Pilates: Does It Help You Lose Weight? After how long? Here are all its benefits
If pilates has been so successful in recent years, there is a reason why. Are you ready to discover its many benefits? This sport that brings together dance, yoga and gymnastics, tones and slims the whole body, and in addition helps to regain inner well-being.
Conceived in 1920 in New York by the German trainer Joseph Pilates (from whom it took its name), pilates helps you gain greater awareness of your body and achieve visible results without sweating too much. His method, in fact, is based on regular movements, of simple execution, which however work on the reconstruction of the body balance, correcting asymmetries and chronic weaknesses, as well as helping concentration and mental relaxation.
Pilates: how does it work and what are its principles?
The basic principles of pilates are different. First of all, the control of the movements: you have to focus not only on the part of the body that is performing them, but on the whole posture, from the head to the toes.
Accuracy is essential, as is the fluidity of the movements, which must always be very harmonious. The positions are not held as long as in yoga, but they are more connected to each other, creating a kind of dance.
Furthermore, breathing is equally fundamental to help the fluidity of movements and their control: it must be regular to allow muscle relaxation, greater range of movements and elongation capacity.
Here is a first general exercise that can benefit your body and mind. This is a simple stretch on your stomach, ideal for relaxing your muscles and starting your workout in a more gentle and effective way.
To find out more, read "Encyclopedia of Pilates Exercises" on Amazon for 23.80 euros.
The benefits of pilates
As anticipated, the benefits of pilates are many, both physically and psychically. First, it helps to increase the strength of the muscles without creating an excess of muscle mass: the result will be a toned and long-limbed body, with slender legs and flat abs.
By working on breathing, Pilates helps to strengthen one's balance by rediscovering the center of gravity: in this way you will obtain a greater capacity for physical and mental coordination.
Pilates helps correct bad posture habits, gives you greater elasticity and muscle and joint ability. It also has a positive influence on cardiovascular and respiratory capacity.
On a mental level, pilates helps reduce tension and fatigue caused by stress. Consequently, it helps to feel stronger and able to manage anxiety, favoring the finding of an enviable inner balance and self-control.
Does pilates make you lose weight?
All very nice, you might say, but does Pilates also make you lose weight? The answer is yes: the pilates exercises aim to tone the muscles, especially the abdominal area, by shaping the muscles. For this to happen it is also necessary to stimulate the deepest muscles, which requires a large expenditure of energy that inevitably consumes calories, burning the stored fats.
It should not be forgotten that pilates, although it represents a form of gentle gymnastics, is still an "aerobic activity, and as such it favors the consumption of fat and leads to weight loss and getting back into shape. Certainly it is not crossfit, but if if you perform your exercises carefully and consistently, the results will also be visible on the line. The important thing is to accompany physical activity with a healthy diet and diet: try these foods that accelerate metabolism to lose weight faster!
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Pilates: benefits on the neck and back
Pilates is great for fighting neck problems. By practicing specific exercises to stretch the muscles of the shoulders and neck, it will be possible to relax the offending area, decreasing the tension. In addition, pilates promotes mental relaxation, and we all know how the neck is often caused by stress! This sport is also highly recommended to improve posture: an excellent help to prevent cervical problems.
The benefits of pilates are also many as regards the back: this gymnastics helps to improve its resistance, elasticity, flexibility, making its movement fluid. Improving the posture, then, favors the abandonment of all those bad habits and incorrect positions that cause back pain.
A special Pilates roller will help you in the correct posture. Buy it here.
Here is a video that easily demonstrates how to perform a spine stretching exercise.
The benefits of pilates on legs and cellulite
Practicing pilates has many benefits for our legs, which will be much more toned and slender. In addition, it is really effective against water retention, thus favoring the reduction of cellulite.
Here is a perfect exercise for the legs but also for the abdominal band, which if done consistently, can bring significant improvements to our body, making it visibly more toned.
The latter, being caused by a malfunction of the microcirculation and consequent stagnation of liquids, can be combated by a special series of exercises aimed at developing the muscle groups by restoring correct blood circulation. If after the workout you proceed with a do-it-yourself anti-cellulite massage like those in our video, the result will be guaranteed!
How long does it take to see the benefits of pilates?
According to what Joseph Pilates himself said, the benefits begin to be felt after 10 lessons, to be seen after 20 and after 30 "you will have a new body"!
Of course, however, there are several factors to take into consideration, first of all constancy and frequency: the ideal would be to be able to practice it for about twenty minutes every day, but it is easier to follow a course at least 3 times a week (and no less than 2) so that the efforts are not thwarted.
The muscles, to be able to stretch and tone, need frequent and not occasional practice, otherwise even after 30 lessons you will see the desired changes and benefits!
