Why you should take up Pilates in 2024

Pilates comes with so many benefits

In the bustling world of new fitness trends, Pilates is high on people’s radars this year… and for good reason, too. The holistic exercise was developed back in the 20th century and is named after its creator Joseph Pilates. It is designed to successfully strengthen, align, and restore your body’s balance and flexibility. It is also a highly effective way of tackling brain fog and helping improve people’s mental health.

Whether you’re a fitness fanatic in search of a new challenge, or simply in need of restorative recovery and improved flexibility, we’d recommend hitting the Pilates mat in 2024. Here’s why…

Pilates helps keep your body alignment in check

You’ll often hear Pilates and yoga instructors refer to your body alignment and how to improve it… but what is your body alignment?

Your body alignment determines how evenly your head, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, and ankles line up with one another. In a properly aligned body, your bones are evenly positioned across your body, helping your joints and muscles work freely and properly. A misaligned body puts extreme pressure on the muscles, joints, and ligaments in your spine and other areas, forcing them to work in overdrive to support your everyday movement. This can lead to chronic pain, headaches, general stiffness, reduced mobility, and several other problems that could severely impact your everyday life.

The National Institute of Health, provides details on how Pilates exercises help to improve body alignment significantly.

“Pilates has a positive impact on trunk postural alignment in middle-aged women, which can be attributed to the fact that Pilates exercises are performed symmetrically and strengthen the deep muscles.” – The National Institute of Health

The practice of Pilates focuses on strengthening your abdominal region, lumbar region, and thighs, so that they are strong enough to support your spine. This aspect of Pilates helps improve your physical structure, mobility, and posture – which are all components of your body alignment.

Pilates helps you become more flexible

We understand that not everyone is born with the innate ability to be ultra flexible, but there are many ways you can improve your flexibility over time, including Pilates! Being flexible has a range of benefits – it can reduce your risk of injury, keeps you mobile, and helps build overall strength across your body.

Pilates is a highly effective way to maintain and develop your flexibility because it typically comprises of a series of dynamic stretches to lengthen your muscles and stretch them out as much as possible. This involves a range of stretches, from simple movements such as touching your toes, to more complex and dynamic spinal and hip stretches.

Reformer Pilates vs mat Pilates

If you practice Reformer Pilates, you might use certain tools such as resistance bands and the Reformer equipment itself to help aid your stretches, which can make you even more flexible than can be accomplished with regular mat Pilates. Reformer Pilates is performed on an elevated apparatus with springs, a foot bar, a box, and a platform. It helps with strengthening, toning and, of course, increased flexibility.

Flexibility exercises in Pilates focus on two things – stretching and activating your muscles in their stretched state. This makes your muscles warm and engaged as you perform activities that lengthen them, improving your flexibility and reducing your chances of experiencing muscle pains and strains.

Say hello to new-found core strength

Your core muscles play a pivotal role in maintaining your stability and balance. Pilates places a strong emphasis on developing your core strength, targeting the muscles in your abdomen, lower back, and pelvis through a variety of specialist exercises. By developing a robust core, you can benefit from improved posture, reduced lower back pain, and generally higher levels of fitness and strength (making heavy lifting less of a challenge) – it’s a win, win situation.

Through exercises such as the plank, leg lifts, and using apparatus called ‘mountain climbers’ (which are often used in HIIT workout classes, as well), you will notice significant improvements to your core strength.

Healthcare professionals use Pilates to treat injuries

It can be difficult to know which fitness trends to follow when we’re flooded with new ones to try every day, but you can trust that Pilates will develop you into the leanest, strongest version of yourself.

Pilates isn’t just about looking leaner for aesthetic purposes – it is a medically backed form of exercise for protecting and improving your overall joint and muscle health (and keeping you fighting fit more generally). As reported by The National Institute of Health, it is often used by physiotherapists to help with flexibility training and other forms of rehabilitation. Thousands of people use it as part of their recovery programme following an injury, or to restore strength to certain areas of their body.

“The Pilates method is widely applied in physiotherapy for flexibility training, stimulation of blood circulation, improvement of postural alignment, and body awareness. In particular, as Pilates focuses on strengthening the abdominal region, the lumbar region, and the thighs so that they are strong enough to sufficiently support the spine…”

If you are recovering from an injury, you can do tailored Pilates involving exercises that target the joint you are strengthening. For example, Pilates for hip pain (a common form of tailored Pilates), is centred around exercises that reduce hip and groin pain. Your physiotherapist or doctor can suggest which type of Pilates you might need.

Pilates brings mental clarity

At the heart of the theory of Pilates lies the concept of mindfulness and self-care. It encourages you to be fully present and engaged in every movement. The deliberate, controlled nature of Pilates exercises necessitates the use of concentration, allowing you to temporarily shift your focus away from the stresses and strains of daily life. By concentrating on your breathing, movement, and muscle engagement, the practice becomes a moving meditation, fostering a state of mindfulness that has a hugely beneficial impact on your overall mental health.

More generally, Pilates can help with increased serotonin levels and the release of endorphins. These neurotransmitters interact with receptors in your brain, producing feelings of euphoria and reducing your perception of pain. This can transform many areas of your life, helping alleviate chronic stress, improve your sleeping habits, and even enhance your concentration levels.

You don’t have to be an expert to enjoy Pilates

You don’t have to be a Pilates pro to benefit from the activity. There are many Pilates classes for beginners to help you to get used to life on the mat. The practice is also suitable for people of all ages and general fitness levels, so you don’t have to worry about not having much experience before getting started.

Pilates helps you breathe properly

Breath work is an integral part of Pilates, and incorporating proper breathing techniques into the exercises that you perform will help enhance their effectiveness. The practice often focuses on diaphragmatic breathing, which involves breathing deeply into your diaphragm, rather than shallow breathing through your chest. This type of breathing encourages you to expand your ribcage during inhalation and contract it during exhalation, improving the flexibility and mobility of your ribcage, facilitating a more expansive breath.

Pilates also encourages the coordination of your breath with movement. Specific breathing patterns are often prescribed for each exercise to enhance your control, stability, and the overall efficiency of the session.

Deep, controlled breathing with movement has many benefits – most notably, it can lower stress levels and blood pressure.

It’s time to get started!

There you have it… the top reasons why you should take up Pilates in 2024.

If you’d like to speak with one of our physiotherapists about treatment following a joint injury, book an appointment with one online. They might advise you give Pilates a go alongside your specialist exercises.

Whether you try Pilates for hip pain or to recover from injury, or if you simply want to get that little bit more flexible this year, we guarantee the practice won’t disappoint.