Pilates is a body conditioning exercise that helps to build flexibility, strength, endurance, and coordination in the legs, abdominals, arms and back. A mind and body exercise, Pilates emphasizes the balanced development of your body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness.

Pilates exercises can be geared to help you perfect whatever sport you play. Pilates for Tennis players helps develop mind and body awareness.

Pilates helps with injury prevention. There are a growing number of tennis players who practice Pilates to improve their muscle control and flexibility including Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Navratilova.

A tennis player not only needs to be quick, they need to have strong muscle endurance, flexibility and proper balance to last the match.

Tennis, by nature, is one-sided. Meaning you develop and use one side of the body more than the other. As tennis players only use one side of the hand and arm to hit the ball, they tend to skew the movement to only one side of the body.

These one sided movements create an unbalanced body, often resulting in over-use injuries.

Pilates helps tennis players improve the power of their strokes by increasing the strength of their powerhouse; improve body balance for quicker reaction and direction change; improve muscle control and improve flexibility, which in turn helps prevent back injuries.

Consistent Pilates exercise keeps your core muscles strong and gives you more powerful strokes and endurance for your tennis match.

Many of us sit a lot at work, in the car and at home on the couch.  That’s probably true for a lot of regular exercisers. I used to think that exercising for an hour or more a day would negate all that sitting.

Now, a growing body of evidence says that’s not true.

That’s disheartening. But it’s also a wake-up call for everyone with an office job, even avid exercisers.

We’ve all been told for decades how much exercise we should get daily or weekly, with most recommendations now saying at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week or an average of 30 minutes for five days. If it’s vigorous, it can be less.

Now, the latest research says that even people who do significant and regular exercise still increase risks of serious illness from hours of physical inactivity. In other words, you can’t just exercise for one hour and sit for eight or more without incurring some health risks.

The American College of Sports Medicine, just came out with new recommendations on the quantity and quality of exercise for adults. The bottom line is everyone needs a balanced program of cardiovascular, strength exercise, flexibility and neuromotor or functional fitness training (balance, agility, coordination).

But the ACSM further notes that “sedentary behavior for long periods of time is distinct from physical activity and has been shown to be a health risk in itself. Meeting the guidelines for physical activity does not make up for a sedentary lifestyle.”

Carol Garber is the lead author of the new guidelines. In a release from the ACSM, she says, “It is no longer enough to consider whether an individual engages in adequate amounts of weekly exercise. We also need to determine how much time a person spends in sedentary pursuits, like watching television or working on a computer.”

So, we need to figure out ways we all can work in movement during the day.

Here are a few things you can do, in addition to exercising daily:

• Walk in the office while reading reports or research.
• Stand up while on the phone.
• Do more exercises at the desk, such as pumping legs up and down.
• Move for at least 15 minutes during lunch.
• Take a quick walk after work on some days.

Most people, regardless of their age or physical activity level, can benefit from Pilates. Pilates as an exercise program can have amazing health benefits, but it can also increase your self-confidence and over all well-being.  Through strengthening the core of the body, you achieve great physical results, but you also will be surprised with the betterment to your mental health too.

Pilates strengthens the core of the body. Your core is the muscles in the back, tummy and rear, and these muscles affect your entire body. With each pilates move, you are actually working the entire body, not just one muscle group. Pilate's exercises lengthen and de-compress the spine. With increased strength in your core and increased stability, and elongated core muscles your posture will improve and your body will appear longer and leaner, not bulky. And, of course, a strong core results in a smooth, toned belly. Through Pilates exercises you will be feel more stable standing, walking and sitting. Great posture and a firm belly will always result in an increase in self confidence.
 
Pilates also increases your mind body connection. To successfully benefit from Pilates, you must properly perform the exercises. The rythme of your breath is an important part of Pilates exercises so your mind must be engaged in the activity and focused on your breathing. While some moves require inhaling, others require exhaling and proper breathing requires a mental focus that many other exercise programs do not require. The focus of Pilates is on controlling your entire body, not exercising to death. Proper focusing abilities are tools you can use in any area of life, not just your exercise program.

Because Pilates is a low impact workout, anyone can participate. If you suffer from joint pain or muscle issues you can do the movements to your own level of control. There is no impact on those sore muscles and joints. Pilates greatly increases your flexibility, while strengthening muscles at the same time. Everyone from senior citizens to growing children can benefit from Pilates exercises.

Yoga for runners can be a wonderful option to improve running performance.

Yoga for runners improves balance, flexibility, coordination, concentration and endurance at the same time removing physical and mental stresses. Runners can immensely benefit from yoga practice since running associated with yoga make a good marriage of strength and flexibility.

Come to this class on Thursday 17 March at 7:00pm to 8:30pm at Answer is Fitness to learn some poses that will help you to run better.

$15.00 for members and $20.00 for non-members. Handout will be given.

Fore more information, call 888-270-3640 or email us at info@answerisfitness.com. You can Sign Up at the Front Desk.