5 Pilates Tips to Improve Your Practice

Love Pilates? Trying to fit more Pilates sessions into your New Year? Always wanted to try it? No matter where you fall on the Pilates spectrum, today’s New Year New Rear Week post with Pilates tips from STOTT PILATES is for you!

“There’s always room for novices and experts alike to improve their Pilates practice,” says Moira Merrithew, executive director, education, at Merrithew Health & Fitness. “To really take advantage of everything that Pilates has to offer, we’ve come up with five tips to ensure that exercisers get a well-rounded, rewarding and enriching Pilates workout.”

Read on for the top five Pilates tips to make sure that you’re getting the most from this mindful and core-strength building workout!

5 Pilates Tips for All

1. Find the right instructor. Dig a little deeper and ask questions when someone says that they’re a Pilates instructor — some certifications can be as short as a few days while others are far more thorough and require as many as 300 hours of training and apprenticeship. Ensure that you’re trusting your body with someone who really knows what they’re doing.

2. Work within your limits. It’s tempting to observe others and test if you can match or outdo them, but Pilates is a very introspective and mindful workout. Drown out your surroundings and focus on your breath and listening to your body. Don’t try to do things you aren’t yet prepared for — have patience, the time will come!

3. Combine Pilates with other workouts. Pilates is praised for its ability to align, strengthen, lengthen and rebalance muscles. Take advantage of a strong body and put it to work in conjunction with other forms of exercise!

4. Invest in one-on-one training before taking a group class. Not sure how to navigate a reformer or where your pelvic floor really is? Since Pilates focuses on precise, acute movements that target deep muscles, some private training will allow you to perfect the smaller details that can easily be overlooked without proper instruction.

5. Use Pilates as a supportive extension of rehab work. If you’ve ever been injured and gone for rehabilitation treatment, Pilates presents itself as a great form of maintenance and preventing re-injury. As a non-aggressive and gentle form of exercise, Pilates is also a fantastic form of fitness that can be beneficial for those suffering from osteoporosis and many other physical ailments.

Do you love Pilates? What Pilates tips would you add to this list? —Jenn