Pilates, yin yoga: why gentle methods are essential

Concretely, the movements proposed in the session are precise, subtle, but profound. They are also varied, creative, even disconcerting: for example, it might involve focusing for fifteen minutes on... the sole of your foot, with a soft ball placed under your toes!

Throughout the sessions, "the body frees itself from tension, stiffness, and pain, and breathing and movement regain amplitude," promises Claire Daviaud, an antigym practitioner in Bordeaux. "This method allows you to tame your body and become friends with it." And while, from the outside, the exercises may seem like students are "doing nothing," in fact, muscles, tendons, joints, and connective tissues remember them for several days!

Pilates and Yin

The same success is seen with Pilates and yin yoga, two other so-called gentle practices. "Our era needs this slowness," says Laura Lobjoit, a teacher of these two disciplines, after having been a fitness instructor for many years.