Starting Fresh: Pilates as Your New Habit
Incorporating a new habit like Pilates into your routine is a fantastic way to break out of monotony and rediscover the joy of movement. Trying something new not only keeps your fitness routine fresh but also strengthens your brain by creating new neural pathways. As you learn new movements, equipment, and techniques, you’re building resilience, improving coordination, and fostering creativity. Whether you’re just beginning or you’ve been practicing Pilates for years, there’s always room for growth, exploration, and trying something new.
Building healthy habits is one of the most powerful ways to invest in your well-being, and starting Pilates is an excellent choice to enhance both your physical and mental health. If you’re brand new to Pilates, welcome to your new healthy obsession! Pilates is a movement focused on control, intention, and mind-body connection. Starting Pilates can improve your posture with the focus on alignment and core engagement while also reducing tension and making everyday activities feel easier. While Pilates is making your body feel better, these new movement patterns are impacting your mental health as well.
Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, writes “When you participate in any physical activity, your moment-to-moment sense of self is shaped by the qualities of your movement. If you move with grace, your brain perceives the elongation of your limbs and the fluidity of your steps, and realizes, ‘I am graceful.’ When you move with power, your brain encodes the explosive contraction of muscles, senses the speed of the action, and understands, ‘I am powerful’” (McGonigal 2020). Your new habit of Pilates can directly impact the way you view yourself.
If you’ve already integrated Pilates into your life, there are countless ways to continue growing within your practice. Pilates is never static, it evolves with you, offering new challenges and opportunities to deepen your understanding of your body and movement. Add a cardiovascular element to your practice with the jumpboard. It’s an exciting way to increase your heart rate while maintaining the control and precision Pilates is known for. Incorporate props to intensify exercises or add resistance and variety to your workouts. Challenge yourself with exercises you’ve never tried or those that have previously felt out of reach. Whether it’s perfecting your Teaser, mastering the Long Stretch series, or exploring advanced moves like the Snake, every new skill builds strength, confidence, and motivation to keep going.
Pilates teaches us that growth is a journey, not a destination. As you evolve in your practice, you’ll find new ways to challenge yourself and nurture your curiosity. If you’re unsure where to start, speak with your instructor about your goals and interests. They can guide you toward new techniques, classes, or modifications to keep your practice fresh and exciting. So whether you’re a beginner stepping into the studio for the first time or a seasoned practitioner looking to spice things up, Pilates offers endless possibilities to move, learn, and grow. Here’s to trying something out of your comfort zone in 2025!
New Clients can hop into a Reformer Class at Niche for $34 and a Mat Class for $17, we hope to see you at the studio soon! If you’re not in Richmond, check out our Niche Movement Education youtube channel to practice Pilates from anywhere.
Sources:
McGonigal , K. (2020, January 6). Five surprising ways exercise changes your brain. Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_surprising_ways_exercise_changes_your_brain