While I was pregnant, I heard about this Pilates stuff that’s supposed to strengthen the “core” of your back and abdominal muscles, and I thought that might be a good idea to try after the baby was born. After 2 giant babies and c-sections, my tummy muscles are shot and need some serious help.
So, who here has some experience with it and is it good stuff? Will it help me get stronger and improve my tummy? Is this supposed to be every other day, twice a week, what?
I checked a book out of the library and have tried the pre-Pilates excercises. I can do them fairly easily, but my tummy is indeed feeling the work. I thought I’d do those a couple more times and then try out the basic workout. I’m also trying to remind myself to sit and stand properly and suck in my abdomen–something I was working on before I opened the book, too.
I do Pilates at home (just the mat exercises, obviously, don’t have access to any of the machines) and I love it. At first I don’t think you would want to do it every day, just to give your muscles a rest. Three or four times a week would probably be plenty.
It’s a good one because the beginning of it explains the purpose of the exercises and goes over the general terms. They also show you two ways to do a lot of the exercises so if they are too hard for you at first, you can start with the easier one and move up to the harder method later.
I also have the intermediate video and that is a good workout - the exercises are harder and they go through the sequences much quicker.
I can’t speak for how much it will improve your stomach muscles since that isn’t a problem area for me, but I have liked how much better my legs have gotten.
I also use the Callan Pinckney Callanetics videos as well, and the stomach exercises she has couldn’t help but improve your stomach, I’d imagine - they’re hard! I mostly use the “Quick Callanetics: Hips and Behind” video in that series, and my butt is definitely better for it (though you won’t see me modeling swimsuits anytime soon). Here’s a link for those:
The Quick Callanetics series are really just excerpts from her longer Callanetics video, so if you want all the exercises in one package (which is cheaper too) the regular one is the one you want.
I just recently started doing Pilates at my gym, and I have to say, it is quite a unique workout. It really does strengthen your abdominals, though not in a ripped “I spend my whole life doing situps” kinda way. IN fact, I have found it very useful for balance and flexibility as well.
One thing though - at the end of the hour, you can FEEL it - though you depend on your “core” for the balance, you are really working out your extremities as well. I could barely walk after my first class (admittedly, my coach is a martinet).
I found that having used Lamaze breathing, the Pilates breathing techniques also were easy to learn and implement.
I know of an elderly woman who was able to stop wearing adult diapers after doing some core and pelvic exercises, but I don’t know exactly what routine she was doing.
After the deposition of the eldest son of Herod, Archelaus (who had succeeded his father as ethnarch), Judea was placed under the rule of a Roman procurator. Pilate, who was the fifth, succeeding Valerius Gratus in A.D. 26, had greater authority than most procurators under the empire, for in addition to the ordinary duty of financial administration, he had supreme power judicially.
