Anyone under 30 ....
Align Fitness
.... please do Pilates at least once a week!
Run a marathon, climb Mount Everest, swim the Straits of Mackinac, hold your down dog for 15 minutes, keep going to spin class 3 times per week. Keep doing all the activities you love to do, but just add a Pilates class taught by a certified Pilates instructor.
Pilates will teach you awareness, control, how to breathe and keep breathing during movement (which is different than yoga which teaches you to breathe while standing still and challenging your body).
Pilates will show you where you are weak. Is your left ankle stronger than your right?
It will show you where you are tight and where you are hyper-mobile. Do you have less mobility in your right shoulder? Is it easier to rotate to the left than to the right?
Pilates will show you how you have learned to compensate for any imbalances you might have. It teaches you how to stabilize while in motion. It teaches your body how to properly activate muscles, how to fire your transversus abdominis and pelvic floor muscles prior to movement.
Yes, Pilates can do all of that and way more when taught by a certified instructor.
As we age, our habits become more and more difficult to change. And I would add, more and more difficult to even become AWARE of what those habits are and what may be their consequences. Often times, the consequences of chronic improper posture, hyper-extension of knees/elbows, rounded shoulders, to name a few, might not show up in the body for years. By that time, the only thing many of us do to solve those aches and pains is reactive, like surgery, whereas Pilates is proactive, getting at potential problems before they require an invasive solution if addressed early enough to make a difference.
But they start when we're young, when we're 20 or 30. I have seen so many clients in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who are dealing with pain or discomfort from some poor habit of repetitive motion or posture or walking and they say to me, gosh I wish I started Pilates when I was 28! Then maybe I'd be able to walk up the stairs without hobbling up! Pilates, unfortunately, is something that many people come to adore after there's a problem already occurring (me included!). Dang I wish I started Pilates when I was 28!
Starting a Pilates practice when you're young will help you live in your body with better awareness as you get older. So that just maybe you'll be able to feel that misalignment of your hip before it leads to knee surgery 25 years later!