Lift your load and let the endorphins roll!
Seven super simple explanations of why strengthening is so, so good for you…
- Anytime you lift something* that takes an effort on your muscles you are working them. Simples.
- Your muscles then work harder, might ache a bit, then repair and get stronger, thus adapting to the load, hence next time you can lift something either heavier or for longer.
- Sustained or improved muscles strength adds tone to your muscles and means they will work more efficiently = less energy over working, more energy to the right places **
- More lean muscle supports and protects your bones and connective tissue.
- Good muscle tone supports balance, co-ordination and alignment.
- Any time you strengthen your muscles and move more you release endorphins. (That’s the relief you feel when we say you can stop now and the later post-Pilates-buzz you get that helps you sleep…)
- It can help you sleep better.
So….are we supposed to head to the gym for an hour of lifting some serious weights?
No.
Come to Pilates (obvs) for your veritable feast of strengthening movement, then graze about the rest of your week on movement snacks, and rest to recover and re-build.
Every little helps.
*yourself- you are literally a highly-valuable-energy-efficient-gravity-defying piece of kit: press ups, leg lifts, heel raises, table tops, squats, anything in prone…oh, just anything in class! At home, try snacking on taking the stairs two at a time and find weights everywhere like carry the shopping further to the car,press-ups on the work surface, lift anything you can (pets/children/bags of flour…)
**Consider your calorie intake as a daily budget of energy. Muscles need feeding to produce energy and recover, so they use up calories (so can help keep you a healthy weight) but also then help your body distribute calories to your brain and other necessary organs to work in tip top condition.
