Pilates for Seniors
November 28, 2010 
sabrinavaz 
Are you thinking about beginning a fitness routine? That’s great! As we grow older, Pilates is more important than ever.
Do you want to continue to lead an active lifestyle? Pilates helps seniors maintain health and boost energy by increasing flexibility and strength with emphasis on core abdominal muscles through an over all body work out.
Flexibility:This will help your body stay limber, increase range of motion, and keep your muscles and joints supple. Results- you will be less prone to injury and able to move around freely.
Strength:This will prevent loss of bone mass, and build your muscles. Results – you will be more independent and day to day activities will become easier.
Core Work:This will strengthen your abdominal muscles including the obliques. Results – you will increase stability, improving balance and posture and reduce the risk of falling.
In addition to overall body workout Pilates will help maintain pain associated with arthritis and other diagnosis, it will help your coordination, improve sleep, and can even benefit regular brain function which can prevent memory loss.
It doesn’t matter what your age, your health, or your fitness level – you will be able to benefit from a Traditional Authentic Pilates™ TAP™ program designed to fit your lifestyle. After all, exercise is the key to healthy aging.
It has been proven that a sedentarily lifestyle is an unhealthy lifestyle. Start your TAP™ Pilates program today.
Hands On Pilates – Shoulder Release
Hands On Pilates
We are living in an instant gratification society. If we want
to see a movie we no longer have to go to the video store, we
download it to our computer and watch it on our laptop. If
we want to buy a new work-out outfit we shop online. We
communicate via text message and face book. Some of us
even run our studios from our computers. Consequently, I
am seeing more and more clients with poor posture and
tightness through the shoulders. What time clients do not
spend at a monitor screen is spent hunched over a steering
wheel. They come into the studio tight and unable to understand
how to keep their shoulders down. Arm springs, chest
expansion and other upper body exercises are really difficult.
What can be done to help these clients? A simple hands on
shoulder release has helped so many of my clients. This is
how I start a session that involves tightness through the
shoulders before beginning upper body work.
1. Ask the client to lay on the Cadillac, on their side. Pillows
may be needed.
2. Sit next to the person facing their head, with your inner
outer thigh supporting the mid back.
3. Hook your clients upper arm over your inside arm and
clasp both your hands together over the top of the shoulder
4. Engage your own “powerhouse” and hinge backward
with straight arms as you pull the shoulder toward you.
5. Using your own body weight rotate the shoulder slowly
in a circular movement three to five times. Change direction.
6. Gently tip the client toward you and lower your outside
hand under the scapula.
7. Using your fingers and thumb gently press the scapula
down to release the tension.
Your client will want this done to them during every session.
This will be helpful with posture and alignment. It will
make their Pilates upper body exercises more effective and
if they are experiencing any headaches this will help as well.
The TAP Pilates teacher training program encourages the
use of hands on positions and this is one of the many releases
taught through the certification program.
I know you will find this Hands On Pilates technique helpful
with your clients. In my next addition I will share a neck
stretch that has helped many of my clients.
Pilates Trainer – Is This The Right Choice For Me?
Pilates Trainer
Is This The Right Choice For Me?
Why should I become a Pilates Instructor?
Today, we are experiencing many changes in our society. Among these changes are an
understanding of the importance of a healthy life style. Fast food restaurants are offering
more health conscious choices, stores are filling the shelves with mind body products,
health clubs are adding classes in Pilates. America is in the midst of a Mind Body
Boom. There is no longer guilt associated with pampering ourselves. It is just considered
taking care of your body. And let’s face it if you want to live a long healthy life
that is what you need to do. When the economy is suffering becoming a TAP™ Pilates
certified trainer can be a lucrative career. If you want to keep your current job and supplement
your income by teaching a few mat classes or change your career altogether,
TAP training programs can help. Pilates trainers have the flexibility of making there
own schedule, taking as many or few clients as they want, and understanding how to
take care of there own body.
Do I need to have a dance background to be a Pilates trainer?
It is without question that some of the best Pilates trainers are or were dancers. Let’s
face it, dancers have an easier time to learn choreography, to bring the work to a performance
level, a deep understanding of the body and movement patterns. However,
people from all walks of life are drawn to Pilates. A TAP trainer who may have gone
through back injury, neck injury or any other physical trauma can be a compassionate
teacher to others who come into a studio with injury. A TAP trainer who has to work
hard to keep her weight down can be inspirational to a client that comes into a Pilates
studio wanting to get in shape. Really, anyone with a love of the Pilates system, and the
desire to share that system with others can be a wonderful trainer if they are willing to
put the time and effort into learning how to accomplish this. As a Traditional Authentic
Pilates™ instructors you will find that there are some clients that you have a deep connection
with. Be who you are, let prospective clients know why you came to the work,
find your own teaching voice and style. The clients will come.
Contemporary
What is contemporary pilates?
In 2000, a court decided that the term Pilates could not be trademarked. As a result, many schools have taken extensive liberties with the system – adding exercises, changing principles, including new kinesiology research, etc, in programming sessions and developing a new curriculum. This system allows for greater creativity, but, in my opinion, also allows for too much freedom and as a result many Pilates classes resemble yoga far more closely than Pilates. Contemporary schools include STOTT PILATES, Balanced Body, and Polestar Pilates.
Classical Pilates
What is classical pilates?
The exact exercises and ideas that Joe Pilates and his wife Clara taught to Romana Kryzanowska of Romana’s Pilates / True Pilates New York (TPNY). This system is built around a set order on specific equipment and allows for little to no variation. Of course, with hundreds of exercises and modifications at your disposal, and a proven track record like no other, do you need to? Classical schools include Romana’s Pilates, Power Pilates, and Peak Pilates.
