If, like many men during the lockdown, you’ve been stuck at your work-from-home desk, getting stiff and sore, then before you grab the weights you might want to consider taking up Pilates.
Whatever your first impression of Pilates is, it is a great form of exercise for men. Dr Heather Mims, PT, DPT, OCS, PMA-CPT and Pilates Method Alliance Certified Pilates Teacher at Shift Wellness has listed her five favourite Pilates workouts for getting that dad-bod back into shape for Men’s Health.
For the uninitiated, Pilates was started by a man called Joseph Pilates, who developed the method while being held in an English internment camp as a German man during World War I, where he taught self-defence and wrestling.
Dr Mims said: “Many men need to include a better balance of work on flexibility and strength in their exercise programs.” She also explained that traditional workouts targeted towards men disproportionately concentrate on resisted strengthening programs that forcibly contract and shorten muscles.
However, this constant process of contracting muscles can lead to chronic tightness and a decreased range of motion.
Pilates can offer a better balance of strengthening and stretching exercises that work the muscles in an elongated position that gives a long lever arm for the core muscles to work against.
By eccentrically loading the muscles – that is resistance while lengthening rather than shortening the muscles – in a slow, controlled manner can significantly improve functional strength training and stability work that can help men, and everyone else, achieve better posture, and better technique in their preferred sport while preventing injuries.
If you are interested in live online Pilates classes, come and chat with me today!
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