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Have Fun With Pilates” Yes You Can Lose Weight And Have Fun With Pilates Pilates has taken the fitness world by storm over the last couple of years. It's been talked about in the media by celebrities, athletes, and even exercise equipment based on it have been developed along with pilates studios opening up. But is pilates really effective and can you lose weight with it? The answer is an astounding yes. The exercises were developed by Joseph Pilates and is largely based on yoga. It involves the isolation and stretching of your individual muscles with the core of your body. Rather than focus on mass and muscle, pilates is a different set of exercises which improve your flexibility, strength and balance. The Best Part About Pilates Is... While pilates doesn't burn as much calories as you would jogging, pilates helps you sculpt and maintain lean muscle. It's a great alternative to using free weights and machines in the gym. You basically use your own body weight and use your major muscles groups in slow movements, stretching your body which consequently also improves your posture. So if you enjoy yoga but want something that also builds strength and tones your body, pilates is a great program to start. Exercises That Target Multiple Muscle Groups Again, the focus of pilates is the core strength and torso centered movement. That's why unlike weight lifting, you'll involve your whole body in most exercises instead of isolating only your arms or legs in one exercise. This is a fun dynamic way of exercise which can give you alot of variety and flexibility in your workouts. Usually the exercises are done on a mat but now many professionals use pulleys and resistance to make it more challenging. One popular machine that uses resistance is called the reformer. It uses a pulley system and slide that gives you many different movements and provides you extra resistance for a better workout. It's a great machine that can fit under your bed or closet space. However, you should probably give pilates a good long try to make sure it's something you'll enjoy before you go out and make an investment in this machine. Reshaping Your Whole Body As you stay committed to pilates and continue to do the exercises, you'll begin to notice that these exercises not only help you lose weight but also helps reshape your whole body. This is because the exercises are centered in your abdomen so the hips, thighs and waist are usually targeted. These are the areas most people have trouble with and the exercises will help tone and define these areas. That's the very reason why pilates has been raved about in the media. Amazing results have been had by many pilates users who previously tried everything dieting and exercising to get rid of those trouble areas. But if you're one of many dieters who has alot of unwanted weight, pilates alone is not the answer. You'll still need to eat right and stay committed to the exercises on a regular schedule. I recommend that you follow a cardio program like jogging to assist your fat loss. The job of cardio will be burn the calories while pilates will tone and define your trouble spots. Many people focus on cardio alone only to lose weight and still have trouble targeting the waist, hips and thighs. So whether you want to sculpt your body or lose weight, pilates is a great fun alternative to lifting the weights at the gym or doing aerobics. It'll give you the lean, tone figure most people are looking for in a weight loss program. |