What is Pilates?
About Pilates
Pilates is a low-impact form of exercise and body conditioning that works to increase awareness of your body and movement, to improve mobility and flexibility, strength, balance and includes breathwork training. Pilates promotes a connection of the body and the mind, which can increase an overall sense of well-being. Pilates is suitable for people of all ages with a range of different fitness levels and experience.
Pilates exercises can be tailored to suit a large range of the population through adapting position and form, or through adding small equipment such as balance pads, resistance bands and loops, or weights.
By having small class sizes, this enables Heather to provide personalised exercise adaptations to increase or decrease the challenge, to support your body or an area of injury, and to focus in on a specific function of an exercise such as ankle stability and balance training, and it allows for greater client-teacher interaction.
History
The original Pilates method was a set series of 34 mat-based exercises of which looked at flexibility, strength, stretching and mobility.
Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates, who believed mental and physical health were closely connected. His method was influenced by Western forms of exercise, including gymnastics, boxing and Greco-Roman wrestling (NHS, 2018)
Heather qualified as a Pilates matwork Instructor through the Australian Physiotherapy and Pilates Institute (APPI) who take a modern, research-informed approach to Pilates. The APPI method uses a revision of classical Pilates movements to make them safer and more relevant for today’s lifestyles as well as customising them for people with specific injuries and requirements.