Pilates for whom ?

Pilates is accessible to everyone, because in each case the method adapts to the needs of the individual. It is ideal for all those who wish to improve their quality of life.

Children and adolescents: favor healthy and harmonious growth and avoid future postural defects.

Adults: allows you to improve your physical condition and correct back problems resulting from poor postures.

Older: Pilates allows to recover balance, elasticity, strength and muscle mass.

Athletes: as a complement to the specific training of each sports discipline, to improve their performance and prevent injuries.

Pregnant women: for physical maintenance during pregnancy and postpartum recovery.

People who have undergone a surgical operation and are in rehabilitation period.

During Pregnancy
It favors the healthy development of pregnancy.
It improves blood circulation as well as the well-being of mother and baby.
It helps maintain good posture to prevent fatigue and injuries.
It helps to maintain an adequate weight during the development of pregnancy.
It helps maintain the abdominal girdle and support the baby’s weight as it develops. Strengthens leg muscles by stimulating blood circulation.
Strengthens the back muscles to support the increase in breast volume.
It can improve the quality of sleep.

Post natal
Faster postpartum recovery. It strengthens the abdominal area which facilitates recovery.
It can reduce the symptoms of incontinence, improve circulation and constipation

Chest Cancer Post-Surgery
According to the guide on nutrition and physical activity as cancer prevention, published by the American Cancer Society (ACS), people who have had breast cancer are advised to avoid inactivity and resume physical activity as quickly as possible after the operation. This advice is valid even during chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In the same way, it is recommended that physical activity be regular, twice a week about 150 minutes in total. According to ACS, this regular physical activity has the following advantages.

– improves mood
– improves physical condition
– helps to build better body image
– decreases situations of depression
– reduces the feeling of fatigue
– keeps your back in good shape

According to the book “Pilates for breast cancer survivors, recovery, healing and wellness guide” (“Pilates for Breast Cancer Survivors, A Guide to Recovery, Healing, and Wellness”), Naomi Aaronson and Ann Marie Turo have collected the testimony of numerous women. One of them explains the way in which the method has accompanied her throughout her illness and recovery after surgery to which she had to undergo. This woman expressly cites 12 benefits:

1.You can do Pilates in many different positions: face up, face down, side, standing or sitting.

2. Exercises and equipment can be modified for any level.

3. You can use the affected arm more easily and naturally, since Pilates is an integral exercise system (with the whole body) that includes the arms and legs in all movements.

4. Pilates principles help you live in the present moment by keeping you focused on moving correctly, with control.

5. Deep chest breathing and multidimensional breathing patterns help release tension, promote lymphatic drainage and stretch tight areas affected by scars.

6. Pilates offers a smooth introduction or reintroduction to physical exercise.

7. Increase muscle strength, especially in the back muscles. This musculature is very weak after breast reconstruction surgery.

8. Pilates increases the ability to perform activities of daily living because it develops the strength of the Core or Power House allowing complex movements in different positions with greater ease and less effort.

9.Pilates improves proprioception and muscular kinesthesia, often lost after surgical operations in which nerves and muscles may have been inadvertently sectioned.

10. Pilates strengthens the transverse abdomen, a very important muscle for back stability after a breast reconstruction procedure using a TRAM flap.

11. It can improve urinary incontinence problems due to overload, a usual complication of menopause. Many breast cancer treatments can trigger menopause in women who don’t have it yet.

12. Pilates shifts attention from the damaged area of your body to other areas and from what you cannot do to what you can do.

Pilates and sports practice

In general, the sports we practice are asymmetrical (except gymnastics). Over time, the repetition of the same sporting gesture can generate an imbalanced muscle development. Among the sports that can produce this effect we can mention golf, soccer, paddle tennis, tennis, etc. They are repeated gestures for weeks, months and years. If this decompensated muscle development is not balanced the body machine runs the risk of fatigue, injury and being less precise in its gestures.

What’s going on?

At the moment of hitting a ball with a racket or a golf club, the body is requested to perform this movement: the resuscitation, the muscles that fix the joints, the large muscle groups that produce the visible outer movement, the way that we put ourselves in, the positioning of our body parts … all of that is part of that “hitting machine.” We cannot lose sight of the body as a whole, responsible for the result of the gesture.

Pilates practice is the ideal complement for all those unilateral and asymmetric sports. Thanks to Pilates you can equilibrate the physical problems resulting from the practice of this type of sports, thanks to the reinforcement of the erect musculature of the vertebral spine and its connection with breathing. Pilates will allow obtaining the ideal global alignment to physical energy in the movement of the body and movement development. If you introduce the Pilates method in your sports routine, you will be surprised at the physical and psychological development in the practice of golf, tennis …, and will help you prevent injuries and chronic muscle aches.