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eLearning Series:
Your Most Popular Exercise & Fitness Questions
Learn the right way to get into
shape...
( 50 articles
in this series )
Pilates
vs Yoga
The yoga craze of the late twentieth century
ended up segueing into the Pilates craze of the early 2000’s
but many people questioned the exercise value of both. Despite
media hoopla, few people actually seemed to understand the
physical benefits of either. The truth is that both
forms of exercise have unique approaches to fitness and can
provide
significant benefits for the strengthening and conditioning
of the body. Though similar in the focus on strengthening the
body through isometric movements, the paths of yoga and Pilates
ultimately diverge.
Yoga
was developed over five thousand years ago in Northern
India. It is first mentioned in the sacred Hindu text Rig Veda.
During its first clear period, yoga was practiced and refined
by Vedic priests, who documented the practice in their writings.
Patanjali, who is considered by most to be the father of classical
yoga, fostered the next phase of yoga’s development. Following
Patanjali’s broad expansion of yoga and its meanings, Tantric
yoga became accepted as the new form of yoga and concentrated
on cleansing both the mind and the body. Yoga finally neared
its modern form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century when more and more Indian yogis traveled to the West,
sharing their art and increasing the world’s interest in yoga.
The 1947 premiere of Indra Devi’s yoga studio in Hollywood
became the opening bell to the American fascination with yoga.
While most incarnations of yoga have had a strong spiritual
element, modern Hatha yoga does not align itself with any religion
or spirituality; instead it focuses primarily on the yoga postures
and using them to reach and maintain strength and flexibility
as well as inner calm.
Compared to yoga,
Pilates is a spring chicken in terms of age. Joseph Pilates,
who was born in Germany and suffered frail
health as a child, created the program. Pilates overcame
his childhood sicknesses through exercise and began to create
a
system of physical development that would later become his
legacy to the world. In his thirties, Pilates traveled to England
to work as a self-defense instructor to Scotland Yard but was
forced into an internment camp during World War I. Despite
the hardship of internment, Pilates went about his business
within the camp, teaching his physical program to his fellow
internees. During the terrible flu epidemic of 1918, thousands
of people died, but none of Pilates’ protégés
were affected. Following the war, Pilates returned to Germany
but left for good when asked to teach his method to the German
army. Settling in New York City with his new wife, Pilates
opened his first fitness studio. He taught thousands of students
until his death in 1967 at the age of 87. Trusted students
carried on with the Pilates name and method, and by the early
twenty-first century more than 5 million Americans were practicing
Pilates.
Despite
the wildly different histories, yoga and Pilates
share the same focus on developing the muscles of the body
and strengthening
it by primarily using the body’s own resistance to build up
power. The postures of yoga and the movements of Pilates are
sometimes strikingly similar, but ultimately the two follow
separate roads. Yoga has spawned a multitude of varieties that
range from Kundalini to Iyengar to Tantric, though Hatha remains
the most popular form in the United States. Many first-time
yoga practitioners can find the pace to be overly slow or grow
impatient while waiting to see results. The best candidate
for Hatha yoga is a person who appreciates time to slow down,
meditate, and spend quiet time with oneself, and does not become
easily discouraged by failure to immediately master a pose.
Yoga requires a certain measure of patience and while this
can be developed through practice, lacking it can make the
first several weeks of yoga practice very trying for a person.
The good thing about yoga is that it rarely requires extra
equipment. You will need a yoga mat to begin with but after
that, accessories are optional. Blocks, straps, and other tools
can be helpful, but are not required.
Pilates
is a method that is fairly easy to master. It doesn’t
call for complicated movements and is usually straightforward
and simple to understand. The program’s movements also tend
to build strength fairly quickly so that results are apparent
sooner than in yoga. The ideal Pilates practitioner should
be able to discipline himself to complete his routine every
day, which is a large part of the method. Attending classes
is a great way to start but for the maximum results, the method
should be practiced daily to benefit the body. Pilates typically
doesn’t require many props or accessories, though advanced
practitioners will probably want to add machines or tools to
their collection in order to maintain a high level of fitness.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2005
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