Benefits of Pilates for women

What is Pilates?

It is a group exercise combining yoga, ballet, and calisthenics techniques. Pilates enhances flexibility and strength in all muscle groups in a balanced manner, primarily focusing on the core muscles. It also helps improve posture, balance ability, and body awareness.

These exercises began to appear in the nineteen twenties, when trainer Joseph Pilates realized the impact of modern life on the body, balance, flexibility, and overall health. Therefore, he worked to develop a set of exercises that help face these challenges and treat sports injuries suffered by athletes and artistic performers.

Pilates is characterized by its high degree of concentration and the ability to breathe in controlled patterns, as it works to move the muscle over a vast and precise range. It is a different workout as it does not exhaust the muscles nor cause excessive sweating; like high-impact exercises, it only requires high focus and repetition.

Pilates workouts can be modified to suit different health conditions, especially in the event of previous injuries, pregnancy, or recent childbirth.

Benefits of Pilates

1| Improves the strength of core muscles

Pilates focuses primarily on the core muscles, mainly the muscles in the abdominal area and the back. Strengthening these muscles helps reduce back pain problems many suffer from, mainly due to long office work or standing for continuous hours. These exercises also help obtain a flat belly.

2| Promotes correct posture

Because we hold our phones all the time and sit in front of computers and TV screens, we subconsciously hunch our backs and shoulders, Which causes neck pain and unhealthy posture. Pilates helps you sit and stand in a healthy position and fix your posture.

3| Reduces back pain

If we were to call one pain joint to all men, women, and young and older adults, it would be back pain. However, strengthening the core muscles, specifically the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles, greatly relieves back pain and even helps treat it permanently.

4| Increases energy

Pilates promotes deep, healthy breathing, which pumps the necessary oxygen to the brain and heart without the stress of intense exercise that causes fatigue. Therefore, those who practice Pilates feel a great boost of energy.

5| Reduces stress

These exercises help reduce levels of the hormone cortisol, which increases stress and leads to anxiety disorders.

6| Enhances flexibility

Pilates exercises increase the flexibility of large and small muscles, which is often neglected by other exercises. It also enhances mobility and improves flexibility.

7| Improves balance

Improving the body's balance and coordinating its movement are among the basics of Pilates. Due to repeating precise exercises slowly with deep breathing, the body's balance becomes much better.

8| Strengthens immunity

Several recent medical studies have shown that practicing Pilates enhances blood circulation. Which greatly supports the body's immunity.

9| Improves cognitive abilities

Recent studies and research have shown that people who practice Pilates regularly enjoy better memory, higher concentration levels, and overall cognitive abilities due to increased oxygen and improved blood circulation.

10| Improves sleep

Pilates increases the production of endorphins, improves mood and overall emotional well-being, and thus improves sleep quality, especially for women over forty.

Benefits of Pilates for women

1| Relieving menstrual pain

Perhaps this is one of the most important benefits of Pilates for girls and women. Several recent studies have shown that practicing Pilates regularly reduces the severity of menstrual pain.

2| Reducing symptoms of PMS

Women's health experts confirm that practicing this workout, especially in the days before menstruation, helps relieve symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, such as cramps, bloating, mood swings, irritability, and stress.

3| Improving sex drive

One of the most important benefits of Pilates for women is improving the strength of the pelvic floor muscles, which is essential for enhancing sexual pleasure in women. These exercises also play a crucial role in improving health, mood, and emotions, vital pillars in enhancing marital intimacy.

4| Enhancing fertility

The experience of one of the fertility centers in Australia showed that commitment to practicing Pilates for women undergoing fertility treatments increases the chances of pregnancy. This center includes exercises tailored for each woman to suit her age and condition. There is a group of exercises for each stage of fertility treatment, even after pregnancy.

5| Reducing the pain of childbirth and beyond

Pilates increases the flexibility of the pelvic floor muscles, which is critical to facilitating childbirth. Strengthening the core muscles makes labor and postpartum pain less severe for women. In addition, these exercises' cognitive and psychological benefits are essential for greatly enhancing women's health during pregnancy and postpartum. Especially since it is considered a safe exercise for pregnant and postpartum women, provided that the approval of the gynecologist is obtained. And exercise under the supervision of a specialized trainer.