Pilates ((Help))

Hey everyone i was recomended on here to do Pilates,i know all about the major benefits and how you can get a toned appereance by doing them. I just started doing pilates for my first week and i found that they are not as easy as they look i was wondering if anyone here has advice on how to build a strong foundation and really make pilates work. (just basically how you started off, if you get better along the way, if it was always tough for you in the begining etc.) thanks anyone!

Sun. Dec 31, 10:57am

i have been doing pilates for about a year. it is very hard in the beginning, you are not alone. my suggestion is to make the movements really small in the beginning and focus on the abs - if you're supposed to be in "c-curve" or "natural and neutral" or "imprinted" spine, really concentrate on that. once you have mastered the way you're supposed to hold your "box" you can concentrate on the other parts of the moves.

Sunday, December 31, 2006, 11:12 AM

I have a DVD - Pilates for dummies - that really helped me understand how to modify the positions as a beginner.

Sunday, December 31, 2006, 12:38 PM

Just do what you can as often as you can and be as consistent as possible and the initial phase will soon be a memory. It's one that makes me smile because that's when I truly became 'strong'. And I grew up on a farm, so I'm no stranger to hard physcial work and there was still plenty of muscle under that flab, but I've never been strong like this. It was pretty embarassing at first - I couldn't believe how exhausted my muscles were after a few simple-looking exercises! It does get better fairly quickly if that's any consolation. I think it took me about 6 weeks to get to an intermediate level from beginner.

I have been doing them for a year and a half now. At first since I couldn't do all that much at a time, I did them every day, doing as many exercises as I could paying VERY close attention to form (as soon as my form suffered I stopped) and I worked hard on my posture the entire rest of day - making sure my abs were pulled towards my belly button and my shoulders were back and down and that I engaged my core in all my daily activities. At first I felt like a limp noodle, but that passed and now I don't even have to conciously think about my posture or keeping my muscles engaged - they just are. I don't have to do pilates nearly as often now to maintain my core - once or twice a week. Anyway - that was my experience and I look forward to hearing from others. Do check back in and let us know how you're doing. :-)

Sunday, December 31, 2006, 3:30 PM

Thanks Everyone and a happy new year!

So first off thanks everyone for helping me, i was so lost in the whole process i think my problem is the whole "c-curve" or "natural and neutral" or "imprinted" spine and my box ordeal, i kind of have an idea of how the exercises are (the motions) but im not sure about my posture and all that, it is so tuff for me because ever since i had scoliosis my posture started getting horrible and now with pilates i can fix all that so im excited about that. Im going to keep doing pilates 5 days a week ( i would do more but i work out 5 days a week w/ pilates and i also run 10 miles on the weekends) Any way i hope i can do this, i would really want to benefit from pilates because i really do need it :)

Monday, January 01, 2007, 1:22 PM

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