[Closed] any fella's on here do pilates??

i would go to the wife's pilates class if i could commit to a regular thing like that, which i can't

there's 2 blokes in her class, one of them is a cyclist and he seems to like it

neither of them are gay if that's what you are worried about

I do lots but only at home. Not aware of any classes nearby but my physio gave me a Pirates routine to do and I do it 3x weekly. Made a massive difference to my back.

i do yoga once a week is great for core strength and my hamstrings are sooo much better now

Pirates routine

awesome, i want your physio/drama teacher

Got recommended it by a physio type after suffering back probs due to poor core strength. I found it very slow and dull TBH - the exercises are good for the core but there's a lot of emphasis on relaxing and laying about a lot between exercises. Most gyms have 'abs' type classes that replicate all the same exercises but at a lot higher intensity.

It's all simple stuff you can do at home though.

My wife (honest!) has a Davina McCall DVD which has a whole section on decent core strength stuff.

I go through fits and starts of doing Pilates. There is no doubt that it increases your core stability, and in my experience helps reduce back pain. However, I would strongly recommend that you get some tuition first, before doing it on your own at home.

Pilates is all about isolating your deep core muscles, and making them work with small controlled movements. I can almost guarantee that if you do it on your own, without guidance, you will try to hard, trigger the major muscle groups, and not get nearly as much out of it. In which case, you would really just be rolling around on your living room floor for no good reason. Of course, that may not be a problem...

The gym i used to go to did a few yoga sessions that were quite interesting. They were fairly active sessions, as opposed to the lying down, relaxing type yoga.
I noticed a definite improvement in flexiblity & balance after a few months. Used to do it at home every now and again too, once I'd learnt a few of the moves.

Should really start doing it again - I only stopped when I left the gym.

Never tried pilates though.

Started doing yopga, but seem to have let it slide for some weeks (work, mainly).

pilates strikes me as being a good idea, too.

Lots of very bendy ladies at the yoga class I went to. Nearly got a crick in my neck....

+1 about bendy ladies only trouble is mine is organised at work so i have to look these girls in the eye the next day after having seen some very initimate poses
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I would defintely say get tuition (individual if you can afford it). It is all very well knowing what the various moves are, but if you are anything like me , it is incredibly easy to do them wrong. Even after several years of doing Pilates off amd on, I find it still helps having someone point out why you are not doing stuff correctly.

I used to do Yoga for snowboarding. I think the flexibility and core strength improvement really reduces your risk of injury so I would recommend it for that reason alone - the stress reduction/relaxation bit is an added bonus too.

I dont, but I know I should.

[i]i want your physio[/i]
I want my physio too.

My mates wife was one of the first to start classes in the UK and there is definately a lot in it, but as already suggested I would make sure you have been doing classes for a bit before going it alone, she has done loads and loads of training to be an instructor, and there is an awful lot to do wrong (though probably not catastrophically).

I have only done a few classes & there is a lot in it, its not supposed to be high intensity if you want that go circuit training, however it never failed to supprise me how much seemingly nothing excersises can actually make you ache the next day..

i used to; just waiting for time & money to start again. i think its brill but also helps with climbing strength.

>lot of emphasis on relaxing and laying about a lot between exercises

Get a new instructor 😉

I've been doing pilates for something like 8 or 9 years I guess - been going to classes all that time too, tho' my gym has an intermediate/advanced group and the instructor that runs it introduces new stuff from time to time. Several of the other attendees have got there through having back trouble - in fact, as our instructor did. She was in quite a bad car accident many years ago (already a fitness instructor) and reckons before she started Pilates the prognosis wasn't great...

You ought to at least get something like 8 or 10 sessions under your belt to get the breathing/posioning correct, that'll probably cover you for most of the basic moves too. Tho' there's several versions of most things according to flexibility/strength, and a good instructor ought to introduce the more challenging variations accordingly.

Nowadays you'll often seen general gym exercise that have kinda borrwed from Pilates - (which in turn borrows from yoga, etc.)
FWIW Joseph Pilates devised it to rehabilite soldiers - it's used a lot by dancers too. You'll only ever see the matwork exercises in gyms, but there's a machine element to it too :

http://pilates.about.com/od/pilatesequipment/ig/Large-Pilates-Equipment-Pics/

You'll only see that in purpose built studios - tho' you may notice a distinct similarity in function with some stuff that appears on shopping channels 😉

There's a few simple bits of equipment we use - a foam roller (put under/along your spine for some exercises - it destabilises you so you have to work your core harder), a latex band (sounds silly but there's a few things it adds extra resistance to, or helps support), and more recently a small inflatable ball (eg adds inner thigh work to other exercises)

It's quite funny that it's got such a 'girlie' image - pick the right level and it's pretty ****ing hard. (Pick the right class and the view in front can be...err...not unpleasant 😉 )

As a few people have said, even if you do stuff at honme it's worth going back periodically to make sure you're not getting bad habits and to picks up new variations.

I can dig out a few book recommendations if yer like, tho' some exercises vary a bit between different 'schools/methods'.
You can still get Joseph Pilates books as a two-in-one reprint, tho' some of it makes amusing reading...not quite 'don't do that, it'll make you go blind' but close. Not very useful as a exercise source tho', kinda assumes you can do all the exercises well already, iyswim.

>and there is an awful lot to do wrong

when I first started doing it, our instructor had some of us doing straight leg raises over the head. Fast fwd about 4 years and she almost has a fit when I started doing 'em in class, and swears blind she'd never have taught it...forgetful lass 😉