The eight principals of Pilates.

 1.Concentration  

                                   Is needed to focus on the exercise and what the body is doing; this is where mind and     body are essential to execute the exercise in a environment in which you are not distracted from outside thoughts, allowing you to focus on mind and body.

2. Breathing        

                                  Is a vital key point to Pilates; it is one of the hardest part to get right for beginners. As well as the breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, it also involves lateral breathing or thoracic breathing. This is where the oxygen is taken into the lower part of the lungs, as most people do not use all of the lungs resulting in shallow breathing,. These are terms you will hear frequently in Pilates. You always breathe in to prepare and on the breath you activate core stabilisers, also known as Powerhouse, naval to spine, zip up and engage.. Then you execute the exercise on the breath out. An easy way to remember is that on the out breath your limbs move out and on the in breath you bring the limbs to the centre of your body depending on what the exercise is to achieve in a controlled manner.

3. Centring           

                                     In Pilates it is the core stability, which involves the muscles around your stomach, the abdominal muscles.  There are four types 1.Transverse Abdominals, which is like a girdle rapping around from the spine and connecting to the pubic bone. 2.Rectus abdominals (your six pack) 3.Obilques, which consist of internal and external. Centring also involves balance of your body whilst the body is still and when the body is in motion, without it we would fall over. Keeping your weight evenly balanced will create even development in the muscles, which will give you the perfect posture, thus eliminating injuries i.e. back pain, neck and knee problems.

4. Control              

                                     Is being aware of how you perform your exercise giving you more strength and stamina. Control is when the movement is performed to its fullest. This can be lost more in the down movement of exercise, i.e. lift arm up to shoulder height in a controlled motion and lower in the same speed as when you lifted it. Controlling the move is very important so you do not cheat, and work safely.

5. Alignment    

                                   Refers to the skeletal structure. If the skeletal is aligned correctly the muscles will be well balanced. This is where Pilates helps you to understand your inner body awareness, so when you perform an exercise you are achieving the highest quality of the movement. Alignment also will contribute to your centring

 6. Flowing movement   

                                       This is when there is no stopping in the exercise you perform as if there is no beginning or end of each movement, which flows together in harmony giving you more grace. When you are more advanced in Pilates you rest less in-between movements, allowing one movement to flow into the next like a choreographed movement. Again this needs control and concentration to achieve a continuous flowing movement.

7. Coordination     

                                      Pilates helps your coordination, which will help you link each move together to look as it is done with ease. With today’s busy life style we neglect coordination. By doing exercise to music, or even dance, the individual will benefit in this area.             

8. Relaxation       

                                      This is also learnt in time. What it means is when you perform an exercise you only use the muscles needed to execute the move and allowing the other muscles to relax, your breathing will help this as it takes oxygen to feed the muscles that are working hard and relieves stress, whilst the opposite muscle will relax.