Pilates helps in Sport.

Currently we are getting a few more sporting types coming through the studio who are looking to use Pilates to improve their performance. Pilates is especially effective in building core stability, improving focus and injury prevention. All sports have their own key patterns of movement and repeated use of these movement patterns can result in muscular imbalance. Less relevant muscle groups can become weak and inefficient, with the more predominant muscles becoming bulky and tight. Pilates focuses on the body as a whole, aiming to rebalance muscles and improve postural alignment. Here are some of the ways Pilates can help in specific sports.

 

Cricket:

Both Mike Atherton and Graham Thorpe use Pilates as a way to overcome previous injuries and to prevent future ones. Pilates provides key benefits for both batsmen and bowlers, which is why many top cricketers use it in their training. Mike Atherton, the former England captain, swore by Pilates as a way both to recover from injuries and to prevent future ones. Graham Thorpe, another England batsman, abandoned his cricket equipment and used Pilates to overcome serious back problems he’d acquired from playing the sport.

Pilates improves flexibility and strength, enhances posture, balance and co-ordination and develops core strength. Incorporating Pilates into your training programme is the perfect way for cricket players to improve their posture which in turn will improve the way they handle their cricket equipment.

Cricket

Snowboarding and Skiing plus Watersports:

Pilates challenges the deep abdominal ‘core’ muscles that help to maintain the dynamic, balanced posture that is essential for safe and efficient skiing or snowboarding. A strong core helps to counteract the twists and turns of the slope, and gives you the ability to negotiate the slopes or the water with great balance and poise.

Golf:

Tiger Woods, Annika Sorrenstam and Rocco Mediate have all incorporated Pilates into their training regimen and the results are clear!

The golf swing is a little one-sided, which can create imbalance in the body. Pilates helps you to swing from your core, not from your limbs, and to balance out the body against the forces of the swing. If you strengthen the core, increase your flexibility, build stability in the pelvis and shoulder girdles and balance both sides of the body, it will allow you to hit it farther, straighter and more accurately.

Golf

Running:

Runners advocate Pilates because it builds long, strong muscles, improves flexibility and lessens the risk of injury. Runners often suffer from back, knee and hip problems from the constant impact involved in running. Pilates concentrates on posture and alignment – it opens up the hips, the vertebrae in the lower back and focuses on joint mobility.

Horse-Riding:

This requires balance, good posture and strong gluts, thighs and core. Pilates will help to correct postural imbalances, create body awareness and stretch out tight glut and hamstrings.

Show Jumping

Football and Rugby:

A growing number of top footballers and rugby players do Pilates as a way of improving co-ordination, mobility, flexibility and technique, as well as for prevention and recovery from injuries. The All Blacks and the Welsh Rugby Union is among the high-profile advocates of Pilates

Football and rugby both demand rapid directional changes, often at near-maximum pace, which demans flexibility in the body. The players also need to deliver controlled power from unbalanced body positions for tackles and scrums – all Pilates movements are initiated from a strong core to provide stability, and targeting these requirements can aid injury prevention and enhance performance by developing stamina, co-ordination and strength. Hamstring tears are common in both sports – focusing on the stabiliser muscles of the pelvis (the buttocks and groin muscles), will help prevent them.

Pilates can definitely help hips!

For the past few months I’ve been working with 2 lovely older ladies who have both had double hip replacements. I must admit I was a little dubious as to how things were going to work at the start of our time together, as I hadn’t worked with this type of hip issues before, but we have become good friends as these ladies really enjoy their classes. In fact when I had to cancel the other week they not only missed the class but felt a noticeable difference in their strength over the week.

What excites me about working with these ladies is seeing the functional difference in them. Both ladies are noticeably stronger now, their balance is improving and they feel more confident doing things like getting in and out of chairs and cars. Very excitingly both ladies can now get down to the floor unaided and one of them can get up from the floor unaided! This is a major achievement and has shown how Pilates can really strengthen bodies and change your day to day living. I’m hoping that in a few months time both ladies will be even stronger and have less pain, more mobility and flexibility too. They will be climbing mountains soon!