focuspilates

Take your breath away

As amazing as Pilates is, its not I’m afraid a complete solution to your health and fitness regime. Even though Joseph Pilates was famous for saying “your blood will flow with renewed vigor as the direct result of your faithfully performing the Contrology exercises” (what we now call Pilates exercises), it unfortunately has limited effect [...]

Pilates in pairs

For some of us having a friend or partner who shares the same motivation and goals to have a stronger, healthier and fitter body can help us stay motivated with an exercise program. Pilates is no different, having a friend by your side during a workout or group class can be the one thing that makes you [...]

Pilates for a triathletes body

Each sport uses a different set of muscles and our body relies on these muscles to perform at an optimum level. The following is a Pilates program put together by Kimberly Cheong one of our Pilates instructors for triathletes based on the muscle imbalances they may face because of their sport. Back openings on Foam [...]

Analysing the body of a triathlete

Different sports have different demands on our muscles and our body, and as such to train for a sport we need specific exercises to target certain muscles. Recently we did a body analysis on Clement, a triathlete to see what effects the sport has on his body and to see where he could improve his performance [...]

What does it take to be a triathlete?

We speak to Clement Chow a triathlete about competing in the sport. How did you get into triathlons? I was a former national age group swimmer representing Singapore, my school and my club at various regional swimming meets. When I eventually stopped swimming, I didn’t want the years of swimming to go to waste and I was always [...]

The verdict: Pilates for hiking

Well a little after three weeks since I climbed Mt Kinabalu I have recovered fully and I’m back into my regular exercise regime. It was by far the hardest physical challenge I have put mybody through and as tough as it was, the achievement of getting to the top was well worth the 8km of [...]

Improving your health and wellbeing through massage

What is sports massage? Sports massage is the specific application of systematic manipulation of the soft tissues of the body for therapeutic purposes. How does sports massage differ from other types of massage? It is anatomy-based and employs various massage techniques to release trigger points (knots), relieve delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), reduce muscle tightness, enhance recovery, [...]

Why do we need good posture?

Good Posture: everyone knows we need it, but do you know why we need it? What causes us to have bad posture anyway? The second question is easier to answer, it’s gravity. From the moment we are born we have this force pressing down on us, compressing our joints and increasing the curves of [...]

5 common ankle injuries

Ankle injuries are usually thought of as injuries you incur from playing a sport, however ankle injuries especailly sprains can happen to anyone. All it takes is some uneaven ground or to land on your foot the wrong way and you can sustain an injury. The most common injuries are sprains andfractures which involve ligaments [...]

Pilates for hiking and mountain climbing

My challenge is to climb Mt Kinabalu in Malaysia and make it to the top to see the sunrise. I’ve put my gym membership on hold and I’m putting Pilates to the test to see if it can prepare me for the challenge. So I’ve enlisted the help of Kim who has put together a Pilates program [...]