Pilates is a unique form of exercise that helps you burn calories, tone and strengthen your body, all at the same time. It is usually the best exercise for dancers, gymnasts, and even a string of Hollywood celebrities, who found to improve their range of motion, flexibility, blood circulation, posture and abdominal strength.
But what are the other factors that make pilates so popular among fitness buffs? Here are five benefits of Pilates.
1. It works the entire body, unlike most exercises that places focus on certain area, neglecting the others. Pilates focuses on core strength, or the centre core of your body, helping you with your body strength, while developing muscle, flexibility and even motion for the joints.
2. Pilates helps refresh the mind and body. Much like Yoga, the first step to Pilates is to control your level of breathing. Proper breathing is important to help with your movements with power and efficiency, so by the end of a session, you’ll be having feel most of the tension in your body gone, and your mind rejuvenated.
3. It’ll help sculpt a great body. Workouts in general help you focus on a certain part of your body, but since Pilates focuses on core strength, it works the muscles all around your back, to right down to your ankles and feet. It helps you form a body with balanced muscles, which also decreases your chances of an injury.
4. No need to worry about bulk when Pilates isn’t really all about building large muscles for showing off. Pilates is all about functional fitness, that helps the need of a person in terms of fitness. So, instead of having big bulky muscles, your muscles will be longer and learner instead.
5. Pilates supports weight-loss. A first timer may feel that a Pilates session is excruciatingly painful, but with a little determination, it will give you a leaner and fitter figure. Pilates tones and shapes the body, and since it has the potential to improve your posture, it’ll help you emphasize on the length of your body. It’s also a high calorie-burning workout that you can engage it without any special footwear, and you can do it in the comfort of your home.
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