How Pilates Benefits All in Everyday Life

Are you curious if Pilates will fit into your lifestyle – or benefit you at all? From my experience teaching Pilates, I would argue that it is the most helpful exercise for a wide range of people and professions. It’s also the best exercise for Antenatal – those who are Pregnant or Postpartum. But that’s another blog altogether.

In my Melbourne studio, whether you are an office worker, tradie, retiree, nurse, schoolteacher, sportsperson (professional or hobby), stay-at-homer, cleaner, gardener, retail worker or factory worker… Pilates is for you!

Why Is Pilates Helpful for Everyone?

Pilates helps increase core strength and stability, and improve posture, movement, and joint mobilisation. Thus, it benefits everybody through all stages of life! You’ll build upper and lower body strength and increase your flexibility. No matter your lifestyle or what you do for a living, Pilates will help you feel renewed and just so much better in your body.

Read on for a snippet of how Pilates can benefit a wide range of individuals in everyday life:

Office or Retail Worker

• Improves posture by mobilising, stretching, and strengthening the spinal muscles while mobilising and stretching the neck.
• Stretches the hamstrings, quads, and hip flexors, which get tight from sitting for long periods.
• Stretches and manoeuvres the lower back, which also suffers from long periods of sitting or standing.

Tradie or Factory Worker

• Increases movement and flexibility, which helps those who work in confined, twisted, or awkward spaces.
• Facilitates general stretching. This is great for many tradies who I find go to the gym to work out but don’t do sufficient stretching exercises.
• Improves balance and the correct recruitment of muscles for situations like climbing ladders or getting up on a roof.

Retiree

• Improves joint mobility (particularly the shoulders, hips and knees) and balance, which we lose naturally as we age.
• Improves overall strength and fitness, which diminishes with the ageing process. Being strong and fit also supports lifestyle activities such as golf!
• Builds core strength to keep the pelvic floor strong and help with abating incontinence.

Nurse or School Teacher (also Retail or Factory Worker)

• Improves back strength and glute activation, which is great for those whose jobs require a lot of bending over.
• Builds upper body strength while stretching and strengthening the lower back, which improves the posture of those who spend long periods standing or on their feet.
• Exercises the calf and foot. This is great rehabilitation for those who are on their feet all day and may suffer from mild plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the toes).

Sportsperson or Bushwalker!

• Provides foundational strength, movement and flexibility to support and improve their chosen activity.
• Supercharges their athleticism and improves their performance.
• Fine-tunes their motor skills and muscle activation by creating a greater understanding of their body.

Stay-At-Homer, Cleaner or Gardener

• Improves balance and glute strength by learning how to get up and down correctly (we all have to clean showers and reach up into cupboards).
• Improves core strength and spine/lower back mobility for tasks that require repetitive one-sided movements like vacuuming, mopping and sweeping.
• Builds upper and lower body strength, which helps when lifting or carrying heavy things.

So, as you can see, no matter your sex, age, occupation, or lifestyle, Pilates can help you feel and perform better in life.

One of the most famous Joseph Pilates quotes, that I see manifest with my clients every day, is this:

Come and see for yourself!

If you have some questions about how Pilates can help you, please contact me.