Pilates - classic fitness trend

The best Pilates exercises for beginners and advanced students now as a compact guide

In the handy new edition of their Pilates guide, fitness experts Christof Baur and Bernd Thurner show that the training program, which has been successful for decades, with its holistic and functional view of the body also meets current demands.

Proven for many decades

The fitness and health industry is constantly growing, and with it the search for new training methods and ideas. Supposedly revolutionary trends often disappear just as quickly as they appear. A long-standing classic in the fitness industry's wide range of training options, however, is Pilates.

The two sports coaches Christof Baur and Bernd Thurner present the almost 100-year-old training program and evaluate its principles against the background of sports medicine findings. The compact guide with the best Pilates exercises for beginners and advanced students shows a personal path to better fitness and a new body feeling.

Effective and precise training

"Become as supple as a cat!" With these words, Joseph Pilates vividly and aptly described the goal of his training program, with which he had already inspired dancers, gymnasts, athletes and actors in the 1920s. Even then, the ideal basis for balanced and individual training was the holistic and functional view of the body. Today, Pilates is an integral part of the range of prevention and rehabilitation programs. The constant development and expansion of Pilates exercises enable ideal adaptation to individual performance and resilience.
The compact guide therefore aims to show how to train correctly and effectively at home and how to create a personal training plan in detail. The book's extensively illustrated exercise section contains many practical tips and precise instructions for correct implementation. The quality of the exercise execution is crucial for the effectiveness of the training. The principle applies: quality over quantity. Correct posture, breathing and precision are very important and need to be practiced.

Body awareness as a basis

The harmony of body and mind is the overarching goal of Pilates. To achieve this unity, the founder of this gymnastics method developed a series of basic elements that form the foundation of every exercise. Each exercise includes a number of details that the trainee must pay attention to in order to achieve the exercise-specific goal. In order to recognize and understand these subtleties, theoretical and practical physical experience is required.
This is taught by the so-called "Pilates Body School", which the authors have developed as an 8-point program. It is a type of basic training for beginners that improves body awareness and provides a certain anatomical understanding. Precision in performing the exercises is a particularly important Pilates training principle. In the experience of the two sports educators, many modern people have lost the ability to control the body in a playful and precise way. Improving body awareness not only helps to optimize the training program. It is an important protection against incorrect strain in everyday life and creates the basis for the fusion of body and mind.

Book tip:
Christof Baur and Bernd Thurner: The best Pilates exercises - for beginners and advanced - compact guide. Mankau Verlag, 1st edition March 2016. Paperback, 11.5 x 16.5 cm, numerous color photos, 127 pages / 7.99 euros (D) / 8.20 euros (A) / ISBN 978-3-86374-272-0

Link recommendations:
More information about the compact guide "The best Pilates exercises"
To the reading sample in PDF format
More about the author Christof Baur
More about the author Bernd Thurner
To the Internet forum with Christof Baur and Bernd Thurner