Do Fitness Athletes in Melbourne Take Yoga and Pilates Classes?

It’s widely acknowledged that in order to become champions, athletes have to push their bodies to extreme fitness levels. However, what many people don’t know is just how many professional athletes are turning to the mat to complement their fitness Melbourne training regimes.

Both yoga and Pilates are being celebrated by athletes all around the world. Not only do both of these forms of mind/body exercise help athletes to improve strength, flexibility, control and endurance, but they can also deeply enhance professional athletic training regimes, by working to improve muscular posture, avoid injury and stimulate recovery.

Contrary to popular belief, fitness athletes in Melbourne do not hammer through “leg days” and “chest” days seven times a week. Rather, they can see the human body as an integrated system of muscle, bone and drive that requires a more functional movement program, one that creates more power, endurance, balance, mobility and resistance to injury.
In order to do this, they need to make sure their training regime is well balanced and includes both rigorous, cardiovascular workouts as well as regimes that are rehabilitative, restorative and strength conditioning.

Experts have identified seven physical performance factors that are of great significance to an athlete’s overall functional movement program. These include posture, balance, mobility/flexibility, stability, coordination, functional strength and endurance – all of which are addressed with both Pilates and yoga.

In fact, the very development of Pilates was influenced by the needs of some of the best dancers in New York in the twenties. Joseph Pilates’ first Pilates Studio was in the same building of the New York City Ballet, so all of the professional dancers, including George Balanchine and Martha Graham, had immediate access to his method and would regularly attend his Pilates classes for training and rehabilitation.

The dancer’s needs for injury-proof, flexible, controlled physiques helped Joseph inform and refine the Pilates exercise method. It wasn’t long before his Pilates classes ended up becoming the best supplementary dance training a dancer could have, as they bought attention to the performance of deep core support, pelvic alignment and the full range of movement.

Today, Pilates is no longer a method of exercise exclusively practised by professional dancers to stay conditioned and injury-free. It’s evolved over the past 20 years to help a wider group of athletes to accomplish their competitive goals, no matter what sport they participate in. Many athletes practice Pilates and yoga regularly, to help them build their strength and endurance, whilst managing joint pain, injuries and building postural muscles.

Some of the benefits of fitness athletes in Melbourne experience through incorporating Pilates and yoga into their training regime include:
– Improved lung capacity
– Better oxygen flow
– Injury rehabilitation and prevention
– Stress relief and stress management
– Pain management and building of postural muscles
– Improved athletic focus
– Lower blood pressure
– Improved concentration, patience and determination
– Better coordination, flexibility and stamina
– Deeper body awareness
– A better understanding of how their body functions and performs

Both Pilates and yoga are amazing full-body workouts for anyone, not just athletes! To find more about the yoga and Pilates classes we offer at Kaya Health Clubs.

About the Author

Demi fell in love with yoga when she travelled to India when she was 20 years old. She loved the feeling of bliss she experienced both during and after class, and how that feeling would stay with her throughout her day. It was also in India, that Demi learned how much she loved to write about her travels. She believes that stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture in our minds. This led her to her job as a Content Writer. She loves helping businesses tell stories. Especially when the stories involve educating readers on the endless benefits of yoga and Pilates- two of her most loved fitness regimes