Envigour Pilates: Taster

Mental health affects so many people in so many different ways, and if we are not feeling physically well this certainly automatically affects our mental health too.  Physical activity plays a huge role in our lives, regardless of your fitness ability, age or background.

Our world is full of distractions, stresses and chaos. Each one of us is looking for a personal state of peace and tranquillity that would help us make sense of everything that is going on in our lives. When searching for that inner balance we usually consider popular self-improvement techniques like meditation, simplifying, affirmations etc. but we rarely consider any form of exercise as a viable tool to help us balance our lives when we should. Especially as it helps to assist in the treatment of depression and anxiety to. 

Pilates improves your memory as well and makes you smarter!  So, what is there not to like when it rebalances your physical, realigns your posture, builds your strength and increases your flexibility, allowing your body to function the way it was designed to.

Here are just three simple ways that Pilates can help. 

Using the Breath to Find Mindfulness in Movement.  The breath is one of the most powerful tools in calming the mind and is one of the 8 Principles of Pilates.  Every Pilates exercise involves a particular breathing pattern which improves the effectiveness of the exercise, helps to supply oxygen to the muscles, removes waste products and prevents you from holding your breath. In focusing on your breath, the brain is not able to compile that “to do” list or focus on the afternoon schedule of picking up the kids, getting to swimming practise or what to have for dinner! Instead, Pilates directs your focus inward for the duration of the class, focussing on the present, feeling the muscles work and reconnecting with your body.

Stress Management and Relaxation.  Pilates is also used widely as a way to reduce and cope with stress.  Pilates can reduce our ‘stress hormones’ like cortisol, and increase endorphins, your body’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals, giving your mood a natural boost”.  As a form of exercise, Pilates may also improve your ability to respond to and cope with stress, enhancing your stress resilience.

Improving Memory and Brain Training.  When performing automated forms of exercise such as running on a treadmill, the body may be working but the brain is not actively engaged. This may lead to increased risk of injury and reduced exercise benefits. Pilates requires you to recruit both your body and mind simultaneously. When we learn a new exercise or modification, it challenges the brain to learn a new skill, keeping the mind engaged at all times.

In addition to this, exercise pumps blood to the brain, which should make you think more clearly. It increases the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory. It also increases the connections between the nerve cells in the brain. This in turn improves your memory and helps protect your brain against injury and disease.

So now all you need to do is find a quiet space and enjoy this 30-minute Pilates routine to get you moving and experience the benefits of Pilates*.  Try and incorporate it three times a week and I promise you will notice the difference.  Why not come and join us live on-line via Zoom or even better, if you're local to Woodford we would love to see you in the studio.  Just for you we have a 15% discount for the months of October/November.   Just follow the link to our website to see what classes we have to offer.

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