Why Pilates & Yoga are as important as "Sweating it Off"

When weight loss is the main goal in an fitness program, we tend to push aside one of the most important things to keep our bodies able to come back for more, mind/body exercise. So often we go on "auto pilot" in order to lose the weight. If your main priority is to burn burn burn those calories, which is all good, but you leave out flexibility & balance as well as "core strength and balance", you will very likely not reach the fitness level you were trying to achieve. You may get injured and that almost always results in the opposite of what we are trying to achieve, and that is weight gain!

Both Yoga and Pilates focus on strength, flexibility and balance of your body and the muscles of your core and throughout your body. When you are balanced, flexible and strong, you can achieve a much greater fitness level with a good mixture of all types of

exercise. You will be able to burn more calories, build more muscle and have more endurance in your cardio exercise.

Get yourself to a Pilates or Yoga class now, schedule it into every week. A DVD is OK but lacks the correction of form that you will get from a live class and the result can be injury so it is best to at least start with a class and attend one as often as possible. I understand a busy schedule and our class schedule doesn't always work with your life so substituting a DVD when necessary is better than nothing. It's best to start with a lower level so you are less apt to injure yourself.

Check the schedule at the gym to get a full description and explanation of each individual class. Have fun experiencing your ability to achieve a whole new fitness level.