PILATES PLUS BLOG

Why is there such a stigma that Pilates is a girls-only club? Talk about a huge misconception.

Joseph Pilates, the founder of Pilates, was not only a man but a professional boxer too!  He came up with the exercises and the apparatus, hence the name Cadillac, for one piece!

Is it intimidating? Possibly. Strong abdominal muscles are elusive to both men and women, some people just don’t like to admit it.

Many sports figures are now doing Pilates to strengthen and tone their muscles. Professional Athletes like Tiger Woods, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, Curt Schilling, Rodney Harrison  have all added pilates into their workout routine. Olympians also believe that Pilates is what they need to build strength & flexibility in their opposing muscle groups.

Pilates not only uses your own body weight but also spring tension to build strength. You are working one dimensionally to create more stability. Floor work is something that you can also do within the privacy of your home, but as always it’s important to consult with a professional to ensure that you are moving correctly. As with any new exercise you want to protect yourself against injury.

Pilates, a gender neutral form of exercise.

I remember watching (several years back) the episode of Regis and Kelly where they were profiling the “day and the life” of Kelly Ripa. She seemed so skittish to show her face until after they airbrushed her foundation on. I remember thinking, “Gee, she is one of us – a woman with ‘character flaws’ on her face.” It gave me relief (and hope) that there options out there to help create that “flawless” look. I now know it isn’t just for celebrities. It’s here right in my studio!

One of our Estheticians recently caught up with one of Rochester’s leading news anchors, Katrina Irwin of WROC TV 8 CBS, and had the privilege of demonstrating airbrush makeup on her.

Check out this video. You’ll see what “airbrushing” hype is all about.

Personally, I look forward to getting airbrushed. It creates a flawless look that last throughout the day and into the night. I don’t have to worry about smearing or touch ups!

Pilates Plus is on Facebook!  Engage with us by click here. We share special promotions, fitness related information and give-a-ways exclusive to our Facebook fans. Check us out and remember to ‘like” us.

Looking forward to connecting in the social space!

Gyrotonic was specifically designed to incorporate key principles of gymnastics, swimming, ballet, and yoga through which major muscle groups are worked interdependently and in an integrated manner. The exercises are performed on a piece of apparatus which includes a pulley and weight system.

When watching a professional golfer, you can see their bodies are strong, stable and flexible. Their bodies move with mobility, and stability. Their swing progresses from the lower body to the trunk, the shoulders and lastly the arms.

Amateurs typically need to work most on strengthening and stretching their butt, and core. Lacking strength and flexibility in those areas, golfers can compensate by using their arms, which is why they will slice the ball.

Gyrotonic targets the hips, ankles and knee rotation helping to train our bodies to move more fluidly. Important in developing the swing to its full potential. Our power comes from our core muscle groups, which will help drive distance and swing the club faster. The circular movements in Gyrotonic allows for a better range of motion. It also works on control to improve your ball strike ability.

Many pro golfers argue that bigger muscles can impede performance in sports requiring fluidity of form. All they really need to do is loosen up their upper bodies to hit the ball 300 yards.

Check out this news interview on the benefits of Gyrotonic for golfers.

I am a personal trainer, and a nutritionist. When I was in college I gained 50 pounds. Not just the “freshman 15″. I had to go out in excess. People find it shocking that I had gained so much weight, but they also think that I wished it away and there it went. Never can happen that way. I started with a diet. I introduced vegetables into my system. Then I found the perfect answer, water. I started drinking it – lots of it. My appetite diminished, my metabolism increased, and I began to have the energy to take an exercise class.  It worked. Before I knew it, the college weight was off, and then some. People come to the studio and say ” I want to lose weight before I start working out”. That doesn’t even make sense. It’s both food and exercise at the same time.

People always want to know the difference between yoga and pilates. There are more differences than there are similarities and more often than not they get lumped together since they are both mind/body forms of exercise. Keep in mind that there are many versions of both modalities.

Yoga originated in India more than 5,000 years ago, and has evolved throughout the years. Pilates is a much younger practice, developed in the early 20th century, and began as a way to rehabilitate and strengthen the body. It too has evolved throughout the years. Every yoga class is structured differently. There are many forms of yoga and each teacher may put their own spin on the particular form that you are doing.

Pilates is a little more structured and less free flowing. If you are practicing true classical Pilates, you will know what to expect in your class. Both yoga and Pilates work on strength and flexibility. Yoga works larger muscles groups, while Pilates works on your smaller, supporting muscle groups. Concentrating on your core both work strength as well as flexibility.

Pilates uses mat work, but also uses apparatus with spring tension and your body weight for more strength. You are also working each side of your body separately for more balance. Yoga works both sides separately, but if you’re stronger on one side you need to make sure you are working evenly on both sides.

With a good teacher, both practices are highly beneficial for both.  Getting to know your teacher is key. You want to make sure that your instructor is an expert in their field so that injury is easily avoided!

Both exercises can be great fun. Try them both to see which is a better fit for you!

The 2008 American Physical Activity Guidelines recommend that every adult get 2 and 1/2 hours of moderate intensity cardio every week plus 2 or more strength training sessions every week.  Choosing where one gets that cardio – inside or outside – deserves some consideration.  

I love the outdoors.  Smelling the fresh air, listening to the birds calling out to each other, and taking in the beautiful scenery.  And when I exercise outside, I appreciate that I’m alleviating boredom by constantly changing my location.  Studies have shown that just spending 20 minutes outside can rev you up as much as a cup of coffee.  Also, being outside is free – generally – unless you add in a good bike for bike riding, quality sneakers for running, or the cost of renting a kayak or a canoe.

While outdoor exercise has many positive attributes, there are also some negative aspects.  If the weather is too hot, you can get sick.  Rain and wind can interrupt plans and impede the quality of my workout.  And I always have to remember my sunscreen – regardless of the cloud cover – because nobody wants a farmer’s tan.   Plus, if I have to plan my exercise around work, there’s the risk that it could get too late dark and I’d have to navigate in the dark.

At least with inside exercising, I always have the benefit of air-conditioning.  And there’s always water on hand to prevent me from dehydrating.  While running outside can be more exciting than jumping on the treadmill, the treadmill is much easier on my knees and other joints.

Thankfully, some gyms do offer some of their classes outside so you get the benefits of both indoor and outdoor training.  But I’ve learned that the key is during the nicer weather, to mix it up!  Take a walk outside during your lunch break.  Look up at the sun, soak in all that Vitamin D we’re all usually so depleted in.  Breathe in the fresh air.  But for serious exercising – the moderate intensity cardio and strength training sessions the APAG recommends – the benefits of the indoors can far outweigh those of being outside.

Everybody wants a flat stomach!  I hear this from my clients all day long.

People I meet that find out what I do ask me how to get rid of that pooch around their belly. We all know there is no magic bullet, it is going to take some work and dedication. Sure there are specific ab exercises that we’ve been taught to do since we were little.

Your core is more than just your belly. Its all the muscles surrounding, including your back. Doing 100 sit ups a day is not going to give long term results. Sadly, its not that simple, it’s also key to feel strong from the inside out. Proper diet helps too, can’t do one without the other.

It is always encouraging when someone says to me that they want to be able to work out on their own. People think that they can go to a trainer one to three times a week and all their problems will be solved immediately. That is very rarely the case.

Pilates is a process. We can “fix” one issue, to find there is something else going on that was not noticed before. That is the beauty of Pilates. There is always improvement.

When you do certain exercises on your own, the process becomes not only faster-but you have now taken ownership.

We are now offering free video on our website to encourage you to build that strength on your own. If you have any questions please email me at jodi@pilatesplus.net. Within 10 sessions you will feel a difference-sometimes it only takes one.

Check out our virtual workout videos here.

Many people ask us if we offer heated yoga.  While the short answer no, there is good reason why we don’t offer it.  While practicing yoga in a heated room makes you sweat and allows you to stretch deeper, more injury can come from exercising in a heated room.  The heat from the room tricks your body into working more deeply.  While you feel great when you are exercising in the heat, you go out into the cold and your muscles snap right back to where they were, which is when serious injury can occur.

Pilate Plus is the exclusive provider of ActivCore in Western NY.  Click on the link below to see what it is all about.

http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=141631

Pilates Plus is proud to be the exclusive provider of ActivCore to the Rochester Area.

We are very excited to be the only studio in Upstate NY offering ActivCore.    If you would like to see what ActivCore is all about, call today to set up your session.

Nowadays, criminals are so fast and lethal, they will do whatever it takes to perform their attacks and get away with ease. In order to stop an attacker of this nature, you need to learn the skills and awareness techniques to defuse the situation or just GET AWAY!

Reality based self defense will teach you how to stop an attacker using a variety of military style combatives and defensive weapon programs. You will also learn the psychology and combative mindset needed in order to make the defense techniques work.

“Reality Based Self Defense” or RBSD is a system based on situations that occur in your everyday life. RBSD also takes into consideration the environment, using weather and low light areas as two large factors. Most of the skills and techniques learned in RBSD revolve around awareness, mindset, reaction, and performing techniques that use simple gross motor skills. This makes the system very easy to learn. Military and law enforcement use these types of training methods because they sometimes have very little time to teach the criteria and rely on the simple but highly effective gross motor skill movements and strikes that RBSD teaches.

RBSD trains using real life scenarios and psychology as its main focal point. Participants act out roles and situations that go on in our lives each and everyday.

If you are interested in learning skills that will work in the streets and the traditional martial arts styles aren’t for you, then Reality Based Self Defense courses are right up your alley.

There are many different versions of Pilates out there today – Classical, Stott and Windsor to name a few.  We are often asked, “What is the difference?” The main difference resides in the quality of the training and subsequently, the instruction. Classical Pilates, the method that Joseph Pilates developed and taught, is the original and, in our opinion, the best method of Pilates. Classical Pilates instructors, like those at Pilates Plus, are required to train for years at perfecting their skills. After going through their training, classical Pilates instructors are required to obtain hundreds of hours of observation and hundreds of hours of practice instruction followed by apprentice teaching. This leads to a quality of instruction that just can not be obtained through a fast-track method of training.

Instructors of other forms of Pilates are typically required to have anywhere from a few hours to a few months of training. While these instructors may be skilled in their own right, they lack the solid foundation to address individual nuances that are so often seen in many clients.

When shopping for a quality instructor it is important to know what method of Pilates is being taught and how much training your instructor has. Don’t be fooled by knock-offs – the classical method is, and always will be, the best!

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is, “What is the difference between yoga and Pilates?”  Generally speaking, yoga is more of a limbering, rejuvenating workout that will provide as much of a lift for your brain as your body.   Pilates is a more dynamic system of muscle conditioning that will help you building strength.  Yoga will help you gain the flexibility you need to do Pilates and Pilates will help you gain the strength you need to do yoga.  Both yoga and Pilates are excellent exercises practiced alone but they do work quite well together which is why Pilates Plus offers both!