Pilates is a full-body conditioning and rehabilitation program using the best of many exercise methods. The teachers choose from a collection of exercises that work and coordinate all the muscle groups of your body. It’s fun and varied, both challenging and easy, flowing and focused. Pilates is known for developing lean strong balanced bodies no matter your age, weight or physical condition.

Working out in a gym, with weights and equipment using weights, develops strength with bulk rather than the long lean strength developed by practicing Pilates. Cardiovascular workouts are a good adjunct exercise to increase circulation and promote the elimination of waste products from the lymph system through the pores of the skin by perspiring. In Pilates and Yoga, wastes are eliminated from the blood through the lungs with deep breathing routines.

Stress reduction is a side benefit of Pilates as it is in Yoga. Breathing and concentration are important in both. The centering and precision required by the exercises breaks negative thought patterns that produce stress hormones, so you feel happier!

Improving your health and immunity is another unexpected side benefit of Pilates. When done in combination with nutritional therapies and a healthy diet, each becomes more effective than when done alone. Pilates promotes the circulation of blood and energy that increases vitality, delivers oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removes or neutralizes the waste products and free radicals that cause pain and disease.

Physical fitness, in the words of Joseph H. Pilates, is “the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.” Fitness is more than strength.