Find Your Center Wellness Arts

By Kate Feinberg Robins Pilates? Yoga? What Is It? Sometimes it feels like everywhere we look there's a Pilates or yoga studio. Every gym and community center seems to offer Pilates, yoga, or a combined Pilates-yoga class. Are they the same? Are they different? What are they? Mind-Body Practice on a Mat Pilates and yoga are both mind-body practices done on a mat. As mind-body practices, both Pilates and yoga focus on coordinating breath with movement. Because of the focus on mind-body connection, Pilates and yoga are typically done slowly, with careful attention to the details of each movement, position, and breath. Both tend to focus on flowing from one movement or pose to the next, with deliberate transitions in between. Like many mind-body practices, the principles practiced in the studio (such as harmony, flow, and centering) are intended to be applied holistically in everyday life. Typically, yoga exercises and sequences are done on a "sticky mat" or "yoga mat....

By Kate Feinberg Robins To find your center is to control your center of gravity . The most literal meaning of "finding your center" in ballet and capoeira is to physically control your center of gravity by developing and using strong core muscles. Many of the pains, imbalances, and physical vulnerabilities that we experience in our everyday lives can be addressed by strengthening our abdominal, back, oblique, and hip muscles. Lower back pain is what first drew me to Pilates . Many years after I had stopped training ballet professionally, I took a Pilates class and realized that my back pain was due to weak abdominals. I began to practice Pilates daily, which got my core muscles into shape and all but eliminated my back pain. I continued with low-impact Pilates throughout my pregnancy and post-partum, strengthening and rebuilding my core muscles in correct alignment after the bodily trauma of pregnancy and childbirth. If you'd like guidance in figuring out which of your...