NEW YORK, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Many people begin the New Year with a new exercise program, but a New York City pilates instructor says her regimen is like learning a physical language.
Brooke Siler, author of "Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge," creator of the DVD "Pilates Weight Loss for Beginners" and owner of the nyc Pilates studio, says pilates is like learning a language -- grammar, syntax, vocabulary -- and once your body has absorbed this information -- good sound body movement -- the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
"Once you're gotten it down it works from the inside out," Silar told United Press International.
"You learn to move less conscientiously and it effects how you move that it only takes about a one hour workout once a week -- it doesn't take much to maintain."
Joseph Pilates, a gymnast, designed a system of exercises to improve the rehabilitation program for returning World War I veterans via a few precise movements emphasizing control and form by strengthening, stretching and stabilizing key muscles.
"My teacher, Romana Kryzanowska, the oldest living protege of Joseph Pilates, just embodied his teaching to understand the work -- breathing, centering, concentration, control and precision -- and not just teach the exercises," Siler said.
Pilates created "The Pilates Principles" to condition the entire body: proper alignment, centering, concentration, control, precision, breathing and flowing movement.
