The word “Pilates” has somehow become synonymous with core strength. In fact, a LOT of my regular clients come to me initially because their doctor (or chiropractor, massage therapist, or physiotherapist…) told them that they need to work on their core strength. This recommendation in itself usually comes on the heels of recurring back pain.
So… Does Pilates make your core stronger? HECK YES! But guess what? Pilates will make your WHOLE BODY stronger, too.
Pilates for Full Body Strength
When you practice Pilates, each and every exercise incorporates the full body; the core just happens to be at the centre of that. Core = Centre! This is one of the reasons I love Pilates so much; no matter what your body shape or type, or no matter your goals – it can help you achieve better body balance, movement, and strength.
- Golf = Posture + Flexibility
- Biking = Posture + Strength
- Running = Posture + Breathing
You may see a theme here; your posture (your core) really IS connected to everything we do. Even sitting at the computer, we are using a variety of muscles. Why not use ALL of them correctly to alleviate strains, weak areas, and imbalance?
Practice, Not Perfection
As a beginner, Pilates can be overwhelming. A new class… New movements… A new teacher! The beautiful thing about Pilates is that the more you practice, the more aware you will become of your body – both in class and out.
View Our Classes Here
Once you get past all of that newness, you will sink into the movements and feel them in MORE PLACES than just your core. The core is just the starting place! The exercises you once thought were easy become more difficult, because you are learning how to use your body more fully.
We say that Pilates is a PRACTICE, because there is not an end point. It is a dance with your body; the more you learn the exercises, the more comfortable (and uncomfortable!) you become with how you are moving throughout the day and in your activities. Luckily, this dance is one that keeps you moving forward, introducing strength, balance, and flexibility in places you had ignored for years (maybe even decades).
You Aren’t Alone
Like anything new, Pilates can be intimidating at first. There are a LOT of new terms and exercises that you may never have heard of before. Oh – and you will FEEL it the next day, I promise!
Pilates is very much an individual workout, but you will not be walking the journey alone. As an instructor, it is my honour to guide you to learn the choreography of each exercise and give you tools and techniques to meet you where you are now – and where you want to go.
Pilates is More Than Core
Your doctor was right – Pilates WILL make your core stronger. Along with your your arms, back, butt, and legs! Your flexibility will improve. You will have better posture, be stronger, breathe deeper, and move with more ease. And, as a result of all of that – your back pain will improve.
So will your golf swing. And your biking time. And your running gait.
Pilates will help you build a strong core, yes – but your full body will be stronger, leading to increased performance, fewer injuries, and more ENJOYMENT in all you do.
The word “Pilates” has somehow become synonymous with core strength. In fact, a LOT of my regular clients come to me initially because their doctor (or chiropractor, massage therapist, or physiotherapist…) told them that they need to work on their core strength. This recommendation in itself usually comes on the heels of recurring back pain.
So… Does Pilates make your core stronger? HECK YES! But guess what? Pilates will make your WHOLE BODY stronger, too.
Pilates for Full Body Strength
When you practice Pilates, each and every exercise incorporates the full body; the core just happens to be at the centre of that. Core = Centre! This is one of the reasons I love Pilates so much; no matter what your body shape or type, or no matter your goals – it can help you achieve better body balance, movement, and strength.
- Golf = Posture + Flexibility
- Biking = Posture + Strength
- Running = Posture + Breathing
You may see a theme here; your posture (your core) really IS connected to everything we do. Even sitting at the computer, we are using a variety of muscles. Why not use ALL of them correctly to alleviate strains, weak areas, and imbalance?
Practice, Not Perfection
As a beginner, Pilates can be overwhelming. A new class… New movements… A new teacher! The beautiful thing about Pilates is that the more you practice, the more aware you will become of your body – both in class and out.
View Our Classes Here
Once you get past all of that newness, you will sink into the movements and feel them in MORE PLACES than just your core. The core is just the starting place! The exercises you once thought were easy become more difficult, because you are learning how to use your body more fully.
We say that Pilates is a PRACTICE, because there is not an end point. It is a dance with your body; the more you learn the exercises, the more comfortable (and uncomfortable!) you become with how you are moving throughout the day and in your activities. Luckily, this dance is one that keeps you moving forward, introducing strength, balance, and flexibility in places you had ignored for years (maybe even decades).
You Aren’t Alone
Like anything new, Pilates can be intimidating at first. There are a LOT of new terms and exercises that you may never have heard of before. Oh – and you will FEEL it the next day, I promise!
Pilates is very much an individual workout, but you will not be walking the journey alone. As an instructor, it is my honour to guide you to learn the choreography of each exercise and give you tools and techniques to meet you where you are now – and where you want to go.
Pilates is More Than Core
Your doctor was right – Pilates WILL make your core stronger. Along with your your arms, back, butt, and legs! Your flexibility will improve. You will have better posture, be stronger, breathe deeper, and move with more ease. And, as a result of all of that – your back pain will improve.
So will your golf swing. And your biking time. And your running gait.
Pilates will help you build a strong core, yes – but your full body will be stronger, leading to increased performance, fewer injuries, and more ENJOYMENT in all you do.
Would you build your dream home on a cracked foundation that was leaning to one side? Of course not! No matter how beautiful of a home you built, or how careful you were with every detail, that dream home would never be strong. Even worse, it might (gulp) fall apart sooner than it should.
As children and young adults, we faced aches and pains, but kept on going anyways. I mean, who wants to stop having fun? Other times, we would look to rest or therapy to take care of the injuries themselves. But what about our body’s foundation? If we don’t take care of that, no matter how well we take care of the other areas of our body, it will always be on shaky ground.
I started my fitness journey like most people; I found what I loved, and focussed only on that. For me, it was high impact cardio. I would even take a low impact class and make it high impact! I soon discovered the weight room, and thought I was achieving balance by doing both. (Even though I always left before it was time to stretch… Bad girl!)
While I was working my whole body (or so I thought), I was neglecting the most important area: my body’s foundation. And boy, did it catch up with me. Shin splints. Plantar fasciitis. Sore knees. Tight IT band. I was falling apart, and despite seeking therapy for each injury, I kept going back to the same movements that put me in rehab in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong – we need a variety of exercise, and I am never going to give up running. So, what changed to make me a stronger runner with fewer injuries? I became aware of how I moved. And I started to care for my whole body, beginning with my foundation.
Discovering Pilates changed how I thought about movement. I became conscious of the movements I made, how I trained with weights, and how I trained others. I learned that those high-impact exercises I love so much can be more efficient and successful when I am more aware, flexible, and mobile. With a stronger core and improved posture, the changes I make to my body are being built upon a solid foundation. This means fewer aches, pains, and injuries – and a lot more fun!
Pilates and Functional Strength Training can help stabilize your body’s foundation, no matter what your fitness focus is. That means you can keep doing what you love from a place of confidence and strength.
Experience b.Pilates in our fully equipped studio, or from the comfort of your own home with NEW online Pilates classes. https://train.bpilates.ca/trainers/bpilates/landing
I can’t wait to help you build your strongest body yet.
Would you build your dream home on a cracked foundation that was leaning to one side? Of course not! No matter how beautiful of a home you built, or how careful you were with every detail, that dream home would never be strong. Even worse, it might (gulp) fall apart sooner than it should.
As children and young adults, we faced aches and pains, but kept on going anyways. I mean, who wants to stop having fun? Other times, we would look to rest or therapy to take care of the injuries themselves. But what about our body’s foundation? If we don’t take care of that, no matter how well we take care of the other areas of our body, it will always be on shaky ground.
I started my fitness journey like most people; I found what I loved, and focussed only on that. For me, it was high impact cardio. I would even take a low impact class and make it high impact! I soon discovered the weight room, and thought I was achieving balance by doing both. (Even though I always left before it was time to stretch… Bad girl!)
While I was working my whole body (or so I thought), I was neglecting the most important area: my body’s foundation. And boy, did it catch up with me. Shin splints. Plantar fasciitis. Sore knees. Tight IT band. I was falling apart, and despite seeking therapy for each injury, I kept going back to the same movements that put me in rehab in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong – we need a variety of exercise, and I am never going to give up running. So, what changed to make me a stronger runner with fewer injuries? I became aware of how I moved. And I started to care for my whole body, beginning with my foundation.
Discovering Pilates changed how I thought about movement. I became conscious of the movements I made, how I trained with weights, and how I trained others. I learned that those high-impact exercises I love so much can be more efficient and successful when I am more aware, flexible, and mobile. With a stronger core and improved posture, the changes I make to my body are being built upon a solid foundation. This means fewer aches, pains, and injuries – and a lot more fun!
Pilates and Functional Strength Training can help stabilize your body’s foundation, no matter what your fitness focus is. That means you can keep doing what you love from a place of confidence and strength.
Experience b.Pilates in our fully equipped studio, or from the comfort of your own home with NEW online Pilates classes. https://train.bpilates.ca/trainers/bpilates/landing
I can’t wait to help you build your strongest body yet.
Have you ever thought that you might like to run a half marathon or marathon? For years I thought that 5 or 10 km runs were enough. Fast forward 15 years and I found myself committed to running my first half marathon and 2 years later a full marathon.
At that time, I had very little knowledge of what it took to train for a race. I just ran. My runner friends talked about fartleks, tempo runs, hill repeats, race pace. I had no idea what my race pace was. Everything I found for training had me running, running and doing more running.
My first goal:
Train to finish a half marathon. That’s all, just get across the finish line.
My second goal:
Fitting in all the running with my other fitness activities. At the time, I was teaching 10 hours of fitness and spin classes, plus another 10 hours of Pilates, plus strength training 2 or 3 times per week. Now, my running program was recommending that I run 5 days a week. Fitting it all in was challenging and I was feeling very tired and fatigued.
New goal:
Reduce fatigue and pain.
I knew that if I wanted to achieve my goal of finishing this run, I needed to get through the training healthy, and strong. My answer to this was:
- reduce my running
- keep up teaching because it was my job
- weight training twice a week
- PLUS I added in Pilates 2 or 3 times per week to help with mobility and flexibility.
I felt so much better. Pilates helped me to become much more aware of my body. My posture and breathing, how I would stand and hold my shoulders, how I moved when riding the spin bike, running or lifting weights. I started moving better and feeling much stronger.
New, new goal:
Set a time goal for this half marathon.
I had no idea how fast I could run 21.1 km so I took the average finish time is for women in my age category and deduct a bit of time. My finish time goal was 1hour 55mins. or faster.
Training goal achieved:
Race day arrived. I made it injury free. The combination of strength training, teaching and Pilates had me feeling stronger than I had in many years.
Race day goal:
Run fast, for 21.1km, try not to stop, finish in under 1 hour and 55 mins. I was feeling good about this.
Race day:
My running buddy hauls me up to the front of the second start corral even though I had myself slotted in the 4th corral. Eek! What was I getting myself into?
The gun went off and away we go, running way too fast. I started looking to find a person in the crowd that I can keep pace with. I picked this tall balding man that is easy to see amongst the other runners and just keep running. At 19 km I wasn’t sure how I was going to finish. I had now talked with the man I had been pacing with and he was encouraging me along. We crossed the finish line together, gave each other a hug and a thank you for helping each other achieve our goals for this race.
Race Day Goal Results:
Surpassed – not only did I finish, but I also finished in 1 hour and 47 mins.
Since this first race, I have done many more. Some with more success and some with less. I credit the strength training and Pilates in combination with the running as being why I had such great success with my first half marathon. Other times I have tried to increase the number of runs that I do and for myself, I feel so much better with the cross training.
Have you ever thought that you might like to run a half marathon or marathon? For years I thought that 5 or 10 km runs were enough. Fast forward 15 years and I found myself committed to running my first half marathon and 2 years later a full marathon.
At that time, I had very little knowledge of what it took to train for a race. I just ran. My runner friends talked about fartleks, tempo runs, hill repeats, race pace. I had no idea what my race pace was. Everything I found for training had me running, running and doing more running.
My first goal:
Train to finish a half marathon. That’s all, just get across the finish line.
My second goal:
Fitting in all the running with my other fitness activities. At the time, I was teaching 10 hours of fitness and spin classes, plus another 10 hours of Pilates, plus strength training 2 or 3 times per week. Now, my running program was recommending that I run 5 days a week. Fitting it all in was challenging and I was feeling very tired and fatigued.
New goal:
Reduce fatigue and pain.
I knew that if I wanted to achieve my goal of finishing this run, I needed to get through the training healthy, and strong. My answer to this was:
- reduce my running
- keep up teaching because it was my job
- weight training twice a week
- PLUS I added in Pilates 2 or 3 times per week to help with mobility and flexibility.
I felt so much better. Pilates helped me to become much more aware of my body. My posture and breathing, how I would stand and hold my shoulders, how I moved when riding the spin bike, running or lifting weights. I started moving better and feeling much stronger.
New, new goal:
Set a time goal for this half marathon.
I had no idea how fast I could run 21.1 km so I took the average finish time is for women in my age category and deduct a bit of time. My finish time goal was 1hour 55mins. or faster.
Training goal achieved:
Race day arrived. I made it injury free. The combination of strength training, teaching and Pilates had me feeling stronger than I had in many years.
Race day goal:
Run fast, for 21.1km, try not to stop, finish in under 1 hour and 55 mins. I was feeling good about this.
Race day:
My running buddy hauls me up to the front of the second start corral even though I had myself slotted in the 4th corral. Eek! What was I getting myself into?
The gun went off and away we go, running way too fast. I started looking to find a person in the crowd that I can keep pace with. I picked this tall balding man that is easy to see amongst the other runners and just keep running. At 19 km I wasn’t sure how I was going to finish. I had now talked with the man I had been pacing with and he was encouraging me along. We crossed the finish line together, gave each other a hug and a thank you for helping each other achieve our goals for this race.
Race Day Goal Results:
Surpassed – not only did I finish, but I also finished in 1 hour and 47 mins.
Since this first race, I have done many more. Some with more success and some with less. I credit the strength training and Pilates in combination with the running as being why I had such great success with my first half marathon. Other times I have tried to increase the number of runs that I do and for myself, I feel so much better with the cross training.