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Expert Q&A
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| By Paige Waehner Personal Trainer | ||
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What is Pilates?
Pilates, created by Joseph Pilates back in the 1900s, has traditionally been used by professional dancers to keep their muscles supple, strong and flexible. Joseph Pilates created a routine of body-sculpting movements to improve posture, strengthen muscles and firm the abs and back, all without using weights. Though the original version uses all kinds of wild looking machines, modern Pilates has been adapted for us regular folks and can be done with nothing more than a mat. Pilates may remind you of yoga with its intense concentration on body position, breathing and balance, but it's more dynamic in that you move through poses and movements rather than hold static poses as in some forms of yoga. Pilates exercises are generally performed with very few repetitions, but each one is precise, controlled and moves through several planes of motion.
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