental basic principle of Pilates is that your core muscles, literally in the middle of your body, must be strong and secure to provide a solid basis for the rest of your movements. A beginner’s class will concentrate on this principle and work on getting that posture right. Once you are able to keep you core strong, you will then be able to work on placing movements involving legs and arms on top of this solid foundation. Our body supports the position of our limbs so it stands to reason that a good body position and stance, where the back and abs are strong, will allow for greater flexibility in the positioning of the limbs.

Pilates requires considerable focus of the mind. Bad posture habits will be corrected, so you will need to concentrate in order to overcome the natural tendency to fall back into your previous positioning. This is an intense class, where the overall lack of noise belies the deep concentration and hard work going on by the participants! While you are not moving about the room or engaging in what seems a cardio workout, the intensity required to correctly position and hold the movements will provide a challenge for many people.

Unlike fitness classes you make take at the gym, Pilates classes are not really focused on the difficulty of the exercises, but on the way that the exercise is done. Therefore the key is in the execution rather than striving to merely complete the required routine. Many Pilates classes today take place in gym studios and will use equipment such as exercise balls or small weights. The original approach to Pilates tuition involved specific apparatus to be used in conjunction with the movements. You would need to attend a designated pilates studio to experience this, so if this interests you and you wish to understand the origins of the method, then look for Pilates studios in your area.

The original six principles of Pilates are: concentration, control, centre, flow, precision, and breathing. Joseph Pilates, the founder of this method of body conditioning, preferred to call it “contrology”, as control really is the fundamental basis. Of the six listed principles breathing is probably the other main fundamental, as everything we do physically is linked back to our breath.

If you have an interest in the fundamentals that make drive Pilates, have a look for classes in your area. Do some research about the teachers, the training they have undertaken, and their overall approach to this method, and see how they can work on your core to enhance your overall strength and flexibility.

HelenElizabeth is an Irish writer available for proofreading, editing, and general writing work.