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Relaxation and Guided Meditation in Phuket
Reclaim your natural body through mindful movements, evidence based nutrition and Deep health practices like breathing, relaxation and meditation.
Continue readingHow much flexibility is enough?
I like to start by answering a simple questions and at the end of this post I have a list of 5 questions you can self reflect on.
Okay, here we go…
Do you want to be Flexible or Functional?
They are not the same.
Flexible can translate to being pliable; or bending without breaking.
Functional however refers to working conditions; being able to move with ease.
A functional body is naturally both flexible and strong.
Let’s take two common scenarios of flexibility to understand this better:
- A gymnast 🤸♀️ needs the highest amounts of flexibility which comes from joints distraction. Compromising joint integrity by the excessive joint range of motions.
- We are naturally born both flexible and functional and mostly stay that way till the age of 6-8 which comes from less resistance in the muscles, which keeps the joint’s range of motion optimal.
And as most of us are born naturally flexible when we involve in various functional activities/sports (except gymnastics and similar activities that promote hyper-flexibility) our body develops accordingly.
If you are involved in tennis from a young age your body will develop one-sidedly.
If you are involved in running or similar sports you will develop certain muscles more than others and so on. You get the idea.
So unless you are competing in Olympics as the best gymnast, aiming for a highly flexible body is not necessary. (And of course, that is your decision to make)
But, in my opinion, the best option is to be both.
Flexible + Strong = Functional
Sound simple?
It’s not that simple; because there is a limitation to measuring the level of flexibility and strength someone needs to go by the day and it differs from person to person.
And if you are stiff like wood then that just shows how much you screwed up your posture over the years.
And randomly stretching a tight muscle is not the right solution, perhaps the worse. Most people don’t know the difference between tight and overworked muscle.
Let’s try to understand this with an example;
It’s most obvious you feel tense and overworked when you have to do the job of 2 people just because your boss hasn’t found a replacement for the employees he fired last month. (Yes you can handle it for a few weeks or months but what happens afterward)
We can also debate on stretching helps relax the overworked muscle. Same as you need to get a massage on a weekend or grab a drink after work or have a smoke during work breaks to relax your mind.
You see all that is just temporary and you need to look for a long term solution; hire the people so you don’t have to do their job and you can be more efficient.
Same as improving your posture by training the right muscles to do their job to maintain a good posture.
That’s going to ultimately reduce the stress and tension and you won’t feel an urge to become flexible.
See the problem with becoming flexible or feeling the need for stretching is an addiction.
And not different than a person lifting weights playing sports running hiking all day, every day. (Perhaps they are only good at doing that!) and
That’s just an addictive behavior that comes from limiting beliefs. Many of our behaviors are shaped by our limiting beliefs.
How many times have you got a suggestion from your friend, girlfriend, wife, or colleague to try yoga?
…You either tried yoga, loved it, and still doing it…
…Or you did once and said it’s not for you…
…Or perhaps you did so much that now you are the yoga teacher yourself…
No matter where you are at now in your yoga journey it’s important to look back and remember the primary reason and reflect on it for a few minutes.
Now self reflect or answer these questions.
- What level of flexibility have you achieved?
- How long did it take to get there?
- What has changed in your body since then that has directly improved your physical ability to do something with ease?
- Do you feel functional or just flexible?
- Are you satisfied with your current posture?
And if you are looking for accountability send your answers to info@abbysan.com
What Is Yoga?
Dr Abhishek founded Abbysan in 2007, he did so with a vision to create a comfortable studio atmosphere for clients to attain Yoga mastery away from the pressure of daily life.
Continue readingThe Benefits of Building Strength
The amount of strength that can be built depends on gender, age, and inherited physical attributes. While strong muscles are essential for any athletic endeavour, strong muscles can benefit everyone in some way.
Continue readingHip, Knee & Ankle Issues
The most common injury, ankle sprain or simply the lack of optimum range of motion in your ankle can set a series of imbalances and dysfunctions in your body. The most common of all is change in gait pattern, which eventually can make yours legs week, causing hip and back pain. The most acquired prolonged sitting habits are very common among high school teenagers, office or desk-job develop the joint pain for being inactive. On the contrary the cyclists, runners, sprinters, gymnasts, high jump athletes and other sports players suffer from overuse injuries of either one of the three important joints in the lower body.
If you are looking for a simple, more effective way to deal with your knee issues, hip impingements and sciatica started due to prolonged sitting habits, bad movements techniques, or posture; come and get a free assessment and movement screen or start with one of the classes from the recommendations below to help overcome your knee, ankle or hip issues.
Remember, every part of your body is inter-connected and re-building that connection takes time and effort.
Hip, Knee & Ankle Issues (Lower Body Dysfunction)
MUST ATTEND ANY OF THE CLASSES BELOW (2-3 times/week)
Skip all that leg and arm work and focus on getting your hips and shoulders perform their best so you can play that sports with ease and reduce chance of repetitive injuries to your joints.
1
A low-impact lower-body workout class to help strengthen your feet and tone your thigh and buttocks.
2
A medium placed Yogkinesis™ class designed to open and create balance in a functional mayo-fascial sling of your body.
2
MAY ATTEND ANY OF THE CLASSES BELOW (2-3 times/month)
A complete and balanced class to enjoy your workout while uniformly developing or toning the muscles all over the body.
1
While most sports and exercise routines involve training large and aesthetically visible muscles, the core recovery class targets deep muscles around the joints and uniformly develops the abdominal muscles that naturally support your joints and posture.
2
A dynamic Yogkinesis™ class designed to open and create balance in spiral, deep front and functional mayo-fascial slings of your body.
3
A fun and challenging pilates repertoire that introduces complex movements to enhance total body integration and neuromuscular co-ordination.
2
Lower Back Issues
Lower back and sacrum issues are very common among office or desk-job, cyclists, runners, high jump athletes at some point in their lives tend to develop lower back pain and stiffness due to repetitive movements in the single plane.
If you are looking for a simple, more effective way to deal with your back issues started due to prolonged sitting habits, bad movements techniques, or posture; or inappropriately body position for lifting and carrying your newborn baby, come and get a free assessment and movement screen or start with one of the classes from the recommendations below to help overcome your back issues.
Lower Back Issues (Core Dysfunction)
MUST ATTEND ANY OF THE CLASSES BELOW (2-3 times/week)
A slow placed Yogkinesis™ class designed to open and create balance in your front and back mayo-fascial slings in your body.
1
A slow-paced spine and core-focused class to help improve the segmental mobility of your spine, reduce pressure on your discs, and strengthen the deep muscles that support your spine.
2
While most sports and exercise routines involve training large and aesthetically visible muscles, the core recovery class targets deep muscles around the joints and uniformly develops the abdominal muscles that naturally support your joints and posture.
3
Skip all that leg and arm work and focus on getting your hips and shoulders perform their best so you can play that sports with ease and reduce chance of repetitive injuries to your joints.
4
MAY ATTEND ANY OF THE CLASSES BELOW (2-3 times/month)
A dynamic Yogkinesis™ class designed to open and create balance in spiral, deep front and functional mayo-fascial slings of your body.
1
A low-impact lower-body workout class to help strengthen your feet and tone your thigh and buttocks.
2
A complete and balanced class to enjoy your workout while uniformly developing or toning the muscles all over the body.
3
Neck & Shoulder Issues
Neck & Shoulder issues are very common among office or desk-jobs and sports players who play racket games and basketball.
If you are going through all sorts of neck and shoulder issues either happening due to sports or yoga injuries, misalignment of the joints, bad movements techniques or posture; lifting and carrying your newborn baby, come and get a free assessment and movement screen or start with one of the classes from the recommendations below to help overcome your neck shoulder issues.
Neck and Shoulder Issues (Upper Body Dysfunction)
MUST ATTEND ANY OF THE CLASSES BELOW (2-3 times/week)
A slow-paced shoulder and core-focused class to help correct upper-body dysfunctions, re-education shoulder girdle rhythm and promote blood circulation in the shoulders and relax neck muscle, resulting in improved vitality of the area.
1
A low-impact upper-body workout class to help strengthen your handgrips and tone your arms and back.
2
Skip all that leg and arm work and focus on getting your hips and shoulders perform their best so you can play that sports with ease and reduce chance of repetitive injuries to your joints.
3
While most sports and exercise routines involve training large and aesthetically visible muscles, the core recovery class targets deep muscles around the joints and uniformly develops the abdominal muscles that naturally support your joints and posture.
4
MAY ATTEND ANY OF THE CLASSES BELOW (2-3 times/month)
A slow placed Yogkinesis™ class designed to open and create balance in your front and back mayo-fascial slings in your body.
1
A slow-paced spine and core-focused class to help improve the segmental mobility of your spine, reduce pressure on your discs, and strengthen the deep muscles that support your spine.
2
A complete and balanced class to enjoy your workout while uniformly developing or toning the muscles all over the body.
3
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The moment when you are not progressing anymore in your workouts is called a plateau. There are many reasons why this may happen, but luckily there are also plenty of solutions to get over it.
Continue readingWhy Should You Go to Pilates?
With seemingly half the celebrities around the world getting their pictures taken leaving Pilates classes, and perhaps your friends and neighbors reducing aches and pains and becoming fit with Pilates, you might be wondering about Pilates lessons for yourself.
What do you expect from a Pilates class?
Most people will answer with something vaguely along the lines of “a core workout”. The truth is that Pilates works more than just your core — your entire body workout and a mindful way of exercising your muscles.
Restructure Your Core
Your core isn’t just your abs — it’s your entire body from your diaphragm all the way to your pelvic floor. Pilates can help make your abs stronger or give you better muscular endurance in your core. Although the focus of a Pilates class is primarily on your core, your inner unit “powerhouse“, the class at Abbysan centre will also work your back, chest, arms, legs, neck, and feet!
Postural Balance
Technology has created a generation of back and neck pain. Pilates programs are praised by everyone from athletes to office workers for their ability to develop strength and correct posture in the key areas of the body such as hips, lower back, upper back, and neck.
By releasing the typically overactive areas of the chest, upper shoulders, thoracic spine (upper back), and hip flexor muscles as well as activating and strengthening the gluteals, abdominals, and shoulder stabilizers will help to counteract the effects of slouching.
All of this significantly improves dynamic stability – the ability of the body to hold itself in better alignment for longer, maintaining an upright posture, stability, and responsiveness.
Rebuild Muscle Tone. Not Bulk.
Celebrities consistently credit Pilates as the reason for their toned muscles. It makes your arms lean and toned. A great butt is a great asset for everyone its helps in maintaining pelvic stability, knee alignment, power in jumps, speed when running and make your buttocks look good in tights of course. Pilates builds longer, leaner muscles making you stand taller and look slimmer!
Regain Sensory-Motor Control.
Pilates includes balance and standing work. Most of us don’t move our spines in all different directions. A Pilates class will take your spine and neck through a gentle various range of motions (flexion, rotation, extension, and lateral flexion). If you feel tight from sitting or standing all day, these movements will get you loose and limber again.
We will activate the muscles in isolation and then progressively work them in more compound and dynamic functional movements (movements that you are likely to perform during your daily life), this will help you regain the control over your movements.
Equipment or No equipment… it works
All kinds of exercises are done on the reformer to promote length, strength, flexibility, and balance. The reformer is the key to achieving long, strong muscles without bulk. The exercises on reformer provide enough resistance and movement variety to help build strong bones.
Yet, you don’t need equipment — you can do a Pilates workout on Mat anywhere. Although Pilates can use a full studio, it can also be done just with your body weight. We can put together a custom pilates routine for your holiday hotel rooms. Let us know!
Dancers and Celebrities love it.
Pilates is the exercise of dancers. Think of the bodies you see in movies or on the stage — if you want long, lean muscles like the dancers, then this is the workout for you. Celebrities consistently credit Pilates as the reason for their toned muscles. It makes your arms lean and toned.
Best fit for Prenatal or Postnatal.
Not only important for mums and mums-to-be, Pilates will strengthen your pelvic floor, which is a vital muscle for everyone. Your pelvic floor gives you control over your bladder and bowel, but can be weakened by childbirth, obesity and also if you lift a lot of heavy weights.
Athlete and Sport’s Conditioning
Pilates was initially developed as a rehabilitative tool. Joseph Pilates was a German gymnast, born in 1883, who dedicated his life to teaching his exercising techniques, believing that poor posture goes hand-in-hand with poor health. He believed that by having awareness of breath and of alignment of the spine, we can strengthen the deep torso and abdominal muscles, and reduce stress.
Elderly are not exceptions.
Elderly people have many risk factors due to aging and lack of exercise.
Decrease in balance, gait disabilities, and falls are most common and greatly affect their mobility in day-to-day life.
Balance ability is a very complicated function that maintains positions through diverse functional elements, and intervention of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems. In general, various sensory-motor neurons interact in response to changes in gravity, the base of support, vision, and physical stability, and the external environment, resulting in instability of the body.
Mat-based Pilates helps elderly males and females improve trunk stability, dynamic balance, and significantly decrease the sway length and sway speed.
Elderly are not exceptions.
Elderly people have many risk factors due to aging and lack of exercise.
Decrease in balance, gait disabilities, and falls are most common and greatly affect their mobility in day-to-day life.
Balance ability is a very complicated function that maintains positions through diverse functional elements, and intervention of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems. In general, various sensory-motor neurons interact in response to changes in gravity, the base of support, vision, and physical stability, and the external environment, resulting in instability of the body.
Mat-based Pilates helps elderly males and females improve trunk stability, dynamic balance, and significantly decrease the sway length and sway speed.
Clinical Pilates Is Beneficial In;
- Chronic Low back pain (LBP)
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD)
- Post Menstrual Syndrome (PMS)
- Multiple sclerosis
- Lymphedema after Breast Cancer Treatment
- Spinal Deformities
- Degenerative Disorders like Arthritis, Osteoporosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis, etc.
Supervised Under Dedicated Instructor.
The ideal way to keep up with your training is to have an instructor design a bespoke program of exercises for you to keep up with in between your sessions in the studio, and plan a review session every so often to make sure your technique is still sound and you are getting the most out of your training and in time you’ll be amazed by the results.
Our instructors are certified Pilates instructors as well as hold bachelor’s degrees in physiotherapy and naturopathy. We can create bespoke rehab and exercise programs for our clients with injuries or postural issues.
Word Of Caution.
- If you have an injury, consider doing a few one-on-one sessions with one of our Pilates specialists first to learn the basics. On a personal level, always remember the rule that if something hurts, don’t do it.
- Attending classes throughout pregnancy also significantly helps and speeds up the process of getting your body back in shape after childbirth. However, as with any type of exercise, always check with your doctor first, and remember to tell your trainer that you are pregnant before commencing class.
Abbysan Studio is located at the entrance of the boat lagoon in Phuket, offering highly effective body sculpting pilates workouts.
Based on various studies indicate people who practice Pilates with good technique over time see the following benefits:
- Improved flexibility and mobility.
- Trunk stability.
- Core and pelvic floor strength.
- Injury prevention.
- Improved posture.
- Improved coordination and athletic performance in some sports.
We feel most rewarded when our clients achieve their goals, especially those who became pain-free or having more ease of movement.
You can also visit the following research links for your reference
Pilates: how does it work and who needs it? [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666467/]
The Effects of Pilates Mat Exercise on the Balance Ability of Elderly Females.[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3944308/]
Effects of modified Pilates on the variability of inter-joint coordination during walking in the elderly. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5276783/]
Effects of Clinical Pilates Exercises on Patients Developing Lymphedema after Breast Cancer Treatment. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5351459/]