The answer is a resounding YES!!! And I am not just saying that because I’m a business owner trying to keep clients. 😉
Let’s look at the real reasons to continue Pilates after reaching your goals.
1. Maintenance – Keeping up Pilates will help you to maintain the body and weight you have worked hard to achieve. It’s no different than changing your diet. If you eat healthy and cut out junk food to lose weight – you can’t simply go back to your old diet once you lose the weight. With Pilates – the muscles you built, the tone you achieved and metabolism you improved will only last for so long if you don’t continue to feed them with Pilates!
2. Flexibility – Whether you entered into Pilates seeking flexibility or not – you must certainly benefited from the increased flexibility you gained with Pilates. Much like a rubber band being stretched – if you no longer stretch it – it snaps back. Our bodies lose flexibility over time so it is important to continue to find ways to improve and hold on to our flexibility.
3. Bone Density – This is one many don’t think about until it becomes a problem. Women in particular need to be doing exercises that maintain bone strength. Bone is a living tissue that becomes stronger with exercise. None of us want to face brittle bones or Osteoporosis later in life so we need to take the steps now to build our bones. Pilates is an excellent exercise program for bone building.
4. Metabolism – This is another one like flexibility that will decrease with age. The way to keep our metabolism up and working well is to build muscles. Pilates works deeper and creates so many muscles in the body beyond the big obvious ones like the quads. Maintaining your muscles with Pilates will keep your metabolism in a good place.
5. Balance – We need balance to keep us safe and to help prevent injuries. If we don’t continue to challenge ourselves and build that framework of muscles – our balance suffers. Pilates incorporates balance and control in most exercises.
6. Injury Prevention – Our days are filled with activities and actions that tax our bodies in numerous unsymmetrical ways. Pilates gives us back our balance and helps offset all that we do without even realizing it. The simple habit of consistently carrying your heavy laptop bag on your left shoulder and walking with a bit of a forward lean to the left – could result in shoulder issues, hip issues or low back issues. Our regular practice of Pilates resets our bodies.
7. Emotional Health- It’s no mystery our bodies produce feel good endorphins when we workout. Exercise improves our mood. We also feel better about ourselves when we accomplish things and stick to our goals. I often have clients tell me how much better they feel after class. And I’ve never had anyone say – well this was a mistake today!
So bottom line – even if your skinny jeans fit – you still need to put in the work to maintain so much more than your waistline. Exercise and Pilates are not just about how you look but about taking care of your whole body for your whole life!
12South Pilates & Personal Training 