Pilates and Weight Loss Tips

Pilates is an exercise and conditioning method developed by Joseph Pilates back in the early part of the 19th century. Pilates is unique in two ways, it's based on exercise that is designed to improve your health and uses a flexible system for different exercises that can be constantly modified in difficulty as the student increases their abilities.

Early on Pilates was taught by the original students of Joseph who became experts and were involved with professional dancing. These first students became known as Elders and went on to open their own specialized studios. Pilates exercise routines put the emphasis on the spinal and pelvic area alignment, with breathing techniques to help relieve stress and increase oxygen flow to muscles. These types of exercises are designed to develop a strong core or center of the body. They addresses multiple muscles groups that are related like abdominal and back for improving coordination and balance.

Most Pilates instructors in modern days concentrate on a few “core” areas and ideas which are named basic principles. Different Pilates methods usually involve the core areas with a slightly different principles like these:

• Breathing
• Pelvic area
• Rib cage area
• Scapular area and movement
• Head and cervical area 

There are two common areas of practive, traditional and modern. These two teaching methods differ slightly and may be oriented more by the instructor and special areas of interest. Two new popular derivatives are Stott Pilates and the Menezes Method.

Since Pilates has exploded in popularity in the last few years, the amount of instructors has too. One thing to definitely check out before attending any Palites classes is the instructors area of experience and knowledge. There are Pilates schools and many quick certifications that may not fully teach proper techniques. Like any specialty exercise routine there are important safety procedures and equipment that you need to be aware of before you start any class.

Most people start out with the Mat work due to the ability to concentrate on the basics and not learn any new exercise equipment. This enables the new student to practice at home and proceed at their own speed. When you have a firm understanding of the basics, many students then move to the common Pilates equipment used for more advanced techniques like the reformer. The reformer comes in many different shapes but the key to any reformer is to

provide cardio in a low impact method that is also gentle on your joints. But regardless of what kind of equipment you choose to start with, make sure you get adequate training.

Will Pilates exercise make you lose weight faster? Probably not based on the several studies I've read on the calorie burn rate. There are three levels of Pilates, beginner - intermediate - advanced. Calorie hourly burn rate levels are approximately 240, 340, and 420 respectively. Those numbers land right in the middle of most popular exercise methods. So as far as the calorie burn rate, there's is nothing spectacular. 

But there are many well known benefits from Pilates that still may be very attractive to anyone who wants to get healthy exercise and improve muscle tone and fitness. Ask any Pilates instructor and they will tell you that Pilates is not designed to help you lose weight, although like any good exercise routine it can contribute. Pilates does concentrate on the abdomen (one of the core areas) and can help you strengthen your stomach muscles and improve the muscle tone.

In fact one of the biggest attractions for many people is the well know ability to help flatten and actuate your stomach area and abs. These are very desirable attributes for both men and women. And this one aspect probably represents about 75% of the participants of Pilates. They want those flat stomachs and well defined abdominal muscles. 

But as a weight loss factor it is no better than any other exercise that produces similar caloric burn rates. Many athletes swear by Pilates and feel it's a good way to improve at their given sports. That's why so many dancers were attracted to Pilates back in the beginning of development. Pilates got a huge bump in public relations back in 2007 when in an interview with Tiger Woods he mentioned it as one of his best exercise routines to improve his golf game. Golfers ran to the nearest Pilates class so they too could play golf like Tiger Woods.