Authoritatively declare: "Pilates is useful for men too!"

I would like to emphasize this obvious fact because I often hear men being puzzeled: "Well, I know it's a useful thing. But why would I personally do it? '.
I'll try to formulate an answer in a popular manner by putting myself (as far as it is possible) in men's place - strong, smart and handsome, the way at they are, of course.

1. Big belly, or "I like beer" (watching football, boxing, going fishing and other sports that are compatible with drinking beer).

Usually, the love to this drink assumes the relevant reservoir to keep it - namely, the capacious stomach.

Surely you've noticed that sometimes you have pain in the lower back for some reason, maybe even neck and knees hurt. Not to mention the problems with the cleaning system of the body.
Definitely it would be a good idea to reduce the amount of consumed beer.


BUT!!
It does not solve the problem arising in the spine, and maybe in other joints of the body.
What happened? Why the pain in the lower back appeared?
The answer is very simple. The abdominal muscles became weak and fail to fulfill their supporting functions. The weight of the stomach and everything inside of it is now hanging on the lumbar vertebrae, which causes their unnecessary amortization.
The conclusion is clear: "I go to the gym, or just lie on the floor and work on my abs."
That's right!

BUT!!
How exactly do I work on my abs? That's the reason why Pilates is the most effective way to solve the problem in this case.

Let's delve into the anatomy.
Awsome six pack, or rectus abdominis — these are not the muscles which support the stability of the lumbar spine, and therefore do not make the movements safe and painless. But these are exactly those muscles which are prone to stress when, trying to strengthen the abdominal muscles, you select the exercises which require lying on his back, on the simulator or anywhere else and lifting the torso.

Another common exercise when you hang on your hands and try to lift your legs to the torso. It is also not suitable because the abdomen is so weak that you will lift your legs in the main with the hip flexors and lower back, and this will exacerbate the pain.

The muscles which stabilize the spine, support the internal organs and create a silhouette are:
- Transverse abdominal muscles
- The pelvic floor muscles

There is another very important group of muscles — the multifidus. These muscles are very small, but their role can not be overestimated.
All of these three muscle groups are the core concept in Pilates — The Center.


If you experience pain in the lower back, even innocuous one, which passes by itself after a couple of days, partitioned muscles just stop working. This affects the entire Center so that this penalize its functions. The Center stops to insure the spine.

The pain goes away. But the functions of the multifidus, and therefore the Centre as a whole, can not restore by themselves. In order to return them to a normal state a specific physical activity is necessary, which is directed exactly to activate the deep muscles.

You never worked purposefully on the Center muscles rehabilitation? This means that the return of pain is inevitable. And each subsequent return becomes even more painful, and the intervals between periods of pain become shorter.

The aim of all Pilates exercises is to strengthen the body and make the body use the abdominal muscles correctly, in the automatic mode while moving.
In addition, there is one more argument in favor of Pilates exercises in this situation.

It is quite possible that as a result of stretch of the abdominal muscles, the rectus abdominis is not only lengthened and weakened. They can be separated due to the stretching of the ligament between the bellies of the recti-called the stomach white line.

In this case, the ordinary abs work out will not make the stomach being flat and strong. On the contrary, the impact on the rectus abdominis will only lead to even more stretchening of the stomach white line, increasing the distance between the rectus muscle bellies and making the body more unstable, stomach weak and lower back sick.

Due to the fact that the preliminary work in Pilates (before you start to implement of complex exercises) is to strengthen the muscles of the Centre (transverse, partitioned, and the pelvic floor muscles), returning them to their normal tone and function. Pilates - this is the shortest way to solve this problem .

2. Athletes

These people, both men and women are very confident in their movements, agile, strong, able to withstand severe physical exertion.

BUT!!
Due to the fact that they are not particularly cautious with the implementation of complex exercises, tricks or other specific loads, their injuries are too serious in nature.

As a rule, each kind of sport has its own typical risk areas in the human body, professional injuries, weaknesses, so to say. The presence of these areas is nothing more than a muscle imbalance that occurs due to the constant and rather monotonous impact on the same muscle groups.

Many professionals practice corrective work, which allows to balance the impact of exercise on the whole body. The advantage of Pilates in this case is the universality of its impact. During the implementation of the same exercises every man gets the load useful only for him or his body, it doesn't matter if it is the muscles strengthening or joint mobilization.

Pilates gives the body an extra resource of strength, and so extends the professional career of an athlete, making the life of sports fans less traumatic.

3. Yoga

Not everybody and not always face with the problems of musculoskeletal system that emerged as a result of yoga training.
BUT!!
The much esteemed and dearly beloved by me yoga can be practiced in very different ways. Without going into a discussion about the effectiveness of the methods, schools, teachers and direction of this wise teaching, I will just list what to pay attention to.

I hope you:

- Do not feel the pain in the cervical spine (and possibly in other parts of the spine), headaches, tinnitus, numbness of extremities
- Keep the balance easily while standing on the toes of the feet, one foot, can thus breathe, speak, and feel confident
- Do not feel the pronounced mood swings
- Your lower ribs and chest as a whole may remain stationary during the hands movements, chest does not slide forward if to compare with pelvis (side view)
- Your feet have equal pressure on the floor holding the body weight while standing
- You can perform the amplitude motions (splits, bridges, side bends, twisting) at any stage of the mastering of these forms in the same way on both sides.

All this tells that your body is balanced. It will not break down just because you do not pay attention to the uneven development of muscles.

Pilates is a coordination of body, mind and consciousness. Pilates can help to solve many problems of the musculoskeletal system, affecting in balanced way on all three of the mentioned above components.

From personal experience I can say that between literate Pilates and literate Yoga no contradictions arise. They organicaly complement and enhance each other's advantages. If it is not like this, it means that the quality of the information you get about one or the other teaching is doubtful.


4. Businessmen and office workers

Regardless of status, security, position or kind of activity, those who sit long hours, especially at the computer, sooner or later face such problems as:

- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Reduced ability to concentrate
- Emotional depression
- Back pain
- Difficulties in the performance of simple everyday actions (tying shoelaces, sitting on the floor with straight back, pronounced stiffness in the movements)
- Disruption of critical life support systems of the body (digestive, circulatory, nervous ones).

Because of the extra busyness of this special category of men, I hasten to save your time and report that Pilates will help you not only to prevent or get rid of the mentioned above problems, but also increase the efficiency, and thus will lead to even greater success in the development of your business.

And if such a "promotional" language is not enough for the sufficient motivation, but still you want to solve some health problems and you prefer to act effectively, read more articles about Pilates on our portal. For example: "Pilates for those who knows nothing about it "or" Posture is the basis of the Pilates method.

5. Drivers

Drivers experience many of the same problems as the people spending a lot of time sitting at a computer (businessmen), plus the risk of hemorrhoids emergence.
All that has been said in favor of Pilates applies to you just as much.

Regarding the specifics of the profession and its occupational diseases (hemorrhoids) I want to add that working with the pelvic floor muscles, which is an integral part of the Pilates technique, makes it possible not only to prevent the occurrence of this disease, but also contributes greatly to his recovery.

6. Summer residents or farmers

Due to the fact that digging the beds implies a prolonged stay in a bent position, the lower back experiences extra load. The lower back pain is almost a normal feeling of the enthusiastic farmer.
Is it worth suffering?

The answer to this question is represented quite amply in the recommendations of paragraph 1 (Big belly, or "I like beer" ). I do not in any way allude to the similarity of the causes of lower back problems in one and the other cases.

7. Erotomaniacs

Precious and dearest! Regardless of your orientation and aesthetic preferences, the technical use of the reproductive organ is the same.
Pilates, in this case, may be interesting to you, as well as to the drivers, because it can effectively exercise the pelvic floor muscles.

Where are they? Exactly there, at the bottom.
Seriously, Pilates dramatically improves men's functionality, prevents  problems with the prostate, can keep not only your soul young, but also the body.
From the gossips Joseph Pilates was almighty:))

Autor: Kateryna Smirnova
Translation: Galyna Dobrovolska
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