Pilates at Target Active Fitness
Pilates is hot in the fitness world, with many celebs showing their toned bodies as a result or regular Pilates sessions. And we are providing it to you at Target Active Fitness!
Based in our back-room studio, our fabulous mat-based Pilates class will increase your strength, flexibility, balance, posture, aid pain and stress relief and improve your mental well-being.
Due to the low-intensity of Pilates, it is accessible to all ages and fitness levels and is suitable for beginners and those with health conditions such as arthritis. Using a combination of repetitive exercises you can adapt the movements for gentle strength training for rehabilitation purposes or for a more strenuous workout that’s vigorous enough to challenge regular gym-goers.
The class involves precise movements, controlled breathing and muscle engagement. Come along and have a go!
Focus on precision and control through breathing techniques.
Pull out your gym mat and get ready to do a series of movements that will stabilise and strengthen your core.
While the movements look and sound like they should be simple, they take a lot of precision and control, with a strong emphasis on technique. Finding that your limbs start shaking is a normal part of Pilates! The subtle movements lead to a demanding workout, but not one that works up a sweat. It’s about concentration and breathing techniques to get you through while you build strength and stamina.
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The benefits Pilates can bring
Pilates can be used to aide rehabilitation, prevent injury, and for overall health and fitness. You can adapt the session to be gentle or strenuous, depending on your needs.
Physical benefits:
- Improved flexibility: Pilates can help you increase your flexibility, especially in your hips, lower back, and core.
- Increased strength: Pilates can help you build strength and tone in your core muscles, including your glutes, buttocks, and lower back.
- Improved balance and coordination: Pilates can help you improve your balance and coordination.
- Improved posture: Pilates can help you improve your posture and spine stabilisation.
- Pain relief: Pilates can help relieve pain, especially in your lower back through gentle movements.
- Improved breathing: Pilates can help you improve your breathing and circulation.
- Improved body awareness: Pilates can help you become more aware of your body, which can help you avoid injury and move more effectively.
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Mental health benefits
Pilates requires you to simultaneously connect your body and mind, using breath work to move through the exercises. we learn a new exercise or modification, it challenges the brain to learn a new skill, keeping the mind engaged at all times.he practise of Yoga has been proven to improve your mental health, by reducing stress, increasing feelings of calm, and improving concentration. It can also help with anxiety, depression and PTSD.
How Yoga helps with mental health:
- Learn new skills: When we learn a new exercise or modification, it challenges our brains to learn a new skill, keeping the mind engaged.
- Relieve tension: The gradual stretches and conditioning involved in a Pilates class help to relieve tension built up in the muscles and the mind.
- Stress management: Pilates can help you cope with stress and anger by reducing stress hormones like cortisol and increasing feel-good hormones like dopamine and endorphins.
- Improved breathing: Pilates focuses on breathwork, which can help you oxygenate your muscles and organs.
- Improved cognitive functioning: Pilates can improve your memory and learning capacity by increasing neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells.
- Increased energy: Pilates can increase your energy levels by improving your cardiorespiratory capacity and stimulating the production of feel-good hormones. Making you motivated to come back.
- Improved body awareness and confidence: Pilates can help you become more aware of your body, which can help you avoid injury and move more effectively. Resulting in you growing in confidence.
- Improved sleep: Pilates can help you relax and fall asleep by reducing stress and improving concentration.
These are just some of the benefits. Come along to a Target Active Fitness Pilates class as part of your routine and start your journey to a better you.
