PilaTes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PilaTes - Essay Example Fitness trends keep changing from one year to another. â€Å"Our fascination with self-improvement shows no signs of waning, and theres 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. Pilates is a low-impact exercise style. One reason why Pilates has been so popular among the masses is that it has been endorsed by a lot of celebrities. â€Å"After years of high-impact, make-em-sweat, feel-the-burn fitness workouts, there is great appeal in a slower, safer, sensible approach to health and wellness† (â€Å"Pilates Benefits†). There are eight basic principles of Pilates. They include â€Å"alignment, breathing, centering, concentration, control, precision, flow of movement, and flexibility† (â€Å"An Introduction to†). The underlying concept of Pilates is that it is a technique not only directed at the exercise of the body, but also of the mind. Although some of the eight principles e.g. alignment and flexibility are more focused at the physical movement as compared to the mental effort, yet 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 practices 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 easy in the start, and the intensity of workout should gra dually 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