Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: Creative Imagery and Visualization

Imagery and visualization are key components to Pilates Practice. It is amazing how much power lies in our metaphysical selves and it’s extremely beneficial when we are able to connect our bodies with our minds. The general perception is that the mind controls our body, but it’s more of a perfect marriage where each delivers benefits and support to the other. Neither is dominant. The body and mind are most powerful when they work together as equal partners.

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: Shoulder Stability & Mobility

Learning to focus on and work the shoulder area successfully can make a world of difference in how you look, feel and perform. The shoulder area is one of the most anatomically complex areas of the body and one that is prone to injury and dysfunction. It is also an area that we often neglect to take care of properly.

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: Spinal Strength & Mobility

None of us wants to move like a robot. We all strive to be graceful in our movement. But many of us find ourselves becoming extremely rigid as an outcome of the work we do in the gym. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those of us who are too flexible in the spine. In these cases, it's equally important to incorporate exercises that create strength and support.

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: Coordination & Rhythm

I am often amazed and delighted when I find myself watching my four- and six-year-old daughters move effortlessly, connected in a seamless and relaxed sequence. Something happens to most of us when we pass from early childhood into our years from about nine to twelve. We become hyperaware of ourselves. We learn to be careful. We hone that skill of embarrassment and we become afraid to move in that free way that comes so naturally to small children.

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: The Neutral Pelvis & Spine

When I lived in Venice, California, one of my favorite things to do was to walk to the busy Venice Beach Boardwalk, sit in my favorite café, and people watch. But my people-watching has what some may see as an odd twist!

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: Core Activation

In this article we will link all that we learned about the Breath to our Core musculature. This is the golden key to working from the inside out!

What it is: We hear so much in the gym and media about our Core Muscles and core stabilization, but not many of us know exactly what ‘core’ means. Most of us think that the abdominals are our core, which is part of the answer, but not the complete picture.

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates Foundations: The Breath

Anything that grows high has deep roots. In order to understand Pilates, it’s important to start with a solid foundation. In this and the following installments, I’ll take you through the basic building blocks of Pilates that need to be mastered before employing more complicated choreography (the fun stuff!). Today, we’re going to talk about the most important aspect of the Pilates foundation- the breath.

Fitness & Exercise

History of Pilates

To understand Pilates, it’s important to have a bit of a background on its creator, Joseph Hubertus Pilates. Pilates was about fifty years ahead of his time and did not enjoy financial success during his life and would not receive appreciation of his work until long after his death.

Fitness From The Inside Out

I have been in the professional fitness field for twenty years. My interest started, as it did for many of us who grew up in the 80’s, with aerobics, step aerobics, aerobics with weights, etc… etc… The perception then was that if you weren’t on the verge of passing out from pain and exhaustion at the end of the workout- then it wasn’t working. The goal was punish yourself to the point where you’d be too sore to walk for the next two days.