Learn about Pilates and Pollution

Female: It may have been the talk of tinsel town for the past 10 years. But Pilates has actually been around since 1917. Joseph Pilates founded this form of exercise to rehabilitate soldiers who couldn’t walk after the First World War the main things you will notice in the modern Pilates Studio are springs and stretches.

This all Joseph had to work with in the military hospitals and they proved to be very effective. So he kept using them after the war as part of his body conditioning technique. Some gyms offer a water down version of Pilates that can be done like aerobics on the floor. But a bona fide Pilates instructor would never start you out that way, a beginner will be given the smallest and gentle as movements to perform on a piece of equipment.

Female2: If you have good alignments, it means it has less wear and tear and less trained several parts of the body. And it is just much more economic way of living so I think in this age first. A lot of people have suffered in their jobs and they got quite unhealthy life so they need to do something as counter poses their lives up.

Female: Pilates is just as much about the brain as it is about the body. Joseph was interested in the economy of movement. How can you perform a movement using fewer muscles with optimum efficiency?

Most people over recruit muscles to perform simple task which waste energy and misaligns the body. Your first Pilates exercises will be simple movements done repeatedly until you reach optimum efficiency and create a new path way in your brain. That will have you moving unconsciously more efficiently in everyday life.

Call strength and breathing awareness are also key components of Pilates. Joseph called the core muscles the powerhouse from which all other movements’ spring. Whatever age you are, it is never too late to get younger with Pilates.

Remember when the sky was blue and sand was yellow, pollution is painting a deadly picture for the future of the world. The time to act is now, British scientist have been shocked to discover trillions of what they call mermaid tears. Tiny fish egg sizes palates of plastic are now scattered irretrievably throughout the ocean’s sands.

You thought un-recycled plastic bottles on the beach were bad. Scientists are scared that as they break down into smaller Mermaid’s Tears they will be swallowed by sea creatures, dissolved in their guts and become a permanent part of the food chain. It seems fossil fuels have a lot to answer for. Before the industrial revolution and later the invention of cars, it was possible to stand on a hill and see for up to 90 miles according to the American EPA.

But now, haze from pollution has restricted our view of our lovely planet down to 20 miles. But the lost of a pretty vista is the least of our worries; currently they are over 500 million cars on the planet. By the year 2030, this is set to increase to 1 billion according to major studies done in America and Ireland. The mortality rate from cardio-respiratory illnesses and certain cancers rises and falls parallel to spikes and drops in air pollution levels.

Thankfully the 2005 Kyoto protocol looks set to reduce four major industrial air pollutants by 2012. But will it be strong enough to offset pollution from the major increase in personal motor vehicles or are we bound to see over the next 20 years? Can you do without your car?

Choose a Pilates instructor who practices clinical Pilates or has trained with a Pilates foundation.