Pilates Info Guide

Pilates for Beginners

Pilates for beginners can be very intimidating. Here I hope do dispel some myths and give you some good, solid information on what you need to do in order to start a Pilates for beginners program.

There are several different approaches people take at learning pilates for beginners—you can take a pilates class at a gym, you can go to a pilates studio and take a personal class, or even a class with just one or two other people, or as a larger group, or you can also learn at home with a pilates DVD.

Personally, I would almost always recommend starting out with a personal pilates trainer if you are new to pilates. Learning pilates for beginners can be fairly difficult, and you do risk injury if you try to learn it by yourself. Of course, for many people hiring a personal pilates instructor can be too expensive. In that case I would still recommend you trying to learn pilates, but be a little more careful and pay attention to the details as much as possible.

Perhaps even more important if you are learning pilates as a beginner, and not learning in a one-on-one environment, is to really study the pilates philosophy and technique. Pilates is not like lifting weights, where all you really concentrate on is resistance training. Even pilates for beginners will involve flexion, extension, and rotation of the spine – things that you never get when bench pressing in a gym.

One last bit of advice I have been given: If you are a pilates beginner, then go to the pilates for beginner classes and/or buy the videos that are for beginners. Do not think that because you are an amazing athlete that you can skip out on learning the principles of Pilates. Trust me, even with beginner classes you will still get a great workout—you just won’t risk doing something that you are not ready for and hurt yourself.

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