Get up and girdle with pilates

My office calendar fills up quicker than a cinema on Boxing Day. So I recently enlisted the help of a fabulously talented personal assistant who, to my pleasant surprise, turned out to be a fabulously talented pilates teacher on the side. Being the health-conscious bunch we are at Aussie Bodies, I had already instituted regular yoga sessions for the staff. So naturally I seized on this opportunity to invite Jessica, my personal assistant, to take us through the steps of this hugely popular new approach to physical fitness in weekly sessions. The rewards have been astounding.

Pilates (pronounced pi-LAH-tees) is taking gyms and fitness centres by storm and is rapidly replacing many other forms of class-conducted exercise in both Australia and the US. Osteopaths, physiotherapists and general practitioners are now recommending it as one of the safest forms of exercise today, and it is even beneficial for pregnancy (ante and post natal). While standard pilates practice is not specifically designed to burn body fat, some types of high-speed "cardio-pilates" techniques (either done on the floor or on a reformer bed) are on offer at selected gyms, and have been providing many with the breakthrough they have been looking for. The primary aims of the original pilates method are to create balance, improve body awareness, optimise strength, flexibility, co-ordination and endurance, and improve tone without adding bulk.

Let me tell you what pilates has done for me. My troublesome back has limbered up significantly (I can now turn real somersaults if I want to reach that deadline!) I am standing up more straight than before as my posture has improved out of sight. My stomach muscles are more toned because I have been working them harder to stabilise all my movements. Overall I feel tremendously more flexible. Stress wise, pilates has helped in a manner similar to yoga, promoting inner calm, deep breathing and better quality sleep. Because I have no choice but to concentrate on performing the movements themselves, this narrowing of focus helps clear my mind of all the work-related clatter from a day's business. Generally my muscle tone has improved. It takes a few goes to get the hang of, but once the basics have been mastered, continued practice is a joy and a challenge, not just for your body but for your mind as well!

Many assume pilates is an advanced form of yoga, mainly because a lot of the exercises can take place on a mat and require a great deal of concentration. But pilates is in a whole class of its own. Pilates is not an ancient practice like yoga. It was founded by Joseph Pilates, an athlete born in Dusseldorf in 1880 who, battling with rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever, developed his own exercise techniques and equipment to defy his fragility.

Pilates is all about learning to isolate your muscle groups: it's as much a learning experience as it is physical. Its main focus is to strengthen the very core of all your physical movements, a region Joseph Pilates referred to as "the Girdle of Strength". This consists of your core postural muscles where your abdominals, lower back, pelvic floor and buttocks meet. It is this area that is the point between your right and left, upper and lower parts of your body. You learn to work and move from this point, creating a safe, fully-integrated form of movement.

While you can get the basics down pat in a mat session, for the advanced, a dedicated pilates studio will offer specialised spring-resistance pilates equipment (reformers, trapeziums etc), designed to tone, mobilise and strengthen the body with minimum stress on the joints. Never undertake pilates in a studio unsupervised - a fully qualified teacher must be on hand to guide you through the steps and tailor the session to your individual needs. It is a standard procedure that a client fills out a medical history form before the start of the first session and gives the teacher all relevant medical information. Both matwork classes and studio sessions generally last between 60 and 90 minutes. Some teachers offer private tuition at home or in a private studio.

I've become a fan of one particular method of pilates called Yogalates™. As the name implies, this is an east-meets-west fusion of yoga and pilates. Yogalates™ was founded by an Australian, Louise Solomon, who was inspired to develop her method after being injured in a yoga class in which she was pushed to a level her body was not ready for. Louise has spent a decade of training and teaching her method internationally, lecturing at the Southern Cross University on Pilates (Core Stability) and at her own personal practice.
 
Yogalates™ uniquely fuses two breathing systems: the Ujjayi breath, a yogic tradition which produces a serene effect on the nervous system, producing calmness and a trouble free mind, and the thoracic breathing system of pilates where you use and activate the abdominal muscles continually throughout the practice. As you expand the lungs to the side stretching the intercostal muscles, you allow the lungs to work to their full capacity while protecting and strengthening your lower back.
 
Movements within Yogalates™ are partly based on a system of spiritual moves, unlocking energy flows while increasing flexibility and toning your internal organs.
According to Louise, this technique helps promote a trimmer waist, flatter belly, enhanced stamina and endurance. It is also excellent for post-natal women and people with arthritis or osteoporosis.

Whether practising cardio-pilates, Yogalates™ , basic matwork pilates or pilates on a reformer bed, I believe pilates offers tremendous benefit for those women who are new to fitness training, intelligent women who need activities which stimulate both mind and body, and those who habitually put themselves through the same robotic cardio and weight lifting routines. Some women find it helps them break through their "plateaus" in weight loss or toning because their bodies may be more accustomed to repetitive movements which may not engage the supportive muscle groups or activate all the nerve fibres. Pilates is far from that "extra set of exercises" many of the uninitiated perceive it to be. It offers something different because it gets you thinking more about how you move in space and it empowers you with a better sense of how to govern your own movements as you wander your way round this mad, crazy world.