What can Pilates and yoga do for you?

There is no doubt that HIIT sessions, lifting weights or pounding the pavement can give you fast results… but high intensity exercise can sometimes lead to burnout and injury. If slogging it out in the gym has left you feeling sore or you are starting to search for excuses to give it a miss, you may have lost your workout mojo.

Both Pilates and yoga could be the missing piece of the puzzle to get you back on track and help you fall back in love with exercise all over again (or even for the first time)!

So, what exactly can Pilates and yoga do for you? Here are just a few of our favourite benefits…

Learn how to breathe

We live in a fast-paced world that champions “busy”. If you are racing to keep up with your jam-packed schedule, you may not be pausing for breath – literally. When we are stressed we tend to have shallow breathing, which in turn increases the tension and stress in our bodies.

Take a moment now to check in on your breathing – is your belly rising and falling with each breath? If not, then take a few more moments to find your full breath.

At Balanze, our instructors will teach you how to breathe fully at rest and how to use your breath to give you both strength and stamina during your workouts. Not only will breathing properly relax your body and power your workouts, it is also essential for focusing your mind. 

Get mindful

Did you know that yoga poses are a relatively new concept, with Asana as we know it being introduced in the 1920’s? Prior to this, yoga was simply meditation. This is why being aware of your thoughts and reactions every time you step onto the mat or reformer is still such a central part of every session.

With a lot of other exercise, you might rush through or even critique yourself along the way. During yoga and pilates, you will be encouraged to be mindful of how you are feeling, then to set an intention for the class and the challenges ahead and align your movement with this.

The positive changes you make on the mat or the reformer can boost your confidence and flow through to positive changes in your life.

Undo the effects of sitting

Sitting is sometimes referred to as the new smoking, based on the negative impact that long periods of sitting can have on our bodies. Being glued to the office chair can cause your glutes to ‘sleep’ and your hip flexors to get stuck in a short position. This is exacerbated if you hunch forward, as your pecs tighten and your head is forward, pulling the back of your body long and leading to back pain, neck pain, headaches or even migraines.

Balanze classes can help to strengthen your weaker muscles such as your glutes (added bonus is a toned behind!) and stretch the front side of your body including your hip flexors. Pilates in particular is ideal to help counter these muscle imbalances.

This will enhance all of your movements and can help to alleviate pain.

Manage muscle pain

Have you found that stretching gives you short term relief, only to have the discomfort return before long?

Stretching alone is not enough for sore muscles. This is because there is a difference between a tight muscle and a weak muscle. You may think that a persistent niggle in your upper back between your shoulders is due to a tight muscle and that stretching will solve this. However, if you tend to slouch, your upper back muscles are long and may actually be weak.

For a longer term solution, you need to strengthen your back muscles – and exercises such as arm work on the pilates reformer are ideal for this.

Boost your strength

So, you run, cycle or swim but have begun to notice niggles? This could be a result of these exercises focusing on movements in the sagitall plane (forward and back). What could be missing from your exercise routine is rotating, laterally flexing and building up your supporting muscle groups.

The pilates method in particular is all about working your body in a variety of planes and orientations to strengthen your whole body.

Pilates and yoga can give you the perfect balance of mindfulness, stretching, strengthening and toning to boost not only your body but your confidence. If you are ready to discover the benefits for yourself, join us in the studio.