Exercise By Body Balance

Body balance, which combines principles drawn from Yoga from India, Tai-Chi from China, and Pilates from America, was first developed by Les Mills, a renowned health club in New Zealand and first to use music to create body movements.

Jacky Mills, one of the Les Mills top executives, has played an important role assisting her husband, Phillip Mills, to administer the health club. Apart from being a gymnast, dancer, aerobics teacher, obstetrician and expert in family medicine, she is also interested in practicing Yoga. After using musical rhythms with Yoga practice, Jacky started to apply many special techniques and develop other body movements that today translate into "Body Balance".

In considering the main principles drawn form Yoga, Tai-Chi, and Pilates, Vipaporn Saithanu, a Body Balance teacher, reveals that Tai-Chi increases muscle strength, while Yoga makes muscles more flexible, and Pilates emphasizes muscle strengthening around the torso.

"To make body movement harmonious with someone's breathing rhythm, we need to concentrate on the rhythm of music as well as the continuous posture of movement," the teacher explained.

In a one-hour practice session, a trainer conducts many postures of body movement with ten or eleven songs; movements based on Yoga, Tai-Chi and Pilates, with four or five songs per discipline. Song and movement postures are changed every three months.

Practice beings with warming-up postures, to music, using Tai-Chi and the second musical piece begins with the "sun salutation" posture. The third piece of music "standing strength" aims to strengthen leg muscles. The fourth musical rendition of "balance" emphasizes body balance, and the fifth tune "hip opener" makes hips more flexible.

The sixth tune, "abdominal" starts the Pilates discipline to exercise abdominal muscles. The seventh tune, "core back", focuses on back muscles, while the eighth tune, "twist" helps the torso, chest, and shoulders to become more flexible. The ninth tune, "hamstring stretch", makes back muscles and upper legs more flexible, and the tenth tune "relaxation", concentrates on creating a relaxing atmosphere. The final tune, "recover", is the recovery of health by combining all the rest.

The benefits of Body Balance build concentration, patience, body balance, flexibility, and help oxygenate the blood. The practice is suitable for people of all ages, particularly the elderly, or pregnant women, because the postures are gentle in nature. Those with specific health problems may choose to practice the gentler postures.

More about meditating and Yoga can be found here