Joseph Pilates created the 34-exercise routine, Pilates, to help dancers who experienced overuse injuries after training. He was able to help them avoid further injuries by showing them how to strengthen core muscle groups. Since its inception, Pilates (the exercise) has become very popular, trending and slowing down throughout the years.
In 2022, Pilates is seeing a new resurgence in interest. Considered a total body workout, Pilates refers to exercises that form controlled movements that flow into one another. The idea is to control one’s movements and rely on stability to move the arms, legs, and extremities. The exercise focuses on strengthening the abdomen, inner thigh muscles, hip muscles, lower/upper muscles, and gluteal muscles (the core muscle groups).
While the exercise is widely-known for strengthening the core, some experts attribute its popularity in 2022 to providing participants with a way to destress. More importantly, it provides them with a way to destress and get a good workout using low-impact exercises.
Coping with the Covid-19 pandemic was stressful for many people, but Pilates provided people who exercised at the gym with a way to do so at home when stay-at-home orders were in place. The exercises’ low-impact, controlled movements provided participants with a more subdued workout. Some who practiced Pilates have replaced high-impact workouts (for example, High-Intensity Interval Training) with this exercise. They report that the former gives them just as good a workout as the latter.
According to a February 2021 article in the online publication Body + Soul, sweating and being fatigued to exhaustion after a workout is not necessarily a key to becoming fit. Alternatively, Pilates offers participants a workout that challenges the person differently than doing a cardio-intense workout. Moreover, it involves activating muscles one does not even know exist and sweating like when involved in high-impact exercises.
With that said, doing Pilates offers participants numerous benefits, namely improving one’s posture. With an improved posture, a person relieves tension in the back, shoulders, and legs resulting from everyday routines. For people who work at a desk all day, these exercises can be the remedy for desk postures that cause tension and pain.
Pilates can also reduce injury because it is a cross-training exercise. Cross-training contributes to injury prevention because a person uses different muscles by avoiding repetitive movements using the same muscles. The exercises are varied and provide the participant with improved strength and flexibility, qualities that help prevent injuries.
Further, in Pilates, the body is the primary means of exercise, requiring the person to work within their limits. Combined with breathing exercises, a Pilates session encourages mindfulness, making the person more aware of their own body, strengths, and limitations.
Of course, an added benefit is that Pilates does not require equipment. While Pilates studios have a range of equipment (reformers) used to maximize the workout, one only needs a mat to do these exercises. A February 2022 Houston Methodist Leading Medicine health article advises beginners (with financial resources) to start on reformers because the machines support stabilizing muscle groups while working on core muscle groups. However, once feeling a bit more confident, the online landscape is full of classes where a beginner with a mat and a good internet connection can work out.
