We know that an athlete needs to train with discipline and good endurance to ensure optimum sports performance. Before a game, they need to ensure that their body is not too weak or bloated for the event, and they make conscious decisions about food and regular activity.
While many coaches generally prescribe high-intensity exercises to increase sports performance, less intensive practices like yoga and Pilates can also boost your sports performance. This benefits not just a person's physical features but also their mental and psychological well-being.
Professional athletes of all types have found that including Pilates in their training improves their performance, reduces injury, speeds recovery, and keeps their hardworking bodies balanced and healthy.
- Provides Flexibility
Brief hamstrings are common side effects of sports like football and sprinting, which require short bursts of explosive force and speed. This is terrible news for athletes who compete in these sports; stiff muscles can reduce agility and quickness. Unlike other exercises performed with pace and power, performing pilates means taking time to enjoy the moment.
Pilates emphasizes the importance of a smooth flow or pausing for a few seconds before moving on to the next. As a result, you will experience yourself pushing your physical limits without putting undue strain on your body. This gives you a lot more versatility. Pilates works for every muscle group in the body, allowing athletes to attain more natural mobility, relaxed muscles, and smoother transitions.
It can also help you improve your upper body flexibility, particularly significant for golfers whose sport requires a forceful spine rotation.
- Builds Endurance
People understand the importance of breathing for physical health, yet they often overlook it when engaging in sports or regular workouts. On the other hand, Pilates emphasizes good breathing practice while moving, which helps athletes maintain their stamina.
Injuries in games are unavoidable. While many athletes deal with minor bruises, scrapes, and scratches, Pilates teaches them how to build strength and push their personal boundaries without hurting themselves. They are allowed to make adaptations and move at a tempo that respects their abilities at any given time.
- Creates Balance
When athletes combine a passive job with their sport, they often develop muscle imbalances and bad posture. Pilates is the ideal remedy to these issues since it moves the body in all planes and orientations, strengthens any underused muscles, and emphasizes hip, lumbar, and thoracic extension.
Rotational athletes like tennis players or golfers follow the same approach. Because their actions are uneven, misalignments and strength imbalances can occur on either side of the body. To cross-train the body and enhance symmetry, a set of Pilates can focus on the ignored side of the body or work on the opposite movement pattern. As a result, it's a good technique for restoring body balance.
- Build Core Strength
Greater lumbopelvic and hip stability in athletes can improve flexibility, produce power for throwing or rotational sports, and reduce lower–back pain and injury. It improves dynamic core stability and intends to strengthen the trunk in all planes of motion.
Pilates' emphasis on the core, or "powerhouse," creates a foundation of lumbopelvic stability. It also strengthens and stabilizes the hips and trunk while targeting the deep stabilizer muscles. Tennis players and footballers benefit from this because it allows them to maintain balance and produce power even when they are off-balance.
- Recovery and Rehabilitation
Pilates has been utilized in rehabilitation settings to assist injured athletes in healing and post-rehab training. Pilates' relatively leisurely tempo, full range of motion, light myofascial system stimulation, and symmetrical movement patterns assist the body in recalibrating after the speed, stress, and unexpected forces of a game day.
In addition, a well-balanced workout can help restore the body's natural movement patterns and relieve the aches and pains of a strenuous workout.
Pilates should be a part of all athletes' routines, whether they are seasoned or prospective athletes. It prepares them both physically and mentally. They experience quicker movements, keener thinking, and a more evident mindset. It’s unquestionably a must-do in sports conditioning.
To top that, one can even enhance their skills and help others with American Sports & Fitness Association certificate courses. We have specifically tailored two courses – a Pilates Certification and Advanced Pilates Certification, wherein you can choose based on the difficulty level suitable for you. So, ready to take the next step?
