A GOOD THING: Edition 5
Alright little popsicles, this week we are focusing on COORDINATION.
Maybe she's(he’s) born with it… maybe it’s Pilates ;)
We often allow ourselves from a very young age to be categorized as “uncoordinated” and then remain there for the rest of our lives. The team at GTP is determined to make sure that isn't true for you!
The definition of coordination is the ability to use the senses and body parts to perform tasks smoothly, efficiently, and accurately. Coordination has to do with our motor skills and can be broken down into fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills is the coordination of small muscles, bones, and tasks. Large movements like running and cycling use gross motor skills to challenge larger muscles and ranges of motion. Hand eye and foot eye coordination can be added to the picture as well. Movement in response to eye movement, as it tracks moving objects or people.
Coordination is one of the most important things we are trying to challenge with Pilates. In class we ask our bodies to repeat a series of tasks as efficiently as possible. As we learn and improve our strength, balance, and awareness our coordination improves. The more efficiently our body gets the less energy it uses to complete each movement, thus leading to the ability to perform the task for longer or harder.
As we age, it is recommended to try to learn new things as often as possible. Coordination is a great one to spend some time on. There are more subtle times in your life that coordination kicks in. When we trip and our hand flys out to catch us. When we drop something but manage to save it before it drops. Personally, being 80 but still able to get up and down from a chair efficiently sounds like a life goal destined to be accomplished.
Here are a few little at home exercises you can try before classes this week to test your coordination! Remember to try to ask yourself to remove and preconceived ideas about how coordinated you are and challenge the body and brain to new levels.
Let us know if you need help with any of these moves and let’s work those brains just as much as those booties this week!
