Life Time Fitness : Resource List - Yoga and Pilates

Pilates Class Descriptions

webmaster@lifetimefitness.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:21:21 GMT

Practice
MAT PILATES
Learn to utilize and strengthen your powerhouse: deep abdominal muscles, obliques and lower back in this one-hour class that combines the precise movements of Pilates with traditional fitness elements. This class is available through Group Fitness.

YOGA-PILATES FUSION
Get the best of both worlds! Yoga and Pilates fused together with an approach designed for the mainstream fitness participant. This class is available through Group Fitness.

Explore
Join us for special events and seminars throughout the year to help you deepen your practice of Pilates. Visit your local Life Time Fitness LifeStudio or online to find out about upcoming events.

Learn More
“Beginning” Pilates Personal Training series
A minimum of five one-hour private sessions, scheduled through the Lifestudio Coordinator.
Member fee varies by level of instructor ($59 to $99). Reduced fees for groups of two or three are available.

Pilates Fundamentals Intensive
Six-week sessions meet once a week and include an additional one-hour personal Pilates session.
Contact your Lifestudio Coordinator for more information.
Member fee: $220

CONTINUING THE JOURNEY
After you have completed one of the beginner Pilates options above, our experienced trainers will work with you to accelerate your fitness progress with a choice of private lessons, classes or a combination of both.

Personal Pilates Training Sessions
With a private or semi-private session, you’ll focus on precise exercises using Pilates equipment. Individualized instruction provides the opportunity to address your specific goals, physical strengths and limitations. Contact your Lifestudio Coordinator for more information.
Member fee varies by level of instructor ($59 to $99)

Pilates Small-Group Classes
The following comprehensive Pilates classes are a great way to achieve your goals while enhancing endurance and exercise form in a drill-like format using a combination of the Reformer, Cadillac and mat equipment. Class size is limited to three to five people who share your desire for support, motivation and results. Based on the nature of these sessions and for your safety, you must have minimum foundational work and your instructor’s approval to register for the following classes. Contact your Lifestudio Coordinator for more information.

Pilates 1
Designed for students progressing from either the private or group getting started series. This course further enhances your knowledge, incorporating intermediate add-on exercises that will enhance strength, endurance and quality of movement.

Pilates 2

Designed for students progressing from Pilates 1 who have been working with their trainer to develop intermediate level proficiency. In addition, students must demonstrate exceptional alignment, strength, stamina, control and knowledge of Pilates foundational concepts. Students will continue their work through the beginner and intermediate exercises while incorporating advanced add-on exercises with additional focus on precision, flow and concentration. Please check with your instructor if you wish to progress to this level.

Pilates 3
Designed for students progressing from Pilates 2. Students will maintain foundational skills while incorporating advanced add-on exercises with additional focus on precision, flow and concentration while further increasing strength, endurance and flexibility. Please check with your instructor if you wish to progress to this level.

Pilates 4
Designed for students progressing from Pilates 3 who are physically and mentally ready to take their practice to a higher level. You will maintain your foundational skill and fitness level while being challenged with advanced-level exercises. Please check with your instructor if you wish to progress to this level.

Eight-week sessions include 16 progressive classes that meet twice per week.
Member fee: $400 (Or two installments of $200).

Workshops
Workshops are educational yet physically challenging events that provide you deeper insight into the physical and/or mindful practice of yoga. Workshops generally run between one to four hours. Contact your LifeStudio Coordinator for more information.

LifeStudio Locations

webmaster@lifetimefitness.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:54:27 GMT

Click on the links below for contact information for our LifeStudio locations.

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What is Pilates?

webmaster@lifetimefitness.com — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:37:48 GMT

Pilates is a method of exercise and physical movement designed to stretch, strengthen, balance, and condition the body. With systematic practice of specific exercises coupled with focused breathing patterns, Pilates has proven itself invaluable not only as a fitness endeavor itself, but also as an important adjunct to professional sports training and physical rehabilitation of all kinds.

The consistent practice of Pilates yields numerous benefits. Just as in Yoga, Pilates puts emphasis first on breathing. Strength and flexibility, particularly of the abdomen and back muscles, coordination -- both muscular and mental, are key components in an effective Pilates program. Posture, balance, and core strength are all heartily increased. Bone density and joint health improve, and many experience positive body awareness for the first time. Pilates teaches balance and control of the body, and that capacity spills over into other areas of one's life.

Pilates as a method began around 1914, when Joseph Pilates was a performer and a boxer living in England and, at the outbreak of WWI, was placed under forced internment along with other German nationals in Lancaster, England. There he taught fellow camp members the concepts and exercises developed over 20 years of self-study and apprenticeship in yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman physical regimens. It was at this time that he began devising the system of original exercises known today as "matwork", or exercises done on the floor. A few years later, he was transferred to another camp, where he became a nurse/caretaker to the many internees struck with wartime disease and physical injury. Here, he began devising equipment to rehabilitate his "patients," taking springs from the beds and rigging them to create spring resistance and "movement" for the bedridden.

Joseph Pilates originally called his work "contrology." He considered this to be a body/mind/spirit approach to movement founded on the integrative effect of principles such as centering, concentration, control, precision, breath, and flow. Whether one is working out on a mat or using Pilates equipment, like the reformer or cadillac, these basic principles infuse each exercise with intention and fullness of expression:

Centering: Physically bringing the focus to the center of the body, the powerhouse area between the lower ribs and pubic bone. Energetically, Pilates exercises are sourced from center.
Concentration: If one brings full attention to the exercise and does it with full commitment, maximum value will be obtained from each movement.
Control: Every Pilates exercise is done with complete muscular control. No body part is left to its own devices.
Precision: In Pilates, awareness is sustained throughout each movement. There is an appropriate placement, alignment relative to other body parts, and trajectory for each part of the body.
Breath: Joseph Pilates emphasized using a very full breath in his exercises. He advocated thinking of the lungs as a bellows -- using them strongly to pump the air fully in and out of the body. Most Pilates exercises coordinate with the breath, and using the breath properly is an integral part of Pilates exercise.
Flow: Pilates exercise is done in a flowing manner. Fluidity, grace, and ease are goals applied to all exercises. The energy of an exercise connects all body parts and flows through the body in an even way. Pilates equipment, like the reformer, are very good mirrors of one's flow and concentration as they tend to bang around and suddenly become quite "machine-like" if one loses ones control and flow.

Information courtesy of Pilates Method Alliance