It is useful to think about the 7 laws of fitness when thinking about moving and challenging a body for strength and flexibility. It’s time to get acquainted! It will help you make firm decisions about your fitness, and listen to your body. We will explore them in this two part series. It will help in your own workouts to think about these laws as global fitness truths, whether you are walking, doing yoga, Pilates, weight lifting, etc. You will see how closely they interlink with each other.

1. Individuality - We all have different bodies, structure, abilities, backgrounds, therefore we respond differently to any given system of training. This needs to be taken into account when choosing a training routine. A single exercise can work for one body, and not another. Not being able to do it doesn’t mean you or your body's a failure, it just means the exercise might not be beneficial for your unique, individual, differing body!

2. Progression - The principle of progression implies that a gradual and systematic increase in the workload over a period of time will result in improvements in fitness without risk of injury. If the increase in the workload (or overload, law #4) occurs too slowly, improvement is unlikely, but if overload is increased too rapidly, it may result in injury or muscle damage. Once we have mastered the progression (Adaptation, Law #3), it's time to make it harder. Change the duration and intensity to make it challenging once again. Staying in our comfort zone by trying to be perfect in our exercise will not provide results. There is no growth there. Finding the shaky and challenging is what we want to get out of the comfort zone and maybe, find the fun in the challenge. Variety is the spice of life! In Pilates, it can be a change in apparatus. As you heard me say before, there are a lot of benefits incorporating novel movements to push the body to move in different ways. Or combine movement already familiar but in a different order or flow. This way, we explore movements and planes that might not be as strong or nimble, and strengthen it.

3. Adaptation - Our body will adapt to the stress we put on it. We have to repeat this level of intensity so our body acclimates and gets stronger, and finds that sweet spot. There is a place of resistance when the body can adapt to that stress. If it is too hard, the body might resist the stress and try to combat it. Too much repetition and the body becomes exhausted. When you first learn an exercise, it might feel unstable or hard. But by repetition, it gets easier neurologically and physically. We have to stay and repeat an exercise until we adapt, then we must go to law #2, progress the exercise.

LOOK OUT FOR PART 2 NEXT WEEK!!!