How Pilates Boosts the Immune System

“Change happens through movement and movement heals.”

Joe Pilates

Perspective is helpful in times like we’re living through right now. The common flu is deadly enough but the Coronavirus is a wake-up call for all of us to understand better how to take care of ourselves and one another. We have a link below so you can get more up-to-the minute details from the CDC about the progression and resolution of illnesses in the United States.*

Part of Mr. Pilates’ claim to fame and legend is that while he was held in a prison/hospital camp during World War I (1914-1918) those who worked with him either did not contract the terrible Influenza of 1918 at all or recovered from it and did not perish. This was a pandemic flu that took more lives than the war itself and more people than any other such flu in history, to date.

There are no guarantees, of course, but movement builds health and movement with intelligent design like the Pilates system increases that effect because the breathing concepts and movements specifically target the body’s immune system and the mind’s well being centers of our brain.

It is estimated that up to 80%+ of our immune system is in our gut. The same gut that’s conveniently wrapped around by our core muscles! Yet, interestingly, the average crunch or sit-up does not quite do the same job as an exercise like the Pilates Hundred, for example. Why? Because in Pilates we don’t seek to isolate muscles, we aim to orchestrate the body to move as whole; each exercise is a whole body commitment! Also, the main thing that one will hear in their session are cues to make sure that breathing coordinates and supports the movement that is happening. Fully exhaling and inhaling is de rigueur.

Our lymphatic and respiration systems are essential components of our body’s waste disposal system. The lymph needs to be moved through the body with movement as it does not have the heart to continuously move it around like the blood.

A U.S. neuroscientific study in 2016 found that movement increases activity across multiple cortical locations in the cerebral cortex of the brain, particularly those areas in "the primary motor cortex that, in turn, also controls axial body movement and posture."** This accounts for why we feel uplifted in more ways than one after classes that optimally engage movement! It's no wonder that Pilates the fastest growing fitness and rehabilitative modality worldwide.

To sum it up, Pilates:

1. Boosts Lymph Movement throughout the body.

2. Boosts Circulation of Blood to the Heart and Brain by engaging multiple muscle groups from head-to-toe.

3. Boosts General Immune Response by activating all of the core muscles that support the immune center that is the Gut.

4. Boosts Mood and reduces stress by Stimulating Brain activity, chemical responses and musculoskeletal systems that enhance feelings of well being.

*https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html

**http://www.positivehealth.com/article/pilates/how-pilates-helps-to-boost-immunity-and-wellbeing

***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymphatic_system

Photo courtesy Wikipedia***