Skaneateles (WSYR-TV) – The three main reasons people don’t exercise are that they either don’t have the time and they don’t like it, or they get bored with their workouts.
If you want to get in shape for the New Year, you might want to try something different -- perhaps Pilates is the right exercise routine for you.
Arlene Renee Reese has been teaching Pilates for 20 years, before most people had ever heard of it. Her teacher learned from Joseph Pilates, who designed the body conditioning routine to build flexibility, muscle, strength and endurance.
NewsChannel 9’s Carrie Lazarus had given Pilates a shot a few times, but she never had one-on-one instruction. Arlene helped her to keep her back from arching, by pulling the abdominals down. They then ran through five mat exercises.
They worked on things like: the single leg stretch, the double leg stretch, the straight leg stretch, leg raises and something called criss cross.
Carrie said she could feel her abs working overtime and she said you definitely work up a sweat.
If you want to give Pilates a try, Arlene recommends taking a couple of classes and says the way the exercises are done is even more important than the exercises themselves.
“You have to just be disciplined, that’s the thing. If you can do mat at home and also take some mat classes to fill in, then you definitely get a lot out of it,” Arlene said. “A lot of the professional athletes are finding that keeping their core strong really enhances everything that they do.”
Even SU basketball coach Jim Boeheim takes Pilates.
“It’s very difficult, but it’s good,” Boeheim said.
If you’d like to learn more, head over to the
Gazella Performance & Wellness Studio’s website.
