Core Fusion Facts

Core Fusion Facts:

CORE FUSION is a challenging, vigorous and stimulating workout blending the best of yoga, Pilates, core training and dance movements. It is in an integrated program that is effective and easy to understand for students of all ages and with different levels of experience.

Yoga is unification. In a fundamental sense yoga is a path you follow to bring together the mind, body, spirit, and heart. There is a preconceived notion that yoga is glorified stretching and has little to offer for someone who is "serious" about getting in shape. Just take a yoga class. A beginner class can be challenging for an experienced and commited exerciser. A more advanced class can be extremely challenging. Yoga points out (in a gentle manner) that we are not as strong and flexible as we had previously imagined. Yoga will help you increase strength and discover your flexibility. There are many different styles of yoga exercise that I combine, like Iyengar, Bikram, Ashtanga or Power Yoga and Vinyasa. I use movement of the body in ways that help increase strength, flexibility, endurance, self-confidence, balance, mental focus, and awareness. Yoga helps lubricate the joints and reverse the signs of aging. We will work through simple poses and breath work at a pace that your body sets on your way to more advanced poses.

Pilates is an exercise system. Joseph Pilates developed this system in the early 1900's to improve his own health and that of WW1 victims. As hospital orderly, he incorporated the resistance of springs into rehabilitation programs for patients, and created his now famous exercise equipment. In the late 1920s he established the first pilates studio in New York City. Initially, the exercise system was primarily used by the dance community who appreciated improved strength, balance and flexibility. Pilates has been rediscovered in the 1980s to benefit all people all ages. Pilates improves muscle control, flexibility, coordination, strength and tone. It aims to create structural alignment and muscular balance along with the complete coordination of body, mind and spirit.

Principles of Pilates' exercise program: Stability vs. Mobility

Use of mental focus to improve movement efficiency and muscle control
Awareness of neutral spine alignment, or proper posture during exercise
Development of the deep muscles of the back and abdomen to support this posture
Use of breath to promote mental focusing and centering
Creating length, strength, and flexibility in muscles

Mat exercises primarily focus on strengthening the muscles of the trunk and hip and increasing the flexibility of both the spine and hips. Lately, pilates has merged with other movement techniques, such as yoga, or use of an exercise ball. This promotes creative integration of the pilates principles into a greater range of exercises in the mat class setting. The important principles of pilates are consistent with an exercise program that promotes back health. In particular, learning awareness of neutral alignment of the spine and strengthening the deep postural muscles that support this alignment, are important skills for the back patient. Patients with back pain are particularly likely to benefit from this exercise program. In addition, postural asymmetries can be improved, thus decreasing wear and tear resulting from uneven stresses on the intervertebral joints and discs. Pilates improves strength, flexibility and suppleness of the muscles of the hip and shoulder girdle. Fluid and supported movement through these joints helps prevent unnecessary torque on the vertebral column. Awareness of movement habits that may stress the spine helps the patient change these habits to those that preserve neutral alignment. Awareness of excessive tension and the use of proper focus helps the patient use the body efficiently.

If all this seems a bit ethereal for die-hard exercise buffs, just remember that your ultimate fitness goal is reached through a continuous involvement in the process of movement, not through a forced result.

Pilates is a complete approach to body awareness, and it requires a commitment because it does take time to improve and change your body's posture and alignment habits. It is best to exercise two to three times a week for about 45 to 60 minutes. As quoted by Joseph Pilates, "In 10 classes you will feel the difference, in 20 classes you will see the difference and in 30 classes you will have a whole new body."

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