Pilates: the workout that takes yoga up a level

For most beginners, the very first session can leave the body feeling sore and full of aches and pains the next day."Controlling your movement with precision and efficiency, staying with the breath and being aware in the moment, can all be difficult!" Johanna Nichols, a yoga and Pilates instructor at Flow Yoga Center said. "All of the poses, when done correctly, should be challenging."

Athlete-turned-Pilates instructor, Donald Ali, agrees. "Pilates is not easy," he said. "I found that this is harder than it looks . but once I did it, I enjoyed it."

Ali, an instructor at Shakti Mind Body Studio has been teaching Pilates for nine months, enjoys it as an alternative to lifting weights to strengthen the body. "It helps you control your body," he said. "A lot of people walk around without control of their body."

Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates, a German native who as a sickly child, found an interest in body strengthening. He drew from the ancient principles of yoga, Zen and Greek principles, among other studies to design a sequence of movements which is now known as mat Pilates, in the 1920s.

While interning in England during World War I, he improved his technique to help patients, using bed springs as light resistance exercises. This became the foundation for Pilates Apparatus. Pilates later moved to New York where he opened the first New York Pilates Studio in 1926.

With regular practice, Pilates yields numerous benefits including improved core strength, back health, balance, and flexibility. Athletes often use Pilates in training and those injured often use it for rehabilitation.

"Pilates is very popular at our studio with most of the classes filling up in advance," Nichols said. "We leave a limited number of spots for walk-ins, most of the students sign up in advance on line."

With its roots in yoga, the similarities the two share are brought together to create a class called Mat Fusion at Shakti.

"I can definitely tell that my core is stronger," Jessica Woods, a student in the class said. Woods, who has been doing Pilates for a year and yoga for five years, believes Pilates is harder. "I feel like the benefits in Pilates are purely physical. Yoga is more psychological with a mind body focus," she said.

Michael Wright, the owner of Body College Pilates, LLC, has trained over 2,000 students in the Pilates Method.

"Body College has been in business for over 10 years. When we first started, everyone was concerned about Pilates being a fad," he said. "I kept arguing that it was not. Why? Because Pilates works."

While many yoga studios concentrate on Pilates in a mat work out form, Body College takes Pilates off the mat and onto the apparatus.

"The mat work is really just using your own body weight. At Body College you start on the floor with the mat work," he said. "You eventually get up on your feet and do upright Pilates, then the machines give you advantage."

According to Wright, the machines help with posture and add extra challenge because they go beyond the body weight. It is also beneficial to those with injuries or issues with muscle imbalances.

"When you're on the machine you have mechanical advantage to choose which muscles you want to fire up," he said.

Though Wright believes that, "trying to learn Pilates from a video is like diagnosing yourself with a personality disorder," Body College Pilates allows students to bring in their Pilates or Exercise videos, so that an instructor may help them with the workout.

"Go at your own pace," Nichols gives as advice for beginning Pilates. "It is better to get the correct form on one repetition than not get it at all. Quality of movement rather than quantity. Breathe and have fun.