Athletes and coaches are always looking for new innovative ways to boost their performance on the field. One unsung gem in the arsenal of many athletes’ training regimens is the dynamic practice of Pilates. 

Pilates has a host of game-changing benefits that could significantly enhance an athlete’s overall performance, including increased strength, power, flexibility, and injury prevention. 

Discover the various intriguing ways Pilates can help athletes take their game to new heights.

Benefits of Pilates for Athletes

Balance 

Pilates exercises strongly focus on core engagement, alignment, form, and posture. These elements help to promote a heightened sense of balance and coordination.

Athletes in sports that require precise movements and quick changes in direction whilst maintaining balance will benefit tremendously from Pilates training. 

Mindful Movements

Pilates nurtures your mind-body connection, helping you gain increased awareness of your body’s position and the subtle movements needed to maintain stability. 

As you fine-tune your body’s control and positioning through consistent practice, it will become easier to make real-time adjustments in the middle of a match. This allows you to perform challenging movements without losing balance. 

Increase in Power 

Pilates exercises have a unique way of targeting and developing significant strength and stability within one’s hips and deep stabiliser muscles. This can be used to the athletes advantage when targeting the hips and trunk, often the base of generated power. 

Enhanced Core Strength 

The core plays a major role in athletic performance in every sport. Developing a strong core will greatly improve many of the movements required in any athletic discipline. 

Your core is vital to building increased strength and power, enhanced endurance to perform at your best for longer, and resilience to pain and potential injuries. 

How Does Pilates Increase Core Strength?

Pilates specialises in mindful, focused engagement on precisely targeted core muscle groups. This will boost your bodily awareness and make subtle but necessary adjustments to activate your core and gain maximum benefit.  

Core Isolation 

A Pilates regimen includes specific exercises that isolate and train every core muscle group, including the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, obliques, and lower back. The various core isolation exercises make for a great, dynamic workout of your entire core.

Controlled Movements

Pilates makes use of a variety of deliberate, controlled movements that demand strong focus and intense engagement on specific core muscle groups that enable you to maintain balance and stability.  

Injury Prevention 

Flexibility 

Increased flexibility prevents sprains and strains that often come with stiff and inflexible muscles. You get to enjoy the freedom that comes with performing demanding, explosive movements without being held back by the worry of injuring yourself. 

Resilient Core

As you build a powerful and durable core, you’ll increase your resilience to external impact without losing proper alignment – reducing your chance of injury. 

Willing to Give Pilates a Shot?

If you live in Surrey and are close to the Cobham, Hersham, Esher, Weybridge or Molesey areas and would like to sign up for your 1st class, you can simply click on this link or learn more about Pilates and Dore Health. 

Contact Us

Feel free to contact us using the information below:

Email: debbie@dorehealth.co.uk 

Telephone: Debbie – 07949 051778