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Pilates – body, mind and spirit

 

Pilates is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. It develops the body uniformly, corrects wrong postures, restores physical vitality, invigorates the mind, and elevates the spirit. Pilates is designed to give you suppleness, natural grace, and skill that will be unmistakably reflected in the way you walk, in the way you play, and in the way you work. You will develop muscular power with corresponding endurance, ability to perform arduous duties, to play strenous games, to walk, run or travel for long distances without undue body fatigue or mental strain.

 

One of the major results of Pilates is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body. Ideally, our muscles should obey our will reasonably, our will should not be dominated by the reflex actions of our muscles. Pilates begins with mind control over muscles.

 

The continued use of Pilates steadily increases the normal and natural supply of pure rich blood to flow to and circulate throughout the brain with corresponding stimulation to new brain areas previously dormant. More significantly, it actually develops more brain cells.

 

For more information, consult the book “Return to Life Through Contrology” of Joseph H. Pilates.

 

 

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 Pilates and Physical fitness

  

This article summarizes the recommendations for a physical fitness that Joseph H. Pilates published, originally in 1945, in its book “Return to life through Contrology”. (The Pilates method was called “Contrology” or “Art of Control”, based on the ideal of attaining a complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit.)

 

Pilates and Physical fitness

It would be a grave error to assume that even Pilates exercises alone will remake a man or a woman into an entirely physically fit person. Correspondingly, proper diet, sufficient sleep and relaxation must supplement our exercise in our quest for physical fitness.

  • The body also “breathes” through the pores of your skin as well as through your mouth, nose, and lungs. So never fail to get all the sunshine and fresh air that you can. You will find yourself feeling comfortable and invigorated.
  • Eat only enough food to restore the “fuel” consumed by the body and to keep enough of it on hand at all times to furnish the extra energy required on occasions beyond our normal needs and to meet unexpected emergencies.
  • Guide your eating habits with all due respect to the required amount of food and kind you need to keep yourself physically fit, always as indicated by your occupation or lack of it.
  • If any particular part of your body is under-developed or shows an accumulation of excess fat, select Pilates exercises specifically to correct the respective conditions.
  • Be sure never to repeat the selected exercises more than the prescribed number of times. There is really no need for tired muscles.
  • For a good sleep, a quiet, cool, well-ventilated room is best. Do not use a soft mattress. Firm but not soft is a good choice.
  • If your sleep is disturbed, rise immediately and perform your exercises. It is far better to be tired from physical exertion than to be fatigued by nervousness while lying awake.
  • When doing Pilates, be certain that you have your entire body under complete mental control.
  • With body, mind and spirit functioning perfectly as a coordinated whole, we expect an active, alert and disciplined person.