Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 - (Page 14)

Athletes Mind/body exercise — now a regular part of sport conditioning Two of the most popular forms of mind/body exercise today, yoga and Pilates have both shown their strengths in the fitness industry. Now they show aptitude toward training an extensive niche market: athletes. Pilates and Yoga for By Alyssa Dinowitz and Kerrie Lee Brown to help a wider group of athletes to accomplish their competitive goals, no matter what sport they participate in,” explains STOTT PILATES President and CEO, Lindsay G. Merrithew. “And that’s why top ﬁtness facilities and elite sports and conditioning trainers are introducing the beneﬁts of Pilates to their athletes for rehabilitative and strength conditioning purposes.” Experts have identiﬁed seven physical performance factors of great signiﬁcance to athletes’ overall conditioning practices and rehabilitation of sport-related injuries, including: posture, balance, mobility/ ﬂexibility, stability, coordination, functional strength and endurance — all of which are addressed with Pilates. “Pilates works on developing kinesthetic awareness of the body, or where it is in relationship to itself and the world around it. It also focuses on good postural alignment, which will help an individual perform a movement eﬃciently, thus reducing the amount of unnecessary strain on the participants in the United States alone. And athletes are turning to this form of exercise as a complement to their training regimens to get an edge on their competition. In the second annual Fitness Trends survey conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine, Pilates made the top 10 list of trends for 2008. In fact, top-dollar athletes are also turning to this form of exercise to stay on top of their game and prevent injury. For these reasons, we are seeing numerous pros incorporating Pilates into their workout routines, including golfers Tiger Woods, David Duval and Steve Ballesteros, basketball star Jason Kidd, pitcher Curt Schilling, pro hockey player Carlo Colaiacovo and oﬀensive lineman Ruben Brown, among others. “Pilates helps athletes develop core strength, increase ﬂexibility, assist in rehabilitation after injury and create balance throughout the entire body,” says Moira Merrithew, Executive Director of Education for STOTT PILATES. “As a result, athletes can withstand rigorous training regimens and ultimately improve their golf drive or baseball pitch, prevent or recover from injury and maintain an optimal ﬁtness level for the activity of choice.” Pilates is one of the fastest-growing forms of exercise in the world, with more than 10 million Beneﬁts for Athletes Pilates helps build strong, healthy muscles, improves blood ﬂow and engages all the muscles at the right time. It works your body inside and out for optimal body conditioning — and is ideal for anyone wanting to expand their exercise regimens to include overall toning and strengthening moves that also work the inner mechanism of the body. “Pilates is no longer a method of exercise exclusively practiced by professional dancers to stay conditioned and injury-free. It’s evolved over the past 20 years 14 OCTOBER2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Current Controversies Combating with Obesity Pilates and Yoga for Athletes New! The Balancing Act The Top Prize Building a Base of Special Populations Datebook The Success Image The Anatomy of a Fitness Assessment Branding Training Ruts Product Profile New on the Market

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.