Salisbury Pilates For Weight Loss
If you’re just looking to lose weight – Pilates mat work is not the most efficient method. I can say this without bias, as I am both a Pilates instructor and Personal Trainer.
Pilates is a unique form of exercise that has many benefits. These benefits are most efficiently achieved by practicing Pilates. Weight loss is not one of these “most efficient” benefits.
Pilates is unique in that it changes your body shape without necessarily affecting your weight significantly.
One of the huge pluses for an overweight person doing Pilates is that it can help to minimise the risk of lower back pain which is so often reported by individuals carrying excess weight.
Engaging in an exercise programme, like Pilates mat work, can help to promote self-esteem and heightened lifestyle consciousness. Both are associated with weight loss.
If you are able to find a Pilates instructor that combines Pilates mat work with the Pilates Reformer ( a sliding foamed board which uses springs for resistance and is often likened to a torture rack), then your Pilates workout takes on a different ability to help you increase your natural body metabolism by helping you to develop lean body tissue (muscle) not bulky, but lean and long. Also the use of resistance bands and Swiss Balls during a class is an effective way to increase your lean muscle.
To achieve effective weight loss, here are three top tips:
1. Include resistance training, either working with free weights or your own body weight, machines if you have to but not always the best, due to their lack of functional carry over into normally daily living.
2. Keep your cardiovascular exercise sessions short and high tempo. This will help you burn as many calories as a long drawn out treadmill session and will also help to reduce your overall time spent in the gym.
3. Include protein in your meals, especially with your snacks, i.e. ,fruit and nuts; this will help to stabilise your blood sugar levels, which in turn helps to reduce sweet and savoury cravings mid morning or mid afternoon.
If you currently practice Pilates and enjoy it or it has been recommended to you, go ahead and try it - just remember the three tips above. There is no reason why you can’t incorporate Pilates into any type of exercise programme.