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CLASS DESCRIPTION

REFORMER

**Group Classes up to 6 students by reservations only

**Privates sessions are recommended or join a Beginner's class with Intro Special of $45 for 3 group classes.

 

The reformer is a Pilates machine that is based resistance training. The system of the Reformer is made up of springs, loops, a gliding carriage and a bar, which work on both body and mind. The resistance is created by the combination of springs and ones own body weight. When training the carriage, body, arms and legs are in movement, which challenges and improves a person’s strength, suppleness, balance, coordination and concentration.

 

There are over 3,000 exercises that can be carried out on the Reformer, which gives an intense work out of the entire body. Reformer training is known for creating elongated, strong, supple muscles as well as an athletic figure. The exercises are done lying on the back, front, on the knees as well as sitting and standing depending on the level of the training.  The Reformer is used for both group classes as well as one on one private session.

 

The Pilates Method shapes bodies as it makes them fitter and stronger and more attractive.  It slims the muscles and makes them more compact, developing sleekness rather than bulk.  It turns the abdomen and lower back and hips into a firm central support for a newly supple and graceful body.

 

HISTORY OF PILATES:

Joseph H. Pilates was born in 1883 in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Pilates was a sickly child and suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever, and he dedicated his entire life to improving his physical strength. Besides skiing frequently, he began studying body-building, yoga and gymnastics.

 

Pilates believed that the "modern" life-style, bad posture, and inefficient breathing were the causes of poor health. He ultimately devised a series of exercises and training-techniques and engineered all the equipment, specifications, and tuning required to teach his methods properly.

Pilates was originally a gymnast, diver, and bodybuilder, but when he moved to England in 1912, he earned a living as a professional boxer, circus-performer, and self-defense trainer at police schools and Scotland Yard. Nevertheless, the British authorities interned him during World War I along with other German citizens in an internment camp on the Isle of Man. During this involuntary break, he began to intensively develop his concept of an integrated, comprehensive system of physical exercise, which he himself called "Contrology." It is told that these inmates survived the 1918 flu pandemic due to their good physical shape.

After the war (WWI), he returned to Germany and collaborated with important experts in dance and physical exercise such as Rudolf Laban. In Hamburg, he also trained police officers. When he was pressured to train members of the German army, he left his native country, disappointed with its political and social conditions, and emigrated to the United States.

In 1925, Pilates migrated to the United States. On the ship to America, he met his future wife Clara. The couple founded a studio in New York City and directly taught and supervised their students well into the 1960s. His method, which he and Clara originally called "Contrology," related to encouraging the use of the mind to control muscles. It focuses attention on core postural muscles that help keep the human body balanced and provide support for the spine. Joe's method of exercises teach awareness of breath and of alignment of the spine, and strengthen the deep torso and abdominal muscles.

 

PRINCIPLES OF PILATES:

Principle 1: Centering 
In Pilates, all movements originate from the center of the body, which is located in the pelvis, just bellow the navel (inside). Anatomically, our center connects several large muscle groups and refers to the musculature located deep within the abdominal area. From our center we support our spine and major organs, strengthen the back and improve alignment and posture. With a properly developed center we are less vulnerable to fatigue and lower-back pain. 

Visualize your center as a sphere. As you contract the muscles in this area, imagine the sphere shrinking in size—a three-dimensional movement. During Pilates exercises you want to maintain this contraction without holding your breath. 

Principle 2: Control 
Control is essential to the quality of every movement. The underlying assumption is that exercise motions and movements performed without control can lead to injury, but exercises performed with control produce positive results. 

Principle 3: Concentration 
The mind-body connection is at the very core of Pilates, and the key to coordinating mind and body is concentration. In this discipline, the focus is on careful, precise and slow foundation work. Before you perform or teach a movement, organize your thoughts and cues to encourage full-body awareness. During each movement, stay aware, not only of the moving body part, but also of what the rest of the body is doing. 

Principle 4: Precision 
Movement precision builds on concentration. Realize that every movement has a purpose and every cue or instruction is important to the success of the movement. 

Principle 5: Breathing 
Pilates, like yoga, calls for complete, thorough and purposeful inhalation and exhalation. But in Pilates, unlike in yoga, inhalation is through the nose and exhalation through the mouth. Conscious breathing and specific breathing patterns assist movement by focusing the attention and direction of the body and by delivering oxygen to the muscles being used. Full breathing also assist in removing non-beneficial chemicals that may be stored in the muscles.

Visualize the capacity of the rib cage expanding three-dimensionally with each breath. In three-dimensional breathing, the ribs expand forward, sideways and backward during each inhalation. Pilates reminded practitioners to fill (their) lungs from the bottom and empty them from the top. 

Principle 6: Flowing Movement 
Dynamic fluid movement makes Pilates different from other exercise techniques. Smoothness and evenly flowing movement go hand in hand, assisting the connections (or transitions) between movements. An exercise should have a specific place where it begins and ends, with a seamless middle of precise motion emphasizing grace and control. Don't allow jerky, quick or under movements.

EXO-CHAIRS

The EXO® Chair from Balanced Body® delivers a unique and fun, full-body workout. Pilates Chair workouts are the ultimate for strength-building. The functional resistance allows for a dynamic strength and endurance training, while the challenging exercises creates cardio/aerobic workout. 

Experience some of the Pilates Chair workout at HIIT Pilates classes a high intensity interval training with 20 minute leg work, 20 minute arm work and 20 minute abdominal work.

PILATES BARRE

The Pilates Barre method is a ballet-barre class with combined elements of ballet, dance, Pilates and yoga to strengthen your muscles and get a leaner figure. This method has been designed to improve muscle stability, flexibility and balance. Barre routines are generally 45 minutes to help you gain the benefits of a strong, lean, long and well-toned muscles, as well as endurance.

PILATES CIRCUIT

An intense, circuit cardio-based class for 45 minutes, using a range of different Pilates equipment including Reformer with Jumpboard, Exo-Chair, Tower, TRX, Barre, Bosu Balls, Kettle Bells, Weights and smaller Pilates apparatus.  A variety of different exercises to challenge the body and stimulate the mind, help alignment , balance, agility, endurance and a total body workout.

MOVEMENT THERAPY

Movement Therapy is a gentler approach to Pilates, Gentle Restorative Yoga Somatic Therapy and Thai Bodywork. We use a padded Thai Yoga mat and bolsters, for a comfortable setting as the clients retrains, realigns, and balances the body while enhancing maximum muscle strength and increasing flexibility in a retorative exercise and poses.

 

It aids in decompressing the joints simultaneously stimulates and improves circulation and lymphatic drainage to promotes healthy tissue, alliviate back and neck pain and aids in relieving arthritic joint issues.  The succes of this therapy is with assistance and hand cueing technique of a well trained practioner.

AERIAL DANCE

Aerial Dance is a technique that combines the beauty of dance and silk into a fun workout.  With anti-gravity, this practice elongates the spine, encourages flexibility, proper alignment by strengthening the shoulder and abdominal muscles while relieving compression of the spine, stimulating the nervous system, lymphatic drainage and blood flow.  You will learn how to move your body in ways you never imagined while developing core strength and flexibility.  Most of all, you will be guided by aerialist, Gingy, who has over a decade of experience in Aerial dance, aerial yoga and aerial fitness and has been the pioneer to have brought this practice to Southern Pines/Pinehurst, NC and now in Danville, VA.  Reservations only!

GYROTONIC®

***Private Sessions Only 50 minutes by appointment only

 

The Gyrotonic Method is an original and unique movement method that addresses the entire person, opening energy pathways, stimulating the nervous system, increasing range of motion, and improving strength, and movement efficiency. The Gyrotonic Method is practiced in a private session under the instruction of a qualified Gyrotonic Trainer. With Gyrotonic exercises, each movement flows into the next, allowing the joints to move through a natural range of motion without jarring or compression. These carefully crafted sequences create balance, efficiency, strength and flexibility. For more info log on to: https://www.gyrotonic.com

  HOLISTIC NUTRITION

          COUNSELING

Gingy is a Certified Holistic Health Coach who mentors, supports and advocates those who are seeking a positive change to take control of their lives through conscious eating and awareness in a whole-living lifestyle. A whole-living plant based vegan diet is simple, practical and easy to maximize nutrition while enhancing a life towards healing, preventing and even reversing disease, limiting pain and optimizing an alert mind, a youthful physique and gaining emotional and psychological stability.  Gingy designs a program specifically for the client and assist each one in a step-by-step transition into a no fail program of eating at least 80% raw organic living plant-based food, planning and preparation of meals, snacks, and what to do when you eat out or get a hunger craving. She will teach you easy, affordable, rich high anti-oxidant super food & delicious recipes, the art of juicing and sprouting for a vibrant and youthful glow while alkalinizing, cleansing and detoxifying your body.  This program will expand your knowledge on how to maximize the amount of nutrition, vitamins, minerals & enzyme for your metabolic type. Conscious eating is easy, fun and adaptable to any lifestyle.  WHY LIVE ORDINARY WHEN YOU CAN BE THE EXTRAORDINARY for the rest of your life vibrantly!

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