Few indiv
iduals realize just how effective and awesome Pilates really is and many think that Pilates is great only for rehabilitation. However great goals can be achieved which include enhanced flexibility, increased strength and that sculpted “Pilates body”. One of Pilates’ incredible strengths and advantages is the effectiveness in the nervous system and muscles overall. If you for example want to increase flexibility and strength, you have to rely on muscle memory, motor memory, and motor learning.
This is why a single Pilate’s session a week is too little. The recommended overall moderate intensity exercise per week is minimum 150 minutes, which you should couple with two to three days of strength training. In order to maintain results you need to exercise regularly as a body regress after a Pilates session. This regression extend will depend on the time that passes between sessions. When you practice Pilates regularly, you build up your neuromuscular coordination and memory. Therefor if you practice Pilates once a week, your body is forced to start from scratch and is not building on previously learned behaviors.
Many also do not see the benefits of Pilates incorporated into their overall fitness regime, but when looking at it in-depth, you will find that it replaces everyday “bad” movements with positive ones. You cannot correct bad movements and body behavior in a single session or with irregular sessions either. Just as it took years to establish all those bad motor behaviors will it take time to establish beneficial, healthy, and balanced movement. Pilates is often compared to resistance training and there is a continuous debate as to which is better. Where in fact both can be practiced at the same time. Both are great in increasing the deep muscle thickness of internal obliques. However, Pilates have an advantage of being more effective in Transversus abdominals conditioning.