When you have spent time with an instructor and have a good understanding of the basics of Pilates, you often want to continue the exercises at home to fit around your busy life. It can be difficult however, to get the motivation or know where to start when you don’t have the guidance of an instructor. Here are some expert tips to improve your at-home sessions.
Always start with the basics
When you become more experienced at Pilates there’s the temptation to ignore the basics and go straight into more complex and specific exercises. This can be a mistake – those basics exercise are there for a reason. Without starting at basics and working your way up to more difficult manoeuvres you will more than likely not feel the full benefits of workout and you could even cause yourself an injury. So when you start your home based Pilates program, start with the basics then work up to the main areas you want to focus on.
Understand the Pilates Principles
If you want to get the full benefits from your workout you need to practise the Pilates principles in everything that you do. These principles are centring, concentration, control, precision, breath and flow – but it can be easy to overlook these while fitting exercise into a small period of time in your busy day. You can focus on one in particular such as changing your breath pattern to make exercises more challenging. But always keep those principles at the front of your mind.
Incorporate Pilates in your day
The techniques and approaches that you learn in Pilates can also often be applied to everyday life situations, meaning you reap their benefits while doing non-exercise style activities. For example, you can use Pilates breathing to help release tension that builds up during the day or in stressful situations. You can also use the muscular and mental control learned in Pilates for all of your daily activities.
Be realistic about time
While we would all like to have a specific amount of time to spend at Pilates every day, it’s important to be realistic about the amount of time you can dedicate to your exercises. If you get too ambitious and cannot fulfil your aims then this will just lead to disappointment and even to you giving up all together. By being realistic about how much time you can dedicate to Pilates at home you will be better placed to make the most of that time.
Go at your own pace
A big advantage of Pilates at home is that you can go at your own pace and set your own schedule. Don’t feel compelled to rush through things if you haven’t mastered them because no-one is grading you – you can do what you want! With the basics you have learned in your class you can continue to work on one area until you are happy with it before moving onto anything else.
Pilates exercises at home are a great way to maintain and improve on what you have learned in Pilates classes. You can work at your own pace and around the other things you have happening in life. You can also learn to fit Pilates approaches into other parts of your life for maximum benefit.