How I Lost 20 Lbs with Pilates - Health Benefits of Pilates

Since the accident almost a decade ago my body has been ridden with chronic pain, lymphatic issues, anxiety, and depression. It was tough to start working out and taking care of myself again, I am so happy that I found Pilates. For the last few years, I've been mainly doing home workouts or visiting the gym here and there. It's always been inconsistent and I found myself unmotivated most of the time. I didn't know much about Pilates when I started so I didn't know what to expect. Pilates really changed how I viewed working out, now I look forward to my class and moving my body.  In each class, I feel stronger and more balanced.

I have lost over 20 pounds since returning from my six months living in Asia, along with resetting my diet, I attribute a lot of the consistent home workouts to trying to keep up with Pilates. During the week I try to add walking, running, and stretching into my daily morning routine, I do what feels right, some days I'm a bit sore so I'll just stretch after meditating. This prevents injuries and helps my body prepare for Pilate classes. Most of us don't move enough to be warm and ready for a major workout.  It's important to keep your body active to be ready for anything. 

Pilates is a low-impact exercise method that focuses on strengthening the core, improving flexibility, and enhancing overall body alignment and balance. Developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century, it incorporates controlled movements, often performed on a mat or using specialized equipment to engage the muscles while emphasizing breath control and body awareness. The machine is called a Reformer, there are many components to the machine that you can add and subtract during your workout making it more dynamic, I wanted to experience this version since I've tried mat Pilates and Yoga before. Pilates is known for improving posture, preventing injury, and building lean muscle without adding bulk, making it suitable for all fitness levels.

Pilates offers numerous benefits for both physical and mental health. Some key benefits include:

Improved Core Strength: Pilates focuses on strengthening the deep muscles in your core, including your abdominal, back, and pelvic muscles, which can lead to better posture, balance, and stability. Reformer pilates is more supported, we start with moves where you lay on your back and your shoulders are at a stopper preventing additional stain and movement. Not many exercises in my experience offer additional support while training like Reformer Pilates. 

Enhanced Flexibility: Pilates emphasizes stretching and controlled movements, which helps to improve overall flexibility and joint mobility. Exercises are supported by springs so you don't find yourself overextending or compensating rather your body does what it can within its own limits. 

Better Posture: By strengthening the muscles responsible for maintaining good posture, Pilates helps reduce tension in the shoulders, neck, and back, leading to improved body alignment. 

Injury Prevention: Focusing on muscle balance, flexibility, and control helps reduce the risk of injury, especially in athletes or individuals with previous injuries.

Increased Body Awareness: Pilates emphasizes precise, controlled movements, which enhances body awareness and helps you engage the right muscles during exercise and daily activities.

Low Impact: Pilates is gentle on the joints, making it ideal for people of all fitness levels, including those recovering from injuries or managing chronic pain. Many of the students in my pilates classes are seniors or people like myself who had some sort of injury. With Pilates everyone works with their own body strength, thus everyone can adjust movements to what they're comfortable with. 

Improved Mental Health: The mindful nature of Pilates, combined with deep breathing, can help reduce stress and improve mental focus, promoting a sense of calm and well-being.

Better Breathing: Pilates teaches proper breathing techniques, which can improve lung capacity, oxygen flow, and help with relaxation. We often aren't breathing enough because of our daily stress, Pilates helps regulate and reset your breathing. 

Other benefits we don't mention:

Building confidence: Giving your body the time it needs, allows you to build a better more appreciative relationship with your body. How much our body carries us through life without us even realizing it!

Improving digestion and completion: Working out, sweating, and breathing hard - all help us get rid of toxins - improving our digestion and skin over time. 

Lympathic Regulation: The lymphatic system is a network of vessels and nodes that helps remove waste, toxins, and excess fluids from tissues. It plays a key role in immune function by transporting lymph, a fluid containing white blood cells, throughout the body to fight infections and maintain fluid balance. The fluids in our body build when we have a static lifestyle, most of the bloating or fat gain we experience is lymphatic build-up. After my accident, I would get flare-ups of large bumps on my body, they were painful and often would take months to go away. Improve lymphatic function by staying hydrated, exercising regularly, practicing deep breathing, and incorporating lymphatic massages or dry brushing into your routine. With regular exercise, I've been able to regulate my lymphatic system better. 

Incorporating Pilates into a wellness routine can contribute to overall strength, flexibility, and mental clarity, making it a great complement to other health practices like meditation and mindfulness.

After my pilates classes, I've never been drenched in sweat or out of breath. I've had some minor injuries, from now using body parts I didn't know I had but they were from not stretching before classes and being unfamiliar with the poses. I found that most of the weight I had gained has been slowly disappearing and my lower belly fat that I've carried in the last ten years is also going away. In addition to my daily movement, Pilates really challenges the core and pushes for growth in areas we often don't challenge ourselves in, for me it's the upper body. I'm looking forward to finally feeling strong! As someone who's had chronic pain, working out for me isn't just about feeling and looking great, it's about knowing that I can do everyday things without worrying about injuring myself because I'm too weak or inflexible. 

I am currently enrolled in the next 8-week session, Fundamentals of Pilates, Intro to Pilates was very necessary, the classes taught us what the proper movements were and how to do them.  When you first learn a new movement, it's awkward, during the Intro classes you have the time to allow your body to get used to and adapt to the new movements so that you're ready for the more challenging moves or able to keep up with an entire pilates workout session, about 1 hour of continuous movement with little rest. Check out my next post about which exercises you should work on before trying your first Pilates class. 

Have you tried Pilates? How has Pilates helped you?

Goodluck on your Pilates journey!

                             

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