I've taught Pilates for 3 years now, and have been practicing Pilates for over 10 years. There are still many people who don't know what Pilates is or what the possible benefits are. In the Pilates repertoire, there are hundreds of exercises each with their own breath pattern. The exercises range from a single joint movement to isolate a specific muscle group to full body movements that challenge your coordination, strength, and flexibility in new ways. There are multiple apparatus that can be use for Pilates training including just your own body on the floor. Many of the apparatus use spring resistance to intensify your strengthening workout. Because of the nature, variety, and progression of movement patterns, Pilates is excellent for rehabbing injuries and cross training for other sports. Let's take a look at some of the major benefits of Pilates training.

Every Pilates exercise integrates full body awareness. Your alignment is crucial for getting the most out of each exercise, therefore your core is stabilizing your torso and pelvis in every movement. Whether you are performing an exercise where you roll through your spine and actively engage your core muscles or you are performing arm strengthening exercises where you must maintain optimal alignment in your posture by engaging your core, you are always working your mid section in Pilates.

Because your alignment and technique are essential in Pilates, it automatically gives you better posture. Good posture is part of every Pilates exercise. Each exercise is designed to stack the body correctly and engage your deep postural muscles while working in various movement patterns. This type of postural strengthening is also essential for reducing and preventing chronic low back pain.

Pilates incorporates unique patterns of movements that you may not find in any other type of workout. You will be circling your legs in various directions and compiling multiple movements into one flowing exercise. As you advance your exercises, certain body segments will be stabilized while isolating various joints and moving at different speeds and directions agains spring resistance and a moving carriage. Your coordination will improve with practice.

Pilates is a strengthening workout that will help you to improve your overall muscle tone. Performing exercises agains spring resistance or gravity tones the body. Many of the exercises in Pilates can be quite challenging. With a variety of modifications and progressions, Pilates can be designed as an excellent workout for all levels.

Because many of the dynamic exercises move in large ranges of motion, you will also gain flexibility in Pilates. Over time your body will ease into the exercise and your practice will deepen through added strength and flexibility. There are specific stretches that may be incorporated into your workout, but the dynamic stretching while simultaneously strengthening is key for your health.

With many sports and activities, there tends to be repetitive movements that create an imbalance in the body. Certain muscle groups tend to get over worked while other muscle groups get weaker. Pilates is an excellent way to improve your other sports conditioning because it will help balance your body by working all of your muscle groups including your feet.

Most injuries occur because of muscular imbalances. By strengthening your entire body and keeping your body flexible, you are less likely to incur an injury. The balance of muscular strength helps with decreasing risk of sports injuries. Overall muscle tone in the core and lower body with increased coordination can help with injuries due to aging. 

If you're interested in getting into shape with Pilates, check out our Pilates DVDs and Exercise Books. We also offer a variety of Pilates and Yoga Kits so you can workout at home with your props and workout Mat. Leave comments on your favorite Pilates exercises and questions regarding your Pilates practice.

Dave and I (Natalie) went through a wonderful training last week to get Reiki Certified Level II. We've both had Reiki done on us in the past, and we came across an amazing instructor that we just felt we needed to take this class from. Since Dave and I both have careers where we are hands on healing with patients and clients (Dave is a Chiropractor/Massage Therapist and I am an Athletic Trainer/Pilates Instructor/Aerial Yoga Instructor), we thought Reiki would be the perfect addition to our set of current skills. Both of us have had incidences where we felt as if we picked up heavy energy from our clients or depleted our energy system working hands on healing someone else. Once we found out that Reiki uses divine source energy for healing, and not your own energy source, we knew it was something we both needed to help protect ourselves and to help others on another level.

Rei, in Japanese, means spiritual wisdom. And Ki means life energy. Together the word Reiki is expressed as 'Spiritually Guided Life Energy'. Because the healing life energy is coming from and being guided by a spiritual source greater than ourselves, it does not deplete the healers energy system. For years, we have been using our own energy source to help heal others, which is why we were being depleted of our health at times. Reiki healing energy can be express with hands on a patient, hands a few inches away from a patients body, can be sent over great distances, can be sent into the future or the past, and can even be placed on objects in your home, living spaces, car, etc. Reiki is truly only limited to potential of your creative mind. Anyone is able to tap into their Reiki energy source. We all have the ability within us. But there is a specific attunement process that you must go through with a Certified Reiki Master in order to access true Reiki energy. 

The photo of the symbol that you see above are three Reiki symbols that can send out energy in areas of Power (Cho Ku Rei), Mental/Emotional Healing (Sei He Ki), and Distance Healing (Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen). These symbols can be printed out and placed around your home. You may want to put a Sei-He-Ki under your bed and pillow to help you relax at night. Put a Cho-Ku-Rei under your office desk chair and your couches to help you pull in the Power energy. Place a Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen behind a picture of family member that needs your love and healing from a distance. Have fun with these symbols and start to feel the difference in the energy around you. 

If you're interested reading more on Reiki, check out our book The Complete Book of Traditional Reiki

For those of you interested in having a Reiki session, getting Reiki training, or looking for other spiritual guidance, past life regression, or hypnosis from a well trained Metaphysician, take a look at Carolyn Paige's Website. She's located in Santa Barbara, CA, but also does distance consultations through Skype. 

Leave your comments about personal Reiki experiences and share the abundance of life force energy in your life!

Back in January, I did a cleanse with cutting out sugar for 30 days. It was difficult at times, but I learned a lot about myself, my food cravings, and how food truly was affecting my mood, energy, and emotions. By the end of the cleanse, I wasn't as excited about sugar as I used to be (and I'm the type of person who used to have to have chocolate every day, usually a couple bites multiple times a day!). 

I did treat myself to a yummy cupcake after completing my 30 days, and it was very sugary and tasty! But it just wasn't as satisfying as it used to be. I used to have a strong emotional connection to my chocolate and sugar. I'd get a craving and just had to have it. Or I would need a boost of energy or concentration, so I'd have a bite or two of dark chocolate. But things have truly changed since the cleanse.

Aside from becoming more in tune with how I felt after eating each type of food (which helped me to understand what my body truly liked or disliked), I read a couple books by Doreen Virtue. She's currently one of my favorite authors because of her ability to inspire through her personal experiences and spirituality. I read "Eating in the Light" and "Constant Cravings: What Your Food Cravings Mean And How To Overcome Them" while on the cleanse and afterward. Eating in the Light guides you on a spiritual journey about whether or not to eat meat and all the variety of vegetarian diets, while Constant Cravings explains the emotional aspect of food cravings and how to deal with food cravings.  

I highly recommend the book Constant Cravings to anyone who wants to understand their cravings and start to become more in control of your own eating habits. Once I started to understand where the cravings came from (and realized how much better I tend to feel without those foods), it sort of took the fun out of eating those trigger foods. I simply don't get the same amount of satisfaction out of eating chocolate the way I used to. Don't get me wrong, I still love chocolate and treat myself to desserts on occasion, but it doesn't fill the void with the same euphoria I used to experience.

Through Constant Cravings, I've learned the difference between true hunger and emotional cravings. I have a better understanding of how many of us eat to create a physiological state that falsely satisfies us temporarily, and the true nature of the craving is coming from an emotional need that is not being met. Once you can recognize the emotional need, you can learn to heal that need without food, and therefore become less of an emotional eater and gain control of your life and health.

Check out this book and let me know what you think by posting your comments here. We don't currently offer this book on Better-Wellbeing.com. But hopefully one of these days we will. We do offer a variety of other health related books that can help you heal the emotional spirit within to bring your body, diet, and health back into balance. And if you're looking for a healthy cookbook, we do offer a wonderful Raw Food Cookbook written by Doreen Virtue and Jenny Ross that I use on a weekly basis called Art of Raw Living.

Check Out Our Books here: Better Wellbeing Books

Yours Truly,

Natalie