Pilates into the Fitness - Essay Example

Pilates
Fitness is very important for good looks, good impressions,s, and physical activity. Fitness is a fundamental need of every individual in the contemporary age given that society has generally become quite looks-conscious. There is so much that every individual needs to accomplish in a very limited time, and the amount of physical activity involved cannot be achieved without fitness. Owing to the extremely busy schedule, people tend to look out for ways in which they can exercise without having to give it too much time. As a result, various styles of exercise have surfaced over the years. Fitness trends keep changing from one year to another. “Our fascination with self-improvement shows no signs of waning, and there's no shortage of new exercise trends aimed at helping us meet our health goals” (Bouchez). There is a growing trend among people to adopt a new exercise style which is known as Pilates.

Although some of the eight principles e.g. alignment and flexibility are more focused on the physical movement as compared to the mental effort, the principles have a combined effect on the mind as some extent of mental effort is required in each of the eight principles. However, as an individual practice these movements more, the mind gets so attuned to the body that the movements can be made with minimal mental effort. To attain maximum benefit, an individual should try to make smooth and well-controlled movements while doing Pilates. Like all exercise regimens, Pilates should be taken easily at the start, and the intensity of the workout should gradually be increased depending upon the comfort of movements. To achieve optimal results, fitness practitioners tend to combine Pilates with yoga owing to the fact that Pilates is to some extent, based on the yoga studies done by Joseph Pilates.

One thing that makes Pilates different from and more realistic than the conventional weight-loss programs is that it does not claim overnight transformations. Benefits of Pilates include but are not limited to enhanced strength, balance, and flexibility, enhanced body awareness, improved blood circulation, increased flexibility of the spine, reduced level of stress, boost in the energy level, improved stamina and agility, and most importantly, improved looks of the body. Pilates is essentially a routine of body conditioning that is aimed at improvement of the overall flexibility of the body along with the improvement of muscular strength and endurance without the addition of bulk to the muscles.