Pilates: a method, a discipline to improve physical fitness

In recent years we have learned that the good habit of practicing regular and constant physical activity, accompanied by a correct and balanced diet, is the basis of a healthy and long-lived life. Every sport discipline has the characteristic of improving the general physical condition, preserving the body and the mind from many diseases, helping us daily in the fight against premature aging, obesity and all its complications. Through targeted and thoughtful choices also in relation to one's psycho-physical possibilities, one can therefore diversify the activity by optimizing the final result.

It is therefore possible to work specifically on cardiovascular health, weight loss, muscle toning, flexibility, fatigue resistance and more. Particularly named in recent years - thanks also to the success achieved among stars all over the world and in any case useful for posture health, while improving motor coordination, flexibility, tone and relaxing the mind from everyday stress - these are the activities "Holistic" recognized in sports environments as low-impact disciplines, that is those expressions of "moderate" physical movement that favor better control of the mind and body compared to other activities that are typically more lively. If you practice regularly they undoubtedly offer many personal satisfactions, in fact helping to build a lean, flexible and tonic body, they improve posture, breathing, coordination, teaching to relax the mind. The Pilates technique, for example, which has appeared for several decades now, which stands out for its tendency to enhance many of the aspects mentioned above, was initially intended to reinforce the musculature weakened by physical inactivity and the harsh period of history that was crossing the humanity. For a long time it also turned out to be a practice exclusively addressed to professional dancers, who included it in their training to strengthen and balance themselves muscularly. Later, thanks also to the good principles of the method, it began to be named and practiced also among the athletes of many other disciplines to increase the control and flexibility of their body, improving its awareness. The pilates technique today, revised, modernized and practiced everywhere with moderate success, is addressed to all those people who intend to move and acquire self-esteem through a new control of body and mind, or who simply want to recover their physical form and have at the time same a good line. The conscious and constant practice of this physical activity, like the application of other very similar ones, therefore helps to restore many psycho-physical balances that are very important for our general health. However, it is equally evident to recognize that these disciplines are not a physical exercise particularly suited to those people who seek weight loss in their main objective. It may be perceptible, and is often reaffirmed in the context of the information provided in reference to Pilates, that over time there may be an improvement in the line contextually to the work of the " core " and of all those muscles stationed in the pelvic floor, taking into account that through their constant and continuous activation we can perceive a flattening of the belly, making us apparently more "slim"; however, weight loss depends solely on proper nutrition in a controlled diet, accompanied by physical activity that emphasizes control of energy systems and their multiple functions. Therefore to think of being able to lose weight through a physical activity of this type, surely born for other purposes "the improvement of some resources of our body", is quite improbable. It is better to realize, for physical and mental well-being, a final product that possibly combines Pilates or a similar activity with elegant and particularly beautiful movements to perform, to a workout that values ​​the moderate cardiovascular aerobic activity differently. If we think therefore that the athletic gesture and the sport in general must seek, value and always create positive and lasting effects in the daily life of each of us, and the goal that we have set ourselves to achieve has different purposes, without any doubt an approach varied and global in our daily physical activity will surely be the most effective way to constantly improve our well-being and general health.