Pilates for Weight Loss

   Pilates has many benefits (and I'm not just saying this because I'm a Pilates Instructor). It develops your Core Strength, helps improve your Posture and Flexibility, helps develop body awareness. It's a way of developing lean muscle mass (think dancers bodies) without getting bulked up. And despite what many people think, it is the perfect form of exercise for anyone of any age and any fitness level.
   A key component to my own personal weight loss was starting with a Pilates fitness routine twice a week. Here's how it helped me.

1. It helped me develop Body Awareness. This term gets thrown around a great deal, but essentially it means to understand/feel/sense what is going on with your body. If you're performing an exercise, but can't tell if you're doing it correctly, you probably haven't developed a great sense of body awareness. The more aware of what you're body can do, the more you will be able to take control of your body and make it do what you want it to.
2. It helped me develop Core Strength and overall muscle strength gradually. When I first started Pilates, I was extremely out of shape. I could only do the very basic level of exercises. But with time, practice and a few modifications, I was able to gradually get stronger. 
3. It improved my posture. This may not seem important, but my body position or "posture" was so out of alignment, that if I had begun an exercise program without learning to correct this, I would have place undue pressure on my joints. If you learn to keep your body in alignment, the joints are better able to absorb the pressure of any movement better. If your body isn't in alignment, then you are putting more pressure on one joint than another. You also could be tightening some muscles and over stretching others. 
4. I learned to breathe. Most Americans are shallow breathers. At it's very basic level, if you're not taking in enough oxygen, it's going to make exercising harder. It also means many people hold alot of stress and tension in different parts of their bodies. When I took up running, I realized part of the way through my first run, that I didn't have to focus on breathing. My breathing was rhythmic, it was consistent, and it was easy. All I had to do was focus on conditioning my muscles for running. 

   If I combine all of these points together, I developed stronger muscles, better posture, the ability to breathe and more body awareness. All of these tools helped me be more in control of my body and more confident to try new forms of exercises I began the weight loss process. We all feel self conscious at times. It's important to begin to do a few small things that will help improve our physical strength, how we look ourselves and give us the confidence to try new things.