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What you need to know about pilates

Pliates is a type of exercise that is focused around movements that help to strengthen the body, and particularly core muscles. As with any form of exercise, practicing pilates can help to improve overall fitness and wellbeing, but it also offers benefits in the form of better posture, balance, and flexibility. 

One of the key strengths of pilates is that it’s highly adaptable, with classes ranging from gentle to vigorous. That means it’s suitable for people of a broad range of ages, from children to the elderly, and is unlikely to put you at risk of sustaining an injury. 

It revolves around a series of exercises which are carried out on a mat and with special pilates equipment, including reformers, cadillacs, and wunda chairs. This apparatus can accentuate the regular exercises, adding resistance or support to increase or decrease the intensity of the workout. 

Aside form being used as a way to get general exercise, though, pilates is also often adopted by people who are looking for more holistic health benefits. Although there hasn’t been much research into its efficacy, it’s often reported as providing health benefits like improved posture, reduced stress, and pain relief.

You can integrate pilates into your life in several ways, with the two most popular being though group classes and one to one tuition. Both forms will typically be led by a specialist pilates instructor who will be experienced in guiding the sessions, and may even be qualified.

If you want to add more activity to your lifestyle and think pilates is the right choice for you, search for a class or one to one instructor near you with My Health assistant.