When we think of exercises, gym machines are most likely to come to our mind. Running requires expensive running shoes. Swimming needs goggles, swimmer caps, and pool membership. But don’t you know that there are affordable alternative workouts that are as intense as cardio and weight exercise combined?
Yoga
Yoga improves our body’s flexibility and our mind’s stability. It combines meditation and stretching to achieve the healthiest condition of the body.
The philosophy of yoga is to bring together the harmony between the body and mind. It encourages muscles coordination, quality breathing, and even cooperation.
If you are a first-timer, joining a yoga class is compulsory. Just reading articles or watching from YouTube might put you at risk of twisting a joint accidentally.
Although the workout sets in yoga look easy and practical, they are very intense in reality. Unlike gym membership, you can always practice what you have learned from the class at home.
Pilates
A German doctor named Joseph Pilates invented the workout during World War I. He felt that a special exercise system is needed to restore war prisoners’ bone structure. Pilates had a background in gymnastics, which later inspired the exercise.
Pilates is similar to yoga, but with less meditation. In fact, there is no meditation at all in the original Pilates. Instead, the exercise uses controlled breathing technique.
Pilates is known to be the best exercise to treat back pain and joint misalignment. Pilates would be great if you spend most of your time sitting behind the desk. Although the damage of sitting is subtle, it has been deemed worse than smoking. A sedentary lifestyle is like a pandora box that makes your body vulnerable to many types of illness. But please remember, just like yoga, expert supervision in doing Pilates is necessary if the purpose is to treat an injury.
Bodyweight Training
In bodyweight training, your body is your fitness instrument. You only need a mattress, and you are good to go. You might think that bodyweight training is unnecessary if you already do yoga or pilates. Bu the truth is that those three are very different in terms of their intensity and goals.
Yoga is to achieve mind and body harmony. It reduces stress, improves insomnia, and alleviates depression. Pilates is for poor bone structure.
It treats misalignment from mild to severe level. Bodyweight training focuses on core muscles. It aims to strengthen muscles, which is similar to those of weight training in the gym. But instead of getting a bulked shape, bodyweight training allows you to have the lean and shredded one.
If you do bodyweight training, it is best if you practice it gradually. Do not get tempted to do what is beyond your capacity. Otherwise, you might injure yourself. And for this training, it is safe to say that you can learn all things from the Internet. Bodyweight training is very easy to learn, and is very practical to practice.
However, because people are taking it for physical improvement, and weight-loss, it doesn’t mean that a Pilates workout is a cardio exercise. Pilates is essentially a low-intensity exercise, but you could still put in a bit, but not like how much you put in throughout an aerobics class.
The fundamental Belief of the Pilates Workout is the use of the body’s brainpower to improve motion, performance and muscle control, which is also why they say that Pilates workout somehow improves one’s mental state. Pilates also makes you aware of correct posture, due to the exercises that you do, it likewise establishes the muscles in the back and abdomen, more contributing to your great posture. This exercise also uses breathing methods, which enhances psychological focus. And probably one of the greatest focuses of Pilates is flexibility strength of the muscles. It is this belief that made Pilates popular amongst dancers when it initially started.