Pilates for athletes-building inner strength

Pilates for athletes-building inner strength

Fitness is the foundation of human health and this concept has evolved in its different dynamics with increased awareness. Often, fitness is misunderstood with fine shape and toned body; however, it is the amalgamation of both outer physical fitness and inner body strength. In context to athletes, fitness is primary to them and to encourage and enhance capacity of their bones and muscles they need inner body strength.

Pilates-the new workout trend is catching pace among athletes for its extraordinary and tailored benefits for fitness enthusiasts and sportspersons. Many of the renowned athletes are adopting pilates in their routine for strength building and rehabilitation from sports injuries, few of the names include Tiger Woods, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James.

Understanding Pilates: Concept and its Evolution

Pilates is the concept of holistic fitness that focuses on improving strength, movement and balance of the body. Joseph Pilates is the person who developed this concept in 20^th century and he coined the term Contrology for the method of physical fitness used under Pilates. Putting emphasis on the importance of inter-dependence of physical and mental wellness on each other, he developed the method that works upon enhancing strength from core of the body, i.e. Transverse Abdominus, Pelvic Floor and Multifidus muscles.

Why Pilates for Athletes?

• Builds Inner Strength: Pilates workout plays key role in high impact training and strength building that helps athletes to enhance their muscles rather than shortening it and increases flexibility that improves their performance. The core muscles of the body are the deep muscles of the back, abdomen, and pelvic floor.

• Helps in Recreation: Pilates play the role of recreation for sportsperson with adding rejuvenation through enhanced inner strength and energy. It helps in maintaining right posture and establishes the union of physical and mental wellness.

• Rehabilitate Sports Injuries: Athletes face different sports injuries that are often caused due to muscular imbalance, strain on muscles or due to foul movements. Pilates program help in maintaining the muscular balance, relaxes the strain on muscles, enhances flexibility, maintain balance of movements and helps in healing injuries.  

• Balances the Body: It is observed in certain sports or physical activities leads to imbalance of muscles and poor posture of the person due to continuously being in the same position. For example, sedentary position in bicycling stresses the lumbar spine, neck, shoulders, arms and legs area and affect the posture. Similarly, to the sportspersons who are involved in rotational activity like tennis, golf, have to face the imbalance of strength and misalignments.

The concept of fitness has been evolving with increased awareness and the inclusion of the method of Joseph Pilates of Contrology has pushed masses across the world to reach the level of holistic fitness. Adoption of this practice by athletes has helped them to attain both physical and mental fitness with augmented energy and strength that will help them in the longer run to maintain their fitness and performance.