1351 Oliver Road, Fairfield, CA 94534, US
What is Pilates?
Developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century, Pilates is a system of exercise that offers a full and complete workout for the entire body. Pilates instruction focuses on basic principles of breathing, centering, control, concentration, precision, and flow. Rather than exercising just the primary muscle groups, Pilates exercises all muscles, including weaker and less used muscles. As a result of this whole body focus, practicing Pilates on a regular basis will improve strength, flexibility, balance, posture, and ease of movement. These benefits are available to participants regardless of age or gender.
What is a Reformer?
Reformers are by far the most popular piece of Pilates equipment. The unique spring resistance of the machine helps generate smooth muscular contractions that develop strength without bulk. These muscles are less prone to injury. With its springs and ropes, a reformer provides both resistance and assistance to exercises. This expands the variety of exercises you can do and allows them to be easier or more difficult, depending on your needs.
What should I wear?
We recommend you wear comfortable, yet form-fitting exercise clothes. That way we can make sure you are performing the exercises in the proper alignment. You may exercise in either your bare feet or non-skid socks.
Will doing Pilates help me lose weight?
Pilates workouts focus primarily on increasing strength and flexibility and are not usually done as a form of cardio/aerobic exercise, which is more effective at burning calories and, therefore, enhancing weight loss. There are, however, some benefits from Pilates that support weight loss. For example, Pilates exercises create lean muscle mass, which increases the body’s calorie-burning potential. Pilates also promotes efficient respiration, which is essential for calorie burning and tissue regeneration. Finally, correctly performed, Pilates exercises result in improved posture, which can leave you looking longer and leaner. So, if you are looking to lose weight, combining Pilates with aerobic/cardio exercise will help you maximize weight loss.
Why do you require private sessions for people who are new to or have limited background in Pilates?
There are a number of reasons why we believe it is important for new students to participate in private instruction prior to beginning group classes. Private sessions provide us the opportunity to determine your personal alignment issues, strengths and weaknesses, and whether you will need modifications in order to benefit from group instruction. Your first few sessions are also important to give you a basic foundation of the Pilates principles, safe use of the equipment, correct form, and careful progression of the exercises.
A lot of crucial information will be covered in your initial sessions. This information includes the concepts of breathing, spine placement, and stabilization of the pelvis, scapula (shoulder) and cervical (neck) joints as well as the ribcage. In addition to these concepts, you will learn about spinal articulation and about the activation your deep stabilizing muscles, which include the pelvic floor, transversus abdominis and multifidus muscles. The instruction will also introduce you to the exercises and teach you to intentionally coordinate the movements in each exercise. An understanding of these concepts will allow you maximize your progress in group classes and maintain the flow of the class.
Pilates is not like other forms of exercise, and we feel confident that our clients will appreciate and benefit from the investment in initial private instruction sessions.