Pilates is for athletes of all levels, backgrounds, ages, and sports. When most of us hear the word athlete, we might picture a Nike commercial, our favorite quarterback, an Olympic athlete, or even someone we know. The truth is, we are all athletes! Anybody who participates in regular exercise, particularly a specific sport such as weightlifting, basketball, running, biking, swimming, pickle ball, skiing, and many others, is an athlete.
Athletes highly rely on their body to perform specific movements repetitively. When specific areas of the body are lacking strength or flexibility, injuries can arise or lead to under performance.
Pilates instructors are trained to identify imbalances in the body and correct those imbalances by strengthening muscle weaknesses in our body and stretching tight muscles and ligaments. The Pilates Reformer is very precise in being able to pinpoint muscle disparities and training small muscle groups that may be under-utilized.
I personally experienced this when I started attending Pilates classes. I am primarily a distance runner and was at the end of marathon training season when I started attending Pilates. In addition to running, I also strength train and practice Yoga almost daily. I thought I was pretty well-rounded as it relates to my exercise program.
I was surprised to find muscular weaknesses in very important small muscle groups as a runner. I also found several extremely tight muscles and ligaments that I was not aware of until looking at these areas on the reformer. Due to these musculature weaknesses and tight muscles, I was continuing to end up with the same injury. I learned that until I could focus on strengthening and stretching these areas, this would continue to be a problem. Each Pilates class helped me to become stronger and combat future injury.
I’ve seen firsthand how Pilates helped me, and made me a better athlete. It can do the same for you!
Emily Hershberger
Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, Running Coach
