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.
