3 new exercises

Another fad? A cult for the over-privileged? Think again. With the aging of our population and the increasing trend toward mindful, moderate health practices, new forms of exercises are taking over the old ones. Some of them, we are blissfully unaware of, in our country. Through this piece of article I am trying to inspire you towards some new trends towards fitness.


The Lotte Berk exercise method
The dancer Lotte Berk developed the Lotte Berk exercise method in the late 1940s. Lotte had been a dancer with several modern dance companies including the Ballet Rambert after fleeing Nazi Germany during the Second World War. She then suffered severe spinal injuries in a car accident and developed her own method of exercise to escape her wheelchair and rehabilitate herself. Her aims were to regain strength and suppleness, particularly in the pelvic area, the abdominals and the lower back, and to tone and shape her entire musculature, which had weakened substantially during her months without movement.
Core stability

Within months Lotte had regained much of her mobility and was working hard to develop a method of exercise, which would tone, and shape every inch of her body. Drawing on her experience as a dancer and the specific advice of her orthopedic surgeon, Lotte designed an exercise method that brought her what is known today as core stability - strength, balance and stability around the pelvis and the lower back.
Lotte Berk Method is mainly isometric exercises mixed with orthopedic back exercises, all followed by stretch.
Lots of people are using the Lotte Berk method to banish their bulges and never break a sweat. Lotte Berk combines ballet, yoga, modern dance and stretching, strengthening and lengthening the body is the key to a fit figure and perfect posture. Number one goal is to keep people out of pain and to reshape their body aesthetically.

Chuyo Shisei exercise method

The harmony of posture, exercise and relaxation. Shisei – pronounced, “shee-say” and meaning posture in Japanese – is a completely new approach to healthy living. However, Shisei is based on timeless Japanese values that focus on improving balance through posture, exercise, healthy nutrition and relaxation.

Gravity pulls the human body down with significant force and over time many complications can results. Due to the small area that must support the body upright (feet), a severe burden is placed on the body structure, resulting in typical problems associated with back and neck pains, as well as other health-related issues.
The exercise method called “Chuyo Shisei Ho,” is the exercise method that emphasizes movements that specifically address each individual’s posture condition. Therefore, in a Shisei class setting, often everyone moves differently. The method, created by Mr. Ken Katayama, provides a personalized approach to group exercise and healthy living.
Law of Kutsurogi
One Shisei value, or “law of kutsurogi” explains that every body, and mind, prefer specific positions that are naturally comfortable because of repetition. Because of this, Chuyo Shisei focuses on moves that pass the law of kutsurogi and are painless and comfortable.
Law of the Opposite
With muscles being attached to the human body bone structure, the body operates at a unit. Therefore, in many cases, the law of the opposite applies. If a movement hurts when turning one direction, then Chuyo Shisei suggests moving the opposite direction to allow the muscles to move throughout a natural motion without pain or difficulty. The result is less pain moving either direction.
Created by Ken Katayama, “Shisei” is a completely new approach to healthy living based on timeless Japanese values such as posture, exercise, healthy foods and relaxation. The method includes a series of personalized movements designed to improve posture, and therefore body balance.


What is Pilates?
An Exercise in Balance: The Pilates Phenomenon
Pilates is a method of exercise and physical movement designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body. With systematic practice of specific exercises coupled with focused breathing patterns, Pilates has proven itself invaluable not only as a fitness endeavor itself, but also as an important adjunct to professional sports training and physical rehabilitation of all kinds. Widely embraced among dancers for years, the exercises--"elephant," "swan", the language--"pull navel to spine, and breeaaaathe," and the look--bright-eyed, refreshed, buoyant-without-necessarily-sweating, is popping up in fitness classes, physical therapy offices, corporate retreats, luxury spas and wellness centers across the country ideals of our next generation.

Practiced faithfully, Pilates yields numerous benefits. Increased lung capacity and circulation through deep, healthy breathing is a primary focus. Strength and flexibility, particularly of the abdomen and back muscles, coordination-both muscular and mental, are key components in an effective Pilates program. Posture, balance, and core strength are all heartily increased. Bone density and joint health improve, and many experience positive body awareness for the first time. Pilates teaches balance and control of the body, and that capacity spills over into other areas of one's life.
Around 1914, Joseph Pilates was a performer and a boxer living in England and, at the outbreak of WWI, was placed under forced internment along with other German nationals in Lancaster, England. There he taught fellow camp members the concepts and exercises developed over 20 years of self-study and apprenticeship in yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman physical regimens. It was at this time that he began devising the system of original exercises known today as "matwork", or exercises done on the floor. He called this regimen "Contrology."
"Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor." While excellent training programs exist in the marketplace today, some are clearly condensed and homogenized, producing less-than-adequately qualified instructors.