BENEFITS FOR SPORT

Racquet sports

Champion tennis players such as Venus and Serena Williams use Pilates for everything from injury prevention and recovery, to rectifying muscle imbalance, improving flexibility and building core and stabiliser muscles.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova says that Pilates has helped her body regain the flexibility of her prime, while Pat Cash, the former Wimbledon champion, still does Pilates as a key part of his fitness routine.

Racquet sports, including squash, are by their nature one-sided. Most players repeatedly use the same hand and arm to hit the ball, generally in the same direction, with the head and neck adopting the same position in anticipation of playing a shot. Such pronounced left or right-sided movements load stress on the structure of the body, producing a physique that is out of balance and more liable to break down, with a prevalence of over-use injuries.

Few players have a bio-mechanically perfect serve, and repetitive, inefficient patterns of movement, chronic twisting and repeated shocks cause common problems in the shoulder area, and inflame muscle tissue and ligaments at the base of the elbow (tennis elbow).

A program of specific Pilates exercises will:
>  Work the body more uniformly to prevent overdevelopment of one side
>  Address flexibility through the shoulders and upper back
>  Lengthen the tighter front muscles of the torso will boost your power and range of motion
>  Strengthen the deep abdominal muscles needed for a stable base.

We can't promise you will serve like Roger Federer, but Pilates will make it easier for you to reach for that drop shot at the net and give you the strength and stability to hit that winner.