Pilates Tower Exercises

Flexibility is the capacity of the muscles and tendons to elongate or shorten for the purpose of movement that is, of moving bones in key parts of the body (see Figure 2.1).

However, there can be no movement without strength. We are most flexible when we are infants, but we are also at our weakest at that stage. We have to practice in order to gain the strength to turn over, sit up, crawl, and eventually stand.

We lose flexibility because of how we live, not because we age, as can be seen from the fact that people in their advanced years can be highly flexible and strong.

One time, at a friend’s wedding, we saw an older couple dancing the cha-cha. Everyone was watching them because they were so elegant, their movements so smooth, rhythmic, and fast. We were shocked when someone told us that the man was 90 and the woman 93.

Pilates Tower Exercises Photo Gallery

After the dance, we went up to the couple to express our admiration for their youthfulness. When Aniela asked them how they managed to stay so flexible and coordinated at their age, the woman said, “I simply stretch and lift weights. Every morning I do exactly the same stretches and lifts.

In a way, it’s like dancing for me. I’ve repeated the same movements with the same weights for the last sixty years, so it’s easy. The routine has its rhythm, just like music I love it, and I am never bored.”

The man, who had been listening to this conversation, added, “Actually, I found out that it’s essential to do the same routine every day. It’s easier