PILATES EQUIPMENT : TYPES AND BENEFITS

PILATES EQUIPMENT : TYPES AND BENEFITS

Pilates equipment can be grouped in two broad categories. The first category comprise of small, portable equipment like the magic circles, fitness bands, and the exercise balls. These smaller equipments can be used in a studio and at home. Then, there are the larger pieces of equipment (apparatus) that comprise equipment such as the Pilates reformer, Pilates chair, barrel, tower, and Cadillac. These are commonly found in a Pilates studio.

Balls are common pieces of Pilates equipment. The Pilates stability ball can be used for various purposes such as yoga, physical therapy, and toning and defining the abdominal muscles. Conditioning is achieved when anyone uses the ball to engage in a diversity of exercises that necessitate balance, posture, and coordination.

Resistance bands are pieces of Pilates equipment that are primarily made from latex but might have foam or plastic handles. Using these can offer a lot of the similar benefits as weight training, such as strength building and sculpting of the upper and lower body. Resistance bands also help to improve flexibility. These may be used with both standing and seated exercise.

Various exercises of the Pilates system are considered mat exercises. Although several people perform such exercises with a generic mat or with no mat at all, there are Pilates mats available. Mat exercises focus on strengthening the trunk muscles and hip muscles while increasing the flexibleness of the backbone and hips. In addition, there is additional Pilates equipment intended to be used in mat exercises, such as the arc barrel. The arc barrel is a piece of equipment that helps sustainthe back and shoulders. It has been noted as a skilledtool to use instretching activities.

The Cadillac is one of the larger pieces of Pilates equipment. It is occasionallycalled a trapeze. It is basicallya table with crossbars to which other bars and straps can be attached. This piece of equipment allows a person to dovarious types of exercises which can be mild to intense. With this machine, you can mentally isolate just aboutevery muscle in your body into littleindividual parts. In this method, you can accomplishthe correct motion patterns for different exercises benefitting variousbody parts. The Cadillac helps to strengthen the “powerhouse muscles” by targeting the deep transversospinalis muscles (the group of muscles that make up the human back). It also ‘articulate’ the spine; and your lumbar paraspinals (the group of large muscles that sustainthe spine) will be massaged and lengthened.

The Pilates Reformers is a bed-like structurewith a flat platform on it, called the carriage, which rolls back and forth on wheels inthe frame. One of the best things about the reformer is its resourcefulness. Exercises can be completedlying down, sitting, standing, pulling the straps, pushing the foot bar, perched on the foot bar, perched on the shoulder blocks, with additional equipment, upside down, sideways and all kinds of variations thereof. In other words, the reformer can train many parts and dynamics of the body in so many different ways with just piece of equipment. The reformer promotes offers all the following benefits including completestrength, flexibility, coordination, and balance. These things in turn lead to better posture, graceful, efficient movement, and for many, relief from pain relatedwith physical imbalances such as back pain.