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What
is Pilates
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The
human body has an ideal alignment, or good posture, at rest,
in motion and at work. The benefits of keeping a good posture
are many, from eliminating back pain to slimming down the waist
line.
Good posture is simply the right series of muscles working together
to hold up the skeleton in its optimal axial elongation. But
which ones? Interestingly enough, many key muscle groups holding
up your spine are not the big dynamic ones such as biceps and
quadriceps. Many of these posture specific muscles or core muscles
such as the tranversus abdominis are located close to the spine.
In many people, these muscle groups don't get the exercise they
need so they become weak, stiff and don't do a very good job
at holding up the skeleton. Even a good Nautilus style work
out won't do much for these muscles since these exercises are
designed to work on your dynamic muscles.
Pilates gently strengthens and stretches all the muscles of
your body, especially the often neglected core muscle groups
and effectively works at re-educating damaged muscles. It is
therefore not surprising to see professional athletes such as
Olympic gold medalist mogul skier Jennifer Heil and world champion
boxer Lucian Bute adopting Pilates as part of their fitness
programs. The Canadian Synchronized swimming team has incorporated
Pilates to its training regimen in October 2010 to help the
swimmers win the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympic games.
At the Ann McMillan Pilates we help you become aware of your
body's structure in a very simple and subtle way. We position
your head, shoulders, hips, etc. in such a way as to have all
the parts correctly aligned in an optimal axial elongation.
This results in minimal mechanical stress and better use of
the spine's natural ability to safely absorb pressure and shocks.
Many people find it hard to keep the position, it can be so
hard as to feel unnatural, however, it is both natural and much
desired. Often the difficulty lies with weak and stiff core
muscles which can't do a good job of holding up their part of
the skeleton. For others it could be the aftermath of an injury.
However, once properly trained these muscle groups vigorously
support the hips, spine, shoulders and head such as to make
good posture feel comfortable and natural.
We take great pleasure in explaining all of this with the help
of T-bone, our laboratory skeleton.
We assess your posture, flexibility and abdominal strength and
design a specific program based on your needs. All Ann McMillan
(AMP) instructors are university graduates in exercise science
or related fields and master over 500 different exercises of
the AMP circuit: reformer (pictured), cadillac, chair, lader-barrel,
small barrels and small apparatus.
They will teach and help you master the apparatus and the exercises
in your program. They note your progress in your AMP file, our
unique follow up and profiling system that contains all the
necessary information for your training or re-education.
This method assures you of a highly effective and safe training
program while helping you get the most out of each of your appointments.
It is this knowledge of the human body in motion coupled with
the grace and fluidity of Pilates that make it both a science
and an art.
For more details and to register, call Francine during the day,
Nathalie in the evening at 514-735-9506.
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| ©
2011 Ann McMillan Pilates |
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