Mental Benefits of Pilates 🧠
While Pilates is mostly known for its exercise and rehabilitation benefits, it also has a great impact on mental health! More recent research shows the benefits to mental health provided by Pilates.
Finding Mindfulness
Breathing is one of Joseph Pilates’ 8 core principles and is an essential component in all classes. Every Pilates exercise involves a breathing pattern that improves the effectiveness of the exercise, supplies oxygen to the muscles, and increases mindfulness. Focusing on your breathing allows the brain to tune out the daily noise such as compiling a to-do list or thinking about what’s for dinner. Breathing work during Pilates directs your focus on the present during the class, emphasizing mindfulness and increasing the benefits of mental health.
Stress Management
Pilates is widely used as a method of reducing and coping with stress. While at Soteria Studio we focus on rehabilitation through Pilates, it is also a form of exercise. Exercise can decrease cortisol in your body and increase endorphins, resulting in a natural mood boost. Due to the extra ‘feel-good’ chemicals, Pilates is improving your ability to respond to stress, ultimately enhancing your stress management skills.
Treating Mental Health Illness
Just as taking Pilates classes as a form of exercise can help with stress resilience, it can also provide benefits to sufferers of mental illness. Studies have shown the importance of exercise in the management of mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. Pilates may assist in the treatment of these mental illnesses and more by offering an opportunity to socialize during the class, improving serotonin levels in the brain, releasing stress and enhancing mindfulness during exercise, and help to create a self-care routine.
These factors and more can provide mental health benefits after a Pilates class. So, next time you’re considering signing up, remember that there is physical, emotional, and mental well-being to be gained from this exercise method. We’d love to have you at Soteria Studio, your Orlando Pilates Studio that welcomes every body. 🤍