Pilates has many wonderful benefits that most people are unaware of if they've never tried a class, but flexibility is a commonly known benefit of Pilates and our First Specialty Class at Pilates 512!!! Flexibilty Class will be Each Saturday in October at 8:30am.
Benefits of Flexibility: By improving your flexibility you will help prevent injuries, rehab past injuries, decrease shoulder/neck and back pain and improve balance. Increasing your flexibility and improving range of motion keeps your muscles happy and healthy.
5 Simple Exercises To Try At Home:
Hamstring Stretch: By lengthening your hamstrings you take added strain and compression out of your lower back. Tight hamstrings can easily lead to injuries, tight hips and tight lower back. Lean forward towards you toes. Leaning forward pull your head down towards your legs, then arch your back flat and look out past your toes.
Hip Stretch: Tight hips can occur from long periods of sitting and can change your natural gait. Overtime this can lean to knee, hip and back pain. Keep your hips pliable and stretched. This exercises can be done while sitting in a chair or lying down. The open hip is the side that is stretching. Apply slight pressure against your thigh for a deeper stretch.
Swan: When our bodies are tight or in pain we tend to stop moving. This is a deadly cycle, the less our body moves the tighter our muscles get and less circulation occurs throughout our body. Lengthen your spine in this stretch and pull your shoulders down.
Shoulder Expansion: Daily life pulls our shoulders forward and in causing poor posture and shoulder and neck tightness and sometimes pain. This exercise open the chest and shoulders. Choose option 1 or 2 depending on your fitness level. Don't drop into the shoulders, but instead pull them apart from the front of the chest and and down through the shoulder blades.
