There’s a world of opportunity when it comes to how you can exercise these days. Between gyms, pilates and yoga studios, and at-home workouts, it can be hard to decide which will work best for you and your body’s unique needs. While Pilates can be helpful to everyone in some shape or form, there are certain professions that stand to benefit the most.
Whether you’re highly active and work out daily, work in a physically labour-intensive job or have a more sedentary desk job, reformer Pilates can be a wonderful addition to your weekly routine. We’ll explain the fundamentals of how Pilates works, along with how and why each profession we discuss can benefit from using a Pilates reformer.
The Foundation of Pilates and Functional Movement
To understand how comprehensive Pilates is, you need to understand how it was originally created. Joseph Pilates, who invented the Pilates exercises, was inspired whilst working in a hospital. In an effort to help rehabilitate injured soldiers during the war, he combined controlled movement with the use of bed springs to create resistance. Over time, he refined this workout, developing full-body exercises that paired flexibility, control and mental fortitude.
Eventually, he elevated his original rudimentary design of springs on a hospital bed and created the Pilates reformer. A specially designed bed-like structure with a sliding platform and bands rather than springs for resistance.
The key principles of Pilates place a strong emphasis on breathing, flexibility, core strength and supporting the spine. Through precise, controlled movements that combine balance and breath focus, Pilates has become a workout for both your whole body and mind.
This mind-body connection that reformer Pilates cultivates can help support body strength and recovery and fortify the mind. Due to the variable resistance levels of the bands used, it’s also an incredibly versatile exercise routine. This versatility makes it the perfect option for all ages and fitness levels. While the pressures placed on an individual will vary from person to person due to their profession, posture and overall muscle tone, Pilates can be a supportive and reviving form of exercise.
Office Workers and Posture Corrections
If you’ve ever worked in an office environment, you’ll more than likely have experienced the impact of slouching over a desk for extended periods of time. Even with ergonomic chairs and elevated screens, when you’re sitting for hours on end, you’ll often end up sitting in a way that isn’t good for your spine. While you might think poor posture ends when you stand up and leave the office, slouching can impact your body long-term.
Poor posture gradually overloads certain parts of your body to counterbalance and support the muscles that are underutilised when you’re not sitting upright. Over time, this can cause a more curved spine and neck, along with weakened muscles in the lower back.
Joseph said it best when he said that “a man is as young as his spinal column.” With reformer Pilates placing such a strong emphasis on balance, correct posture, core strength and alignment, it’s an incredibly beneficial choice for office workers. By re-building weakened back muscles and cultivating a stronger core that takes some load off your back, you’ll sit better at your desk and correct poor posture when you’re standing.
Athletes and Performance Enhancement
If you participate in a sport that requires balance and strength, having a Pilates reformer machine at home can be a perfect workout to incorporate into your routine. With the ability to gradually increase the resistance on your reformer, you can work your way up to train specific muscle groups or aim for a full-body workout.
Pilates is an anaerobic exercise, meaning it doesn’t utilise oxygen in your blood to give you energy but instead sources energy from fat stores. This can help define your muscles while also cultivating more focus and resilience when you’re training in other ways.
Healthcare Professionals and Injury Prevention
If you work in healthcare and are regularly doing tasks that could lead to repetitive strain injury, reformer Pilates can support both flexibility and range of motion. By increasing circulation and encouraging stretching and motility when you’re going through each exercise, delicate joints like your wrists and elbows will gradually be strengthened. The surrounding muscles will also be able to take more strain while you’re at work, making it less likely that you’ll have issues stemming from caring for other people.
Artists and Creatives: Enhancing Physical Expression
Aside from physical benefits, reformer Pilates is wonderful for the mind, too. When you combine precise exercises with deep breathing, your mind is absorbed by what you’re doing. It’s a wonderful way to switch off the busier part of your brain, allowing your mind to calm itself and focus on the task at hand.
This fusion of mind and body is wonderful for professionals working in artistic fields. You’ll experience a heightened sense of bodily awareness and control, which translates easily into your creative endeavours.
Whether you venture into a studio or find a Pilates reformer machine for sale to use at home, experimenting with this unique and time-tested exercise is worth trying. Joseph Pilates said, “You will feel better in ten sessions, look better in twenty sessions, and have a completely new body in thirty sessions.”
Shop the collection of Pilates reformers in NZ now, with shipping available nationwide. Our reformers are easy to set-up, with a foldable reformer option for easy storage.