What is pilates?

Question: i want to know the meaning of pilates.what do they do?

Answer: Carolon's answer is copied-and-pasted from the webpage http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/exercise/pilates.html without giving the kidshealth.com site credit. Shame on her! The kidshealth.org article is not bad but does have several inaccuracies and interesting details left out: 1. Joe was in the UK (probably as a circus performer) at the start of WWI; he was interned by the Brits and worked in a hospital. He started doing mat classes there but was dealing with a variety of injured patients. He got tired of lifting them; it was at this point that he started developing the "studio" pilates equipment. He could only use equipment available in the facility he lived in. If you look at reformers and cadillacs, you'll see a bit of a rube-goldberg component to their design. 2. Pilates emphasizes breathing into all parts of the lungs -- especially the typically-unused back and lower parts of the lungs. While deaths from pneumonia were quite common in these facilities during WWI, nobody who exercised with Joe during the war ever died from that infection! 3. While Pilates does develop torso strength, it is really about a whole-body experience of engagement. One learns how to engage the arms into the torso (an integrated shoulder girdle) and how to engage the legs (an integrated pelvis). Simply having a strong torso without integrated limbs would be pretty darn useless! 4. There are MANY ways to exercise with Pilates. Traditional work is done with mats and can be augmented with a magic circle and stretch bands. Those using Pilates to rehabilitate from an injury would typically use the studio equipment: the Reformer, the Cadillac, the Chair, and a variety of smaller accessories. Equipment manufacturers have created a hybrid of the reformer and cadillac; these are called a "tower." The equipment can also be used by athletes of others seeking a high level of performance or by students who have difficulty doing some of the mat exercises. A variety of Pilates exercises can be done with a Swiss Ball. Colleen Craig was one of the pioneers in this work; she regularly teaches classes and has videos on this discipline. Many Pilates instructors personally practice and teach Pilates on the Ball classes. Both Colleen and The Pilates Coach offer Pilates workouts using a dynaball (or overball): a small 12-inch ball made by gymnic.com . UK instructors teach Pilates using a Total Gym machine as an alternative to a reformer. Total Gym has adopted these routines and offers them as part of their training to gyms with their "Gravity" system. Phi Pilates has developed a Pilates workout using a pair of destabalizing Airex pads; they offer a video of this training. There are many other varieties, including water-based Pilates workouts. And there are a variety of Pilates-Yoga hybrid workouts. Where to start? I strongly recommend starting with traditional mat workouts for at least a year or so. At some point, explore some of the traditional Pilates studio equipment. Like a lot of people, I used to hate the traditional workouts. Now, I absolutely love them. And I like to explore a variety of newer/alternative workout options. 5. "Using the principle of resistance" misses the crucial point: the studio equipment uses gentle resistance that can work through a very long range of motion. To develop deeper muscles one must relax your superficials; these gentle springs allow a way to do that. Initially, it is a very strange feeling to move on the equipment while relaxing the muscles one typically uses to move. Over time, one develops a hunger for this kind of movement-without-effort. One other thing: consider exploring a variety of other body/mind disciplines, too. I specifically recommend finding some Feldenkrais classes as an option to temper/enhance your Pilates workouts. Feldenkrais reminded me that Pilates workouts should be effort-free. Most of this is from my personal experience and conversations with several hundred Pilates instructors and students. I will give a reference to the PMA, the definitive authority in the activity for certified instructors.

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