what are pilates???

You can find tons of references to pilates on the web. Basically, it's a system of excercises designed to strengthen the muscles in the abdominal, side and lower back areas. They refer to this as your center or core. It also is supposed to give you great posture. The system was designed by Joseph Pilates while he was a prisinor of war to prevent his body from wasting away in captivity.

There are many flavors of pilates out there, but they all incorporate several of the basic fundamentals established years ago. Something you'll find interesting is that a lot of the things you hear from your dance instructor for improving your frame, you'll also hear in pilates.

I just started, but what I can tell you is that it's not as easy as it looks in videos or demonstations. I thought I was in good shape, but I'm finding it very challanging to hold and maintain some of the positions. Just Google pilates, and you'll find tons of sites about it.

Good luck.

A friend of mine who is a great dancer in general, latin and the other dances, is of a heaver build. his danceing ability and preformance is just as good or better than the long lean thin dancers. If your naturally not a long lean body type, dont worry too much about not being that way, just keep in good shape. if you are of taht body type, then good for you you have the "look" aready. as for toneing, regardless of body type, pilates is very good for the long lean type of muscles you seem to be looking for. it tones the muscles into the lean muscles of a dancer (thats how ive always heard it put). it is difficult to do at frist, but its worth it from what ive seen. good luck!

Ghoztwolf. Pilates is mostly stretching type positions. I know of a ballet dancer who was injured, ankle injury, was able to keep supple with Pilates.

Do you live near a YW/YMCA or similar?

You can work with a personal trainer to develop an overall program. Overall is better as you don't want to create an imbalance working one area only. That can lead to injury.

Weight training using lighter weights/high reps rather than high weight/low reps builds strength rather than bulk.

OB

Unfortunetly we dont have pilates in Cyprus.I decided to quit gym ang do Yoga for strenght. I think thats the best solution and its similar to pilates, isnt it?

I found great Pilates sutdio and i started taking classes. It realy works and my back is getting stronger. I mean all the exercises are just for types of muscles i need to work out. Thanks very much for i advice, i realy appreciate. the ones who didnt started it yet, i suggest to try. This thing is realy good guys

Ghoztwolf. Nobody mentioned how good Pilates is for balance,Try kneeling on all fours on the floor. Stretch your right leg back to a position horizontal to the floor. Stretch the opposite arm straight out to the front and hold it, is your back straight. Are you perfectly balanced on both sides. Or does it prove that you are balanced one side better than the other, or not balanced at all. If your balance is bad it is because you aren't using the muscles correctly. Look down to the floor also.

Pilates is awesome! I injured my ankle last October and it was the best thing for me because I wouldn't have been introduced to pilates if it weren't for that. Once my ankle healed up several months later my teachers kept insisting that I continue to take classes and what a difference it has made! I'm a dance major at a university (meaning I do tap, ballet, jazz, modern, etc.) but I just started ballroom and latin dancing and if I hadn't taken pilates, I'd be jumbling all over the place. So good for you that you started taking classes! You'll definitely notice a difference in your dancing and you'll wonder how you could ever live without it :)

My teacher adviced me years ago not to buildup the upper body as this can reduce the flexable in the upper body to produce nice arm movements that start from the shoulder muscles, and also interfers with the shaping of the body and the creation of lines. Hope I got that right.