Just when you thought we'd talked about every possible benefit of Pilates, we come up with another. How about internal body cleansing? Yes. The combination of Pilates breathing, rolling exercises and increased flow and circulation throughout the body is a wonderful way to move toxins out of the body. Joseph Pilates wrote about this extensively in his book Return to Life Through Contrology and called it the internal shower.

Having spent many years with a business that specialized in internal cleansing, and having designed a body cleansing diet, I have always had a special interest in this somewhat under-publicized benefit of the Pilates method.  You might think that  anytime we exercise -- breathe hard,  sweat a lot, and get invigorated -- it has a cleansing effect. But actually, that's not quite it with body cleansing from Joseph Pilates' exercise perspective.

The internal shower is not just sweat and breathing hard, it's a flush and revitalization of your system that you can actually feel when you do Pilates as it was intended. Look for it in a workout near you! If you would like to get tips on how to get the internal shower and read more from Joseph Pilates on the body cleansing benefits of Pilates, read my new article Body Cleansing the Pilates Way.

Also, for those of you who would like to match their exercise efforts with a clean eating program, I am offering my readers free instructions for a 7 day cleansing diet.

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I really like this Pilates ball and ring sequence and I hope you will too. I like it because it is interesting to integrate  the ball and the ring (magic circle) into a sequence, and because it gets the whole body going. Every exercise has a core component (this is Pilates after all) but we also zoom in on inner thighs, shoulders, and arms.

This sequence is mixed level. If an exercise is too hard, feel free to modify it or skip it.

Learn a Workout with Exercise Ball and Pilates Ring

About Exercise Balls

About the Pilates Magic Circle (ring)

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Earlier this week I wrote about a few bad habits people get into in their rolling exercises.  Naturally now we have to take one in depth.

I chose open leg rocker this week because you really have to keep the shape to make it work. And, the big thing is that it's the breath and the abdominal muscles combined with the curved shape that make it roll. Open leg rocker also has a nice little balance piece at the start and end. This is a classic Pilates mat exercise and unless you have back or neck issues, you can try it.

Learn Open Leg Rocker

Not doing rolling exercises? Do Open Leg Balance

Have the Exercise of the Week along with more great Pilates info sent directly to you each week in the Free Pilates Newsletter.

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We love our rolling* exercises in Pilates. If you do them right, using your breath and abdominal muscle control rather than momentum, they feel amazing and give your abs a real workout. Also, rolling stimulates the spine, circulation, and breath.

But, it really takes a lot of determination for some of us to roll well. And in the process, I have to say there are some, well, ways to cheat. Of course, they only keep us from getting the full benefits of the exercise. In my observations there are three classes of Pilates roll cheaters: Read More...