Can Pilates give you the edge?

From efit.com

The Pilates’ elec­tric chair is more than a hot seat; it may spark you to a new level of fitness.

(Nutri­cise) — Believe it or not, a form of exer­cise that was orig­i­nally designed to help immo­bi­lized patients recover from injuries sus­tained in World War I is now the hottest method of body con­di­tion­ing among the world’s top ath­letes. The exer­cises and appa­ra­tuses that Joseph Pilates invented as a nurse dur­ing the war laid the foun­da­tion for the total mind-body work­out that he brought to New York in the 1920’s and which is now becom­ing the con­fessed secret weapon of many com­pet­i­tive athletes.

Pilates teaches 500 exer­cises per­formed on mats and spring-based con­trap­tions with funny names, such as the Cadil­lac and the Elec­tric Chair. The exer­cises tar­get what Pilates him­self termed the body’s “pow­er­house” (the stom­ach, back and but­tocks). The phi­los­o­phy is that with a strong and sta­ble core, the torso will take pres­sure off the more frag­ile limbs while improv­ing breath­ing, bal­ance, strength, flex­i­bil­ity and align­ment. Brooke Siler, co-owner of re:AB, the renowned Pilates stu­dio in New York and author of The Pilates Body (Broad­way Books, 2000), says that many ath­letes, recre­ational and pro­fes­sional, are drawn to the sys­tem because it trains the body to func­tion at its peak per­for­mance. For exam­ple, she says that Pilates can teach skiers how to lower their cen­ter of grav­ity, increas­ing their speed and improv­ing their bal­ance. Run­ners can learn to power their stride with their but­tocks instead of their hips, tak­ing pres­sure off their knees and ankles.

“Run­ners, cyclists, triath­letes, skiers, foot­ball play­ers are all com­ing to my stu­dio to con­di­tion for their sport. What they’re learn­ing as they progress in their prac­tice is that Pilates also re-conditions their bod­ies so they are not taken out of the game with injury, and they can be as active as pos­si­ble,” says Siler.

Ath­letes are par­tic­u­larly vul­ner­a­ble to injury and chronic pain because they engage in repet­i­tive and stren­u­ous move­ments. Their joints or mus­cles can become impacted, espe­cially as they age. Siler says Pilates is able to lengthen tight mus­cles, improve range of motion and “injury proof” the body. Pilates is also thought to cor­rect imbal­ances suf­fered by ath­letes, such as ten­nis play­ers and base­ball pitch­ers, who have devel­oped one side of the body more than the other.

For­mer com­pet­i­tive skier, Bai­ley Gim­bal, has been prac­tic­ing Pilates between two and four times a week for about 14 months. At age 46, Gim­bal says that he’d been walk­ing around with recur­ring pain from old injuries from his com­pet­i­tive days, such as torn mus­cles and a recon­structed shoul­der. “After a few months of Pilates they were gone,” he says. What’s more, he has gone down two full suit sizes while main­tain­ing his old weight. He’s tried all kinds of train­ing (yoga, run­ning, weight lift­ing and mar­tial arts) but says that only Pilates was able to make him feel truly centered—both phys­i­cally and mentally.

Many health clubs are offer­ing Pilates mat classes that pro­vide intense abdom­i­nal work­outs. If you are a non-athlete who is new to Pilates, you might con­sider work­ing one-on-one with a cer­ti­fied Pilates instruc­tor to ensure cor­rect form and pre­vent strain on your lower back. Although the pop­u­lar­ity of Pilates among ath­letes is a trib­ute to its effec­tive­ness, it was designed for peo­ple of all fit­ness lev­els or, “any­one with a body,” Siler says. “Joseph Pilates believed that every per­son is an ath­lete and that we all have a right to be strong and healthy. Prac­tic­ing Pilates can guar­an­tee this right.”

Brooke Siler is a cer­ti­fied Authen­tic Pilates™ instruc­tor, Pilates Guild mem­ber, owner of Re-ab Pilates Stu­dio in Man­hat­tan, and author of Pilates Body.