Things Are Shaping Up In NYC

By Kris Collinsworth

Exercise isn't just about bulking up, anymore. That idea has gone out the window to be replaced by the notion that building up sizable muscles doesn't always mean a person is living healthily. If you really want to start looking great and feeling great, the best method is to improve your flexibility and tone your muscles.

Pilates exercises is one of the best ways to accomplish this. And if you live in or around the city of New York, you'll have a lot of options available to get involved with a quality NYC Pilates class and start getting your health on track.

The reason why New York is the best place to get started in Pilates is because they have classes starting from the very beginners to the most advanced. Most classes are designed to gradually work you up to advanced Pilate; if this fits your schedule and style.

There are also many that are willing to offer private classes or sessions so you don't have to feel awkward in a large group. You can get the attention and focus you need to maximize your experience. There are many instructors and studios that are willing to do this.

Rather than simply lifting weights or jogging, NYC Pilates helps you nurture your body by keeping it active, but calming it at the same time. Think yoga but with a little more exercise going on. Instead of walking out weak and useless, you will feel energized after your workout.

Many people turn to Pilates to start their day. Others use it to relax after a long and stressful day in the office. It doesn't matter when you do your exercising, there will be a NYC Pilates class to take care of you. It isn't that hard to find a gym that has an open spot to fit your schedule. And if you go to a reputable establishment, you can count on safe, effective, and incredibly fun sessions.

To find a local Pilates class in New York, simply check out the online resources and find out what's available. You can get reviews of different locations, check out specials and sign up for classes online. Any information you would ever want is only a few clicks away instead of going down to an actual site.

Maybe it's time to stop paying for that gym membership you never use and give up those older, obsolete training methods. Take the time to find the best NYC Pilates class and get toned up and start living a healthy, energetic lifestyle. - 30514

About the Author:

Kris Collinsworth has a masters degree in exercise science and has been a instructor for 20 years. He is now at a NYC Pilates gym.

Here Are 5 Excellent Yoga and Pilates Exercises for Height Gain

By Rodney Williams

Yoga and Pilates help increase height by setting your spine straight, enhancing your posture, strengthening the core muscles to support the spine better, and stretching out the whole body. There are hundreds of such exercises that not only result in better physical height but also mental tallness.

Here are 5 of the best exercises that help in height growth by working on the spine, hips, hamstrings, calves, and neck.

Good Morning Stretch: Stand straight 2 feet away from a wall with your back towards it. Raise your arms forward, up, over your head and backward until your fingers touch the wall behind. Slowly come back to starting position. Repeat 6-7 times. Stand farther away from the wall as you gain in flexibility.

Forward Bend: Stand with your legs spread wide apart and hands held together straight above your head. Bend forward at the hips and reach your hands to the floor between your legs. Come back up and repeat 10 times. Bring your feet closer as you progress in this exercise.

90 Degree Forward Bend: With feet hip-width apart and hands behind the neck, bend forward slowly as much as possible. Push your head with your hands to stretch to the maximum. Return to starting position when you have gone as far down as possible. Perform 5 more times.

Warrior Pose: Begin with feet 4-5 feet apart and arms straight up over the head. Turn your left foot 90 degrees left and right foot by 45 degrees also to the left. Bend at the left knee until the knee is exactly over the ankle. Now lower your arms and stabilize them at shoulder length. Hold for a few breaths and reverse positions.

Spine Lengthener: Stand straight with arms at the sides. In one flowing motion, raise your heels up, stand on your toes, raise your arms sideways and up towards the sky, and stretch your whole body. Stretch your neck backwards and upwards. Hold for a few breaths and repeat 10 times. Perform the Spine Lengthener at the end of how to become taller exercises.

Apart from stretching exercises like yoga and Pilates, you also need to boost growth hormones through exercise to achieve your height goals. Employ intense aerobic exercises like sprinting, swimming or kicking for this purpose and perform these 5 exercises after that for the best results. - 30514

About the Author:

To find out more about how to gain height naturally, don't forget to check out Rodney Williams' authoritative growing taller articles on the previously mentioned links.

Discover Stretching to Grow Taller Even After Puberty

By Rodney Williams

Is it possible to gain height even after puberty? The resounding answer is ?Yes?. You can add two, three, four or even more inches to your frame much after your bones have fused. How is it possible? It is because there are many parts in the body such as the spinal column that never fuse.

The vertebral column accounts for 35 percent of your height. It is made of 33 bones (vertebrae) out of which 24 are separate. 9 of the lowermost vertebrae are fused into two fixed bones. The 33 movable ones can be stretched out through exercise because the shock-absorbing material between them, the inter-vertebral discs, is expandable.

Given below are 4 of such stretching exercises that help you grow taller after puberty. They exercise the spine, maintain elasticity of the discs and make them turgid with spinal fluid along with boosting blood circulation in the whole spine.

Dog and Cat Pose: Get down on all fours. Inhale, lift your tailbone, lift your head, and curve the spine down. Stretch. Exhale, tilt your tailbone down, bend your head down, and curve the spine up. Keep alternating the dog and cat positions several times.

Spinal Twist on Chair: Sit straight on a chair with feet flat on the floor. Place the left ankle on the right knee. Let your hands hang by the sides. Breathe in and stretch your upper trunk over the left ankle. Take 10 deep breaths. Relax with each breath. Repeat with change in leg positions.

Lower Back Stretch on Chair: Sit straight on a chair with feet flat on the floor. Interlock your hands behind your lower back. Squeeze hands together, bend forward at the waist parallel to the floor and stretch. Raise your interlocked hands straight above your back. Take 10 long breaths. Relax.

Shoulder Release on Chair: Sit straight on a chair with feet flat on the floor and arms resting on your thighs. Breathe in slowly and roll your shoulders up to the earlobes. Breathe out slowly and roll them down. Feel the stretch in your spine. Do 5 full circles. So these were four excellent stretching exercises on how to increase height.

Perform these stretching exercises with dedication, eat well, sleep well and also undertake vigorous aerobics like jogging or sprinting. You will grow quickly by up to 4 inches even close to middle age. - 30514

About the Author:

To learn more on how to grow taller naturally even after puberty, check out Rodney Williams' excellent articles on gaining height on the above mentioned links.

Things That Differentiate Yoga From Pilates Fitness

By Dorin Ale

The world is shifting its priorities and today, you won't be able to enjoy a high calorie the same way your parents would have when they were of your age. It just goes to show how we value our health and the more we know, the less willing we are to take risks. Are you familiar why is pilates fitness different from yoga? Hence, people strive to enjoy a healthy meal, in terms of tastes as well as for its nutritional value.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that stars all over the world practice some common types of exercises, which are usually in conjunction with yoga or Pilates. Both of these styles of exercises have something unique to offer to the user and consequently, are very popular among the masses. You can try and find other alternatives, but none will match the popularity of either of these two exercises.

Now, it becomes important to differentiate between the two exercises. Their names might be lightly used and you would have come across both of them in a variety of shows on TV, in movies or even in your neighborhood. There is no shortage of people practicing one or both of these exercises and you should find someone relatively easily.

Firstly, yoga is not a pure form of physical exercise. Its main goal is not to tone your body or burn fat, it is about relieving stress and achieving inner peace using tactics that are thousands of years old and have been handed down over generations. Yogis usually preach the unison of the mind, body and soul and trying to get them in harmony to achieve stability and let the body take control over everything.

Pilates ftiness , on the other hand, is more to do with using your body in synchronization with your mind to perform exercises. It is built such that when you do your exercises physically, your mind is also aware of what is going on and contributes to the exercises. It is a modern approach and was developed in the 20th century by Joseph Pilates, a part Greek, part German individual who was assigned the task of developing an exercise regimen for WWII troops.

While it may seem like both the exercise programs are doing the same thing, the truth is that their approach is different. While yoga uses no extra apparatus other than a regular exercise mat, Pilates has evolved to include some exercising equipment that offer resistant exercises and consequently make the workouts more physical.

Both exercise forms are very effective and should help you reach a high level of fitness. The trick is to find an apt teacher willing to share the secrets with you.

On the other hand, if you want something that can deal with the stress of - 30514

About the Author:

You are invited to visit WinsorPilatesFitness.com to discover the wonderful benefits of Pilates Fitness and Winsor Pilates. You too can benefit from Pilates Fitness from home via a great collection of Pilates Video and DVDs.

Exercises for Back Pain - Your Road to Lasting Health

By Eric Normand

The spine is a marvelous feat of natural engineering. Evolving over thousands of years, its double arched structure efficiently supports and connects our body's muscles and bones. Even so, poor posture is quite common.

Perhaps the biggest reason for this is that so many people fail to realize just how simple and straightforward a good posture is, and that it can be acquired simply by practicing a few easy exercises. Basically, good posture allows the spine to do its job as effectively as possible so that the entire body can benefit from it. Essentially, one can master good posture by observing four basic principles and if done correctly, back pain will be a thing of the past.

Firstly, we need to ensure that the muscles in our body are able to withstand tension, in that they must be strong enough. Muscle strength is crucial in terms of us being able to carry out numerous tasks such as lifting heavy objects and even running. Even some activities which may not seem as if they are demanding also require a huge amount of effort on behalf of your muscles. For example, if you need to sit for any length of time, the muscles will have to work continuously so that the vertebrae can provide the support needed.

Flexibility represents a muscle's length when fully stretched. Longer muscles are more flexible, and are usually more permissive in what your body can accomplish safely and painlessly. If muscles are short due to inflexibility, then other muscles must remain unnecessarily tense to provide support. Since strength is tension, these muscles are unnecessarily wasting effort on simple tasks, tiring easily, and causing mysterious aches and pains.

Relaxation on the other hand is the ability to relieve your muscles of tension. If we see strength as being the ability to tighten muscles, and flexibility being the ability to stretch, then relaxation is essentially the balancing point in between. In other words, this is when the muscles are neither tense nor or elongated. When a person manages to relax sufficiently, the body will naturally take on an efficient posture and this is something which people often fail to achieve due to unnecessary tension and the lack of flexibility.

The fourth exercise, which may in fact be considered to be the most important, is the ability to be aware of what your body is doing. Awareness enables you to realize exactly when your muscles are using strength, when your muscles are being flexible, and also when you're relaxing sufficiently. However, awareness is something which one needs to develop over a period of time, and in so doing, you'll be able to master the art of keeping your spine in perfect alignment. The bottom line is; in order to maintain an ideal posture you need your muscles to remain flexible while at the same time keeping unnecessary tension to a minimum. This is essentially why body awareness can help you dramatically in terms of achieving adequate relaxation.

By using posture exercises, each of these skills can be practiced and improved simply, in just ten minutes per day. All of these skills must be honed successfully, however, as each supports and complements the others. Neglecting just one may seem like an effective strategy, and may work in the short term. Over time, however, you will find yourself unable to progress further or even regressing if they all are not developed.

Not only can posture exercises reduce or eliminate eight back pain altogether, but they can also help you bring about a vast improvement with regards to the quality of your life. In fact, it really doesn't take much effort at all in order for you to experience numerous benefits with regards to your overall health as well as stamina. If you suffer from back pain then you may very well discover that posture exercises are all you need in order to rid yourself of it. - 30514

About the Author:

Eric Normand helps people feel better and improve posture. He uses effective yoga and Tai Chi exercises to help eliminate back pain, eliminate tension, and increase confidence. If you are excited about having vibrant energy and feeling better, read more about exercises for back.

Washington, DC Personal Trainer Reveals The Truth About Core Training

By Josef Brandenburg

Everyday millions of people pack themselves into Pilates classes or simply lie down on the living room floor to exercise their core. The core muscles include the abdominals and surrounding muscles that are often trained by doing basic sit-ups or crunches. These exercises are some of the most popular in the world today. In fact, there are many people who don't do anything other than train their core. Why? The answer is simple: they want to obtain that elusive six-pack. They want rock hard abs like the Spartan warriors in the movie 300.

Most people don't realize that core training by sit-ups and crunches alone does not normally give you the results that you desire. Those that work solely on their core or abs rarely see any kind of results at all. Many Washington D.C. personal trainers and other physical coaches know this little tidbit of information, but fail to mention it to their clients in order to keep them working on the unattainable, thus their clients keep coming to them for help and putting money in their pockets.

Why doing crunches seem to be getting you nowhere in the shrinking tummy department

There are many contributing factors to obtaining the unicorn of muscle sculpting, the six-pack. Most people will never accomplish this feet. The six-pack really does require a ton of dedication and hard work including years of training, eating right and the thing many people omit from the "How to obtain a Six-Pack" speech, good genes. So instead of daydreaming about the six-pack, we should really simply be concentrating on a flat and toned stomach!

The stomach, as you are likely aware, is a problem area for most people. It seems to collect fat more quickly, especially in men. We all know about beer bellies and how they make men look like, well, their fathers. It is no wonder that most men are desperate to shed some pounds from this definitive area, and more often than not they turn to core training to help them do it. But to be blunt, core exercises are an incredible waste of time.

Core training alone will not help you get the flat stomach or elusive six-pack you desire. Our stomachs come with built in muscles, but with the layer of fat on top of them, no one will ever see them. Though core training does have some benefits, like making the muscles slightly stronger, the exercises really have no benefit in achieving your goals. These milestones can only be reached with getting rid of that stubborn layer of fat.

There are so many people that believe the myth that working out one particular area of the body will result in weight loss in that zone. This is defined as target weight loss and it is simply not true. Our body is programmed to function as a whole unit, not in individual sections so weight loss happens all over the body, not just in one place.

Therefore, the best thing to do is a series of exercises that will help you burn calories and burn off the fat. Core training, as we said, is not an efficient use of your time because it doesn't burn many calories and it won't help you take off weight. Probably the best exercises that you can do are cardiovascular ones like swimming, running, bike riding, jumping rope, or simply walking, fast.

The act of core training can have more issues than just not providing results. This exercise can cause injuries if not done properly. Damages to the neck and spine are some of the most common injuries that are associated with core training. Keeping your form is an important part of preventing these types of injuries and people that have a pre-existing condition such as back and neck problems really should stay away from core training all together!!

Core training is a waste of your gym and working out time. To those people that are concentrating solely on core training, please stop and try picking up some cardio to burn that fat that you want to lose. It is about time you started seeing results from your workouts. - 30514

About the Author:

Josef Brandenburg is an award winning Washington, DC personal trainer that specializes in helping normal, busy people create the bodies they have always wanted in their spare time. Click here to find out more about smart core training.

Trying A Yoga Pilates Class

By Jill Hagelsteiner

Today we are learning the importance of staying in good shape. We have many different means for achieving this goal. However, few are as effective as modern yoga pilates classes. These classes are a blend of two proven disciplines that compliment one another perfectly. If you are looking for a well rounded workout that will keep you body and mind in peak condition, then you might want to consider trying a yoga pilates class.

Trying your first yoga pilates class is a lot of fun. Although many people are unsure at first, because the class is different than anything they have experienced, it will be picked up quickly. Most of the basics will be covered right away. This will bring beginners up to speed. Additionally, many classes have particular sessions. Try to join the next beginning session if you don?t want to jump into an ongoing class.

North America is a prime area for yoga pilates class. This is likely due to the fact that pilates originated there, and also because yoga is becoming much more common in North America. Both disciplines are possible for anyone to learn. No matter your body type or age, both yoga and pilates are ideal activities.

Yoga and Pilates: The New Workout

Yoga postures are a method for effectively unifying the body and mind. The practice of yoga has long been used to increase the body?s suppleness and strength. It was only through the practice of varied yoga postures that yogis were able to meditate for long amounts of time and keep the body healthy. Yoga is a spiritual discipline, but much of the yoga practice in North America is geared more towards the physical aspect. Regardless of the emphasis, practicing yoga postures leads to a sense of balance and calm unlike that found in most physical disciplines.

Pilates is a much more recent practice. It stems from the work of Joseph Pilates. He began teaching pilates in New York and the system quickly spread throughout the US. Today it is practiced all over the world. The appeal of pilates is its ability to keep the entire body fit and healthy. The emphasis is on working the core muscles and improving the body?s posture and ability to move efficiently. Pilates also provides practitioners with a great aerobic workout, which makes it a well-rounded workout perfect for staying in shape. The pairing of pilates and yoga creates perhaps the most effective way of maintaining positive health. - 30514

About the Author:

You can find tons of info about pilates online. For more information take a look at this site on yoga pilates class.