Equipment
Life Fit uses the state of the art yoga, pilates, and exercise equipment to maximize students’ practice, safety, and fun!
Yoga Wall
Rope walls have been used for centuries to allow traction, support, and a different experience with respect to gravity. The yoga wall aids balance and allows conditioned bodies to work at getting to the top of their game. The support of the wall allows feedback so that poses away from the wall are more finely tuned.
Mona traveled to California in summer 2004 to learn about yoga wall use. She is one of the first people in the United States to hold a certification for proper use of the yoga wall.
Pilates Reformer
The Pilates Clinical Reformer® like most reformers, was designed as a rehabilitative tool. This top of the line reformer allows for many more adjustments and variety in the practice. Though the rehabilitative application is meant for people dealing with orthopedic, neurologic and chroic pain, reformer work is used equally for athletic training and general core strengthening.
WHY DOES PILATES WORK?
A very important and unique element of both Pilates reformer and matwork is learning to rethink movement, hold better posture, apply breath work and minimize any undue strain from the initiation to the completion of any exercise. Students begin to subconsciously translate this to functional movement and optimize on the strength gains they build. Here we get to "reteach" our body the lessons of correct form and movement that can possibly stay for a lifetime.
CONSIDERATIONS
As with any exercise program, it is important to check with your physician before beginning. If you are pregnant, injured or in any way compromised physically, it is imperative that you get the approval of your doctor first. However, the Pilates reformer and other apparatus were designed originally for rehabilitation. Joseph Pilates is regarded as the "father of physical therapy." Patients undergoing physical therapy are to complete their doctor's orders for their physical therapy visits but, overlapping with reformer work toward the end of prescribed physical therapy could create a seamless continued effort to insure continued improvement.
The overall goal is to break bad habits that come from overuse, aging and settling, injury. and inherited issues. We want to build a greater sense of body awareness and enjoy moving correctly. With that comes better posture, a stronger core, better balance, suppleness, graceful movements and an overall feeling of well-being!
“In ten weeks you will begin to feel the changes in your body. In twenty weeks you will begin to see the changes in your body. In thirty weeks, you will have a brand new body.”
-Joseph Pilates
The Cadillac
Whether sitting, standing, kneeling, lying, or even upside down, the springs, bars, mat and trapeze of the Cadillac offer an incredibly diverse Pilates experience, allowing us to challenge the body in multiple planes of motion.
The Cadillac supports fitness and rehabilitation for all ages and levels with an extensive range of exercises.
Core Align
In Life Fit small group classes, the CoreAlign™ is a great way to introduce Pilates concepts and principles into an upright position relative to gravity, supporting human function in the real world.
The moving tracks of the CoreAlign™ provide dynamic balance challenges, while adding variable resistance through a range of movement for all exercises.
The CoreAlign™ has become a primary modality for therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular control and gait training and rehabilitation practice. It is appropriate for clients/students from ages 9-99 with various diagnoses, conditions and fitness abilities.
CoreAlign™ exercises are FUN and relate to everyday and athletic movement. The element of fun makes you forget that you are working out.
The upright functional strength work of the CoreAlign™ provides a great option for students who are unable to lay down to exercise (those with vestibular issues, glaucoma, pregnant students, etc).
CoreAlign™ exercises imitate the reciprocal leg movements involved in gait and many of our daily activities, while helping to bring balance to both sides of the pelvis.
The CoreAlign™ is a great tool for both fitness conditioning and injury prevention for athletes.
MIGUN Bed
warms blood vessles, improving circulation and reducing cholesterol
cleans the blood by dissolving dirty blood lumps around the spine
helps generate new blood from bone marrow
accelerates the recovery process of a damaged/misaligned spine
eases pain throughout the body
boosts energy levels in the body
The MIGUN Bed was developed in Korea, using techniques from Japanese shiatsu, Korean Chuna, and chiropractic, thus combining the principles of acupuncture, muscle heat therapy and massage. It is gaining use a an alternative therapy and has been the subject of several studies which led to its FDA approval. The MIGUNhas been gaining use in the last decade as a massage bed, with a chiropractic effect, a detoxification effect and a restorative effect for most users. The bed can be used daily and the overall positive results vary from person to person. Using MIGUN's patented technology, the bed and MIGUN mats generate far infrared rays, increasing blood circulation, the lymphaic system, metabolism, boost the immune system, emit negative ions, neutralize harmful electromagnetic waves and melt away stress and muscle strain.