Work It To The Core! How Pilates Can Strengthen Your Core and Improve Your Way of Life

Written by Kerri Lee Brown Friday, 23 September 2011 17:02

Work It To The Core!
How Pilates Can Strengthen Your Core and Improve Your Way of Life
By Kerrie Lee Brown
VP, Communications, STOTT PILATES®

For some people, exercise routines focus solely on building muscle. For others, their mission is to increase strength, improve balance, stamina and flexibility. If the latter is your goal in the gym, then working your body ‘core’ is where you should spend your time. By creating a stable, strong base for your core muscles, you can also optimize the strength and flexibility of each limb. As a result, you can improve the effectiveness of your body’s movement and lead a more healthful life.

After all, we rely on our bodies for everything: when we get out of bed in the morning, get dressed, go to work, play with the kids, and when we work up a sweat in the weight room. The all-important core is pertinent to our overall wellbeing. That’s why it’s important to take care of our body every day with regular exercise, nutritious food, lots of water, exercise, and ample rest. Between the office, family time, and reps at the gym, our body is what enables us to do what we do best in life.

Your body’s core is the midsection of your body, from your groin to your shoulders. The core includes the pelvis, abs, back and chest muscles. While our limbs provide mobility, reach and strength, it is our core that offers stability, balance and flexibility for most activities. In fact, every movement you make originates in the core, so if the core is not properly conditioned, it will limit your physical abilities.

“Although core training may be a bit of a catch-phrase in the fitness industry, the true definition of the term is widely acknowledged in medical and rehabilitation communities as the basis for reconditioning the support musculature of the body,” explains Mr. Lindsay G. Merrithew, President and CEO, STOTT PILATES.® “Pilates helps people of all ages and fitness experiences overcome aches and pains and therefore enjoy everyday activities. The attention to the core, proper alignment and good posture that Pilates offers through its numerous variations of movement, with or without specialized equipment, is a natural carryover into regular living.”

For the most part, Pilates uses the body as its own form of resistance. Learning to breathe properly and perform slow, controlled movements allows a person to isolate and strengthen core muscles. STOTT PILATES® is a contemporary approach to the original exercise method pioneered by the late Joseph Pilates. Co-founders Moira and Lindsay G. Merrithew, along with a team of physical therapists, sports medicine and fitness professionals, have spent over two decades refining the STOTT PILATES method of exercise and equipment. STOTT PILATES incorporates modern exercise principles, including contemporary thinking about spinal rehabilitation and athletic performance enhancement. For example, some approaches may promote a flat back, whereas STOTT PILATES exercises are designed to restore the natural curves of the spine and rebalance the muscles around the joints. As well, there are more preparatory exercises and modifications to cater to many different body types and abilities, making it applicable to everyday life.

Athletic Conditioning of the Core
There are many exercise routines that work the muscles of the body core. Professional strength coaches and personal trainers are known to create customized routines to enhance an athlete's abilities by developing the proper core muscles. However, there are also many programs developed for individuals who wish to incorporate it into their fitness routine or to begin one. Pilates-based exercises help improve performance, reduce injury, and relieve stress. Unlike other hardcore strength training regimens that focus more specifically on muscle mass, Pilates focuses on re-balancing your muscles around the joints, improving your alignment and flexibility. There is also a huge emphasis on strengthening the core muscles, lending to mind-body awareness as a whole.

STOTT PILATES exercise improves core strength and balances the muscles around the joints, improving the way your body functions, looks and feels. The Five Basic Principles in which the STOTT PILATES method is based focus on: breathing, pelvic placement, rib cage placement, scapular movement, and head & cervical spine placement. In the rehabilitation world, core strength is crucial to the reduction of pain, restoration of movement, and return to daily activities. Pilates focuses on restoring balance, as well as strengthening muscles in a concentric and eccentric fashion— on the ‘in’ and the ‘out’ movement— which can ultimately help improve muscular control, which may prevent future injuries.
Pilates is a form of conditioning used in the development of strong core muscles. “It [Pilates] also focuses on proper breathing, balance and sport-specific range of motion,” explains Moira Merrithew, Executive Director of Education for STOTT PILATES.® “Pilates is now being used by professional hockey players, Olympic athletes and extreme sports, because it helps increase joint stability and strengthens the deep core muscles, which in turn prevents injuries and leads to improved athletic performance.”

Benefits of Core Training
Pilates helps build strong, healthy muscles, improves blood flow, and engages the proper muscles at the right time. It works your body inside and out for optimal body conditioning and is ideal for anyone wanting to expand their exercise regimens to include elite-level strengthening moves that also work the inner mechanism of the body.

“Pilates works on developing kinesthetic awareness of the body. It also focuses on good postural alignment, which helps athletes perform movements efficiently, thus reducing the amount of unnecessary strain on the muscles and joints,” Moira continues. “Specific strengthening exercises will also help to balance the muscles around a joint and balance pairs of muscles from one side of the body to the other.”

Most Pilates workouts begin in a supine (lying on the back) position, and then progress to sitting, or standing when stability increases, and can then carry over into the sporting realm. This allows the athlete to train or retrain muscles, then transfer movement patterns to outside the practice environment and into the sport-specific skill.

Core strengthening is also an integral component of any injury prevention, rehabilitation, or sports performance program. “A strong core provides a dynamic link between the upper and lower body, alleviating excess stress on the peripheral joints,” adds Moira. “In athletes, core strength contributes to enhanced athletic performance by providing a solid foundation from which the upper and lower extremities can generate force for running, throwing, rowing, or jumping.”

Increased Flexibility and Overall Stamina
Because Pilates works on a controlled lengthening of the muscles, it can be beneficial in assisting overall flexibility, and this can aid in creating a stronger game on the ice, and a greater level of stamina during the elements on the hills. Also, the emphasis on breath as one of the principles can aid an athlete in focusing during their game, and control precise movements required for their sport.

Pilates is effective because it trains all three functional muscle systems. Trainers can encourage their athletes to stabilize the joints effectively at low loads, and then progress to strengthening eccentrically, which will control deceleration movements by using the global stabilizers and finally progressing to the larger global mobilizers, with the inherent joint stability already in place.

It’s a Core Thing
Strengthening the core is an important function for everyday activities. Over the past two decades, the original form of Pilates has been refined to meet the demands of today’s fitness needs. When all muscular systems work in a timely and coordinated fashion, exercisers can achieve large gains in strength, skill, coordination, and biomechanical efficiency. Pilates focuses on improving stabilization of the lumbo-pelvic region, and the theory is that improved core stability gained through Pilates training will carry over into the sporting realm, reducing the risk of injury and improving performance.
Good core strength is important at every age and fitness level. So whatever your goals, find a way to incorporate body core conditioning into your routine to reduce fatigue, avoid muscle strain and improve your strength and mobility. You’ll reap the benefits every day.

For all your Pilates needs, visit www.stottpilates.com.