Ever heard of “your core” or “core strengthening?”

That is the main focus of a Pilates-based exercise program. Your “core” includes all the muscles and supporting structures located in the lumbar spine, hips, and pelvis. It is essentially the core of your entire body and supports the movements in your arms, legs and neck.

Core strength is extremely important because all of our basic movements stem from this area. We rely on it for everyday activities and physical ones, such as sports.

Why Choose Pilates as a Treatment Option?

An efficient core is a strong core. A “weak” core can lead to inefficient patterns of movement or will cause other muscles to “compensate” for the weak ones, resulting in more injuries, additional stresses on the body and a drain of energy as your body tries to compensate.

Pilates helps to strengthen the core and leads to greater coordination, endurance and flexibility throughout the body. It teaches us how to effectively transfer energy between the muscle groups, so that movement is efficient, easy and with less strain on your supporting bone structure.

A strong core is fundamental to proper posture, alignment and safe movement. And one of the benefits of Pilates exercises is that is it highly adaptable to every age and level of ability. You don’t have to be an athlete to practice it. Whether you want to simply tone your muscles, improve flexibility, balance or work on supporting and strengthening your body for your daily routines, a Pilates-based program can be tailored to every level and goal.

Why do some people simply love Pilates?

It’s a more therapeutic, holistic form of exercise than regular gym workouts. It also involves the exploration of the “mind-body connection” through exercises that cause you to concentrate on certain areas of the body, along with exploring breath, posture and improving circulation to the internal organs.

And a Pilates regimen can be practiced by all levels. It can be done throughout pregnancy. Its low impact exercises are easy on the joints and muscles and is gentle enough for clients of all abilities. It helps rehabilitate injuries. It can increase your stamina and endurance if you’re on your feet all day. It’s also a great reliever of back pain and many of our clients have found its effects to be quite beneficial for the lower lumbar area. Pilates can be tailored to optimize sport-specific performance too!

FITNESS – FOCUSED

For those who want to condition their bodies overall or are looking for more sport-specific benefits. Our Fitness Pilates classes come in 3 levels: Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced.

We also offer “Sports- Specific” classes throughout the year. These are recommended for those who want to optimize their performance in sports and for those who are looking to make gains in their sport of choice.

THERAPEUTIC – FOCUSED

Our Therapeutic Movement classes are ideal for injury rehabilitation, those preparing for surgery or those who need rehabilitation post-surgery. For these classes, we usually perform an initial assessment by a clinical Pilates-trained physiotherapist, to ensure that your safety is foremost and that these exercises are in alignment with your individual recovery goals.  

We also offer a “Bend and Stretch” class that is open to all levels and works on flexibility and postural strengthening.

FOR MOTHERS and MOTHERS-TO-BE

Pilates is a great way to exercise safely while pregnant or post-delivery. This is designed to address the fitness needs of mothers who are pre and post-baby, even those who may be a few weeks post-delivery. We look at general strength, flexibility and more importantly, strengthening the pelvic floor.

STOTT PILATES

Our Pilates instructors and physiotherapists are also certified in a revolutionary new form of Pilates, called STOTT Pilates. This innovative new method involves 5 key principles that will increase your awareness of your core and lead to a more beneficial workout. They include:

Breathing: We focus on breath and deep breathing, which activates the deep support muscles of the body and promotes blood circulation and oxygenation of the blood.

Pelvic Placement: We focus on lumbar spine and pelvis stabilization, as well as achieving neutral alignment for more efficient movement.

Rib Cage Placement: We focus on properly engaging the abdominal muscles around the rib cage, especially the obliques, as well as how to use your rib cage as a gauge for movement and the awareness of how your rib cage is affected by the movement when recruiting certain muscle groups.

Scapular Movement and Stabilization: The scapula involves the shoulder and is extremely important in the function of the shoulder joint. When the scapula area is unstable, it leads to overworking the neck and shoulder muscles. We teach you how to stabilize your scapula during movement.

Head and Neck Placement: We focus on proper alignment of the head and neck, when in a neutral position, such as lying down, or during movement, to avoid compressing the neck area, which can lead to injury.

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