Rapid Rehab LA Pilates Based Physical Therapy Brentwood California

Pilates and pregnancy have developed a very effective working relationship over the years. Women, physicians and trainers can attest to the benefits from Pilates that can be found during and after their pregnancy.

Pilates strengthens the body in slow and controlled movements while encouraging gentle toning. Pilates is known for ushering in the benefits of relaxation through breathing techniques and proper body alignment.

This connects the mother to the child in an intrinsic natural manner. The core, or the “powerhouse” of the body, includes the abdomen, the back, and the floor muscles (which include the Kegel muscles). These areas during pregnancy will be under the most stress during the delivery, and Pilates taps into the strength potential within the body.

Pilates alleviates some of the pain of childbirth, by training the body to use its core strength effectively and safely. Not to mention it is a great way to reintroduce exercise into a new mom’s schedule and allows for an excellent way to get back into shape after birth, without the high impact or weight resistance methods of more conventional training.

When choosing to continue to include Pilates in your prenatal regime, be sure to consult with your physician first. After permission is granted, feel free to continue safely into prenatal Pilates, but this is a step that cannot be overlooked.  For you and your babies safety it is HIGHLY recommended that woman be previously doing pilates training before pregnancy.  Some of the exercises may become uncomfortable, since they are performed on the back, but there are modifications that can be made as the pregnancy progresses to enable a comfortable and calming environment.

Also a condition called “diastasis” may occur later in the pregnancy, which is when the abdomen separates, if this does occur extra special attention must be paid to further modification of your Pilates regime, or it may need to be discontinued until after baby is born.

Since there are many hormonal changes that occur in the women’s body during pregnancy, heightened body awareness will need to be strictly paid attention to. Some of the poses, movements, or machine work that you may have been able to perform few weeks ago will not be executed with such ease. This is simply because the body is changing and sending signals to the areas of the body that need to be treated with care.

Also, ligaments and tendons become more pliable as the pregnancy progresses to prepare the body for birth. Since deep stretching is a building block of Pilates training one must be sure not to stretch too much and keep their safety, as well as the baby’s, forefront in their physical training agenda.

The benefits of Pilates during pregnancy are numerous, it will increase the circulatory blood flow to the body, which is imperative to the healthy development of your child, it will make delivery and recovery easier, and it will connect the mind to the body. The most important part of pregnancy is staying healthy, Pilates creates that healthy environment for you to relax and enjoy the beautiful evolution of woman to mother.

Controversy has surrounded the certification process of Pilates Method instructors ever since Joseph Pilates himself began training students. It wasn’t until the year 2000, when the trademark exclusivity of the Pilates name was lifted, and then Pilates became a term that could be used as loosely or as appropriately as desired.

The good news about the trademark dissipation was that it benefited trainers who had been teaching Pilates for years and were highly qualified in their field. They could finally attach the highly refutable term to their work. Up until that point, qualified trainers have had to use a variation of the word Pilates, such as Pilates-based, or Pilates-inspired to describe what they teach.

Also, in recent years the PMA (Pilates Method Association) has begun development on a standardized test, which has been put in place to protect the public from under qualified Pilates trainers. The National Commission for Certifying Agencies has guidelines, which acted as the blueprint for the newly formed Pilates certification exams.

This was issued from the PMA in their mission statement: “The PMA has established recommended industry performance parameters guiding the practice of all PMA Certified and non-certified Pilates teachers. The PMA has established these standards to further bring professionalism to Pilates.”

However, the downside to the new liberty with which Pilates is used, is that there are Pilates instructors who claim to be teaching the “whole-body connection”, but their methods are fleeced with inaccuracies and lack proper Pilates education. Because the term Pilates is now used so freely, which does unfortunately include Pilates imposters, it makes it that much more important for an individual to do extensive research before choosing which studio and trainer to practice Pilates with.

There are a serious of questions that a new Pilates client should feel at absolute liberty in asking. Questions such as: Where did you study Pilates? How were you certified and by what association? How long have you been certified? How long did you study to become a Pilates trainer? How many hours have you accumulated towards your Pilates in-field knowledge? Do you have liability insurance? What is your teaching philosophy? Is there any type of client, injured or healthy, that you will not train? Can you shadow while the trainer is with another client?

These questions are absolutely necessary in defining the parameters of a Pilates instructor’s abilities and knowledge. In addition it can fast track an honest and open relationship with your trainer.

Since Pilates is such a balance of body awareness and physical empowerment, a trainer will need to have the same mental approach to health that you have or would like to have. Each Pilates instructor may have a different reason as to why they decided to teach holistic healing, and that will be an important conversation to have with your potential instructor.

Once you can better access what you stand to gain from training and what to expect from Pilates itself, the better the results and experience will be. The PMA has a website where you can search for certified personal trainers in your area: www.pmapilatescertified.com

In traditional gym environments you will typically overhear trainers tell their clients to focus on the muscles they are using. During a bicep curl, when you focus on using the bicep muscle only, more muscle fibers are called into action within that muscle.

The same principle can be applied during Pilates when developing the mind-body connection. However with Pilates instead of just strengthening one small muscle in your body at a time, you are lengthening and strengthening the entire body simultaneously. The focus shifts from, “work harder”, “do more reps” to “work smarter” and “take deep breaths.”

When explaining this phenomenon, Joseph Pilates said, “One of the major results of…(mind-body exercise), is the mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body.” The purpose of exercise needs to be acknowledged before the results will appear. By gaining control over all of your muscles at once, an entirely new level of balance, flexibility, and core strength is developed. Focus and centering oneself, will create the proper alignment, form, as well as safe and effective body positioning needed to tap into the core’s powerhouse.

Stress, however, is one of the main antagonists for those wishing to develop their own mind-body connection. Our thoughts run wild through the weeds of daily responsibility. Going to work, picking up the kids, making the meals, paying the bills on time, and any and all types of unforeseen change can wear down sensitivity to our body’s needs.

Stress management is oftentimes curbed by medication, but in a culture that tends to rely on outside influences to change internal issues, a holistic approach to stress management is another alternative.

Pilates offers a unique platform for quieting the inner rooms of busyness, and cleaning out the clutter of distraction. As Americans, we pride ourselves on being able to handle it all, work long hours, and slave away at the gym, all while trying to maintain a family unit.

We pump our fists in the air while guzzling down our triple latte’s and call it “doing it all”. But we are really running ourselves ragged, fueled on by caffeine and adrenaline. Stress develops within the body, when the mind begins to feel the wear and tear of overactive living.

Very rarely do we listen to our own breathing long enough to realize the importance of oxygen integration in the blood. With Pilates, the deep breathing patterns enable more oxygen to be released into the blood, and the ability to think clearer, do more, and feel more energized is increased.

Quieting the restlessness in our lives for just one hour can have exceptional, long-term benefits. In addition to low impact cardio, such as swimming, bicycling, and walking, Pilates can create that outlet for stress management. Our bodies crave to be active.

They desire to be one with our thoughts. If you can visualize where you want to be, your body will follow suit. Not only will you develop a long, lean healthy physique, but also you will develop a peace of mind that will surpass stress and improve your quality of life.

“Physical fitness is the first requisite to happiness.” Joseph Pilates made this statement in his Pilates handbook, Return to Life Through Controlology in 1945. What he may or may have not known when he first started developing Pilates is that the mind-body connection in conjunction with over-all wellness has been studied and practiced for centuries by different cultures all throughout the world.

Joseph Pilates had stumbled upon a treasure trove of methods in which he was gaining an understanding and developing a practical structure for study through his rehabilitative practice, Pilates.

Eastern meditation methodology as well as western approaches to wellness, such as Greco-Roman practices, all drew the same conclusions about the mind body connection: there is power when behavioral patterns and thought patterns coincide with a common goal, wellness. Concentration on the development of the mind-body connection yields numerous benefits, and Joseph Pilates himself knew this firsthand.

Far too often in this day and age our mind and our movements have separate existences, severing the unity of consciousness. We get up and go to work. We move throughout our day without much concentrated efforts on our movements and body positioning.

Our posture deteriorates at our desks, as we slouch into our chairs. Our core never feels engaged, making our mind seem detached from our body. Lethargy will then begin to dictate our lifestyle instead of the mind’s capacity for vitality being the headship of our bodies. When the mind and body become separate entities, a loss of grounding and centering takes place, which can lead to depression, sleep depravation, and even bodily injury.

The simple phrase, “mind-body connection” can send some of us into a mental back flip. What does it mean to engage our thoughts with our bodies, isn’t that a natural connection? When I need to do something I tell my body to do it, and so it does. However, a simple demand and result relationship between the body and the mind develops a breach of understanding between the two, sacrificing unity and implementing dictatorship.

Our thoughts directly affect our moods, social behaviors, the way we carry ourselves, and where we end up in the spectrum of healthy living. Some people are married to their counter-productive thought patterns making healthful living something they believe they cannot physically do.

When the mind is conditioned to think it cannot accomplish something, the body responds accordingly. But think how greatly the body would be positively affected if the tides of negative mind-body connection communication could be swayed. What a powerful portal of energy, dedication, and healthy living could be found.

Our will to engage in complete body awareness begins in the mind, and Pilates encourages this type of mental “tapping”. Conscious control of the body is found through deep breathing patterns while incorporating the fluidity of Pilates’ movements.

The natural gliding exemplar and exercises found in mat and machine Pilates instigates the groundwork needed to develop your own mind-body connection. Once you learn the basics of how to sew together the gaping space between the mind and the body, you will be able to engage this dynamic tool whenever you need to, whether its in a Pilates studio or elsewhere.