The Effect of Pilates Exercises on the Body Composition and Flexibility of Non-athletic Women

Flexibility is one of the physical fitness factors relevant to health which means musclesstretching. The len-gth of muscle fibers provides an area for joint range of motion that is concerned with Pilates exercises developed by Jos-eph Pila-tes. These exercises include stre-ngthing and stretching motionsand incre-ase breathing. This research inten-ded to investigate effects of Pilates on so-me indices of body composition and flexi-bility in non-athleticwomen 25-35 years old. The women and exercise protocol we-re as follow: 15 case women (mean of age, weight and height was 30.9 years, 59.93 kg and 165cm, respectively) underwent 8 we-eks of Pilates exercise and 10 control wo-men (mean of age, weight and height was 31.3 years, 59.63 kg and 162.3 cm, respectively)did not perfor-mPilates exer-cise. K-S test was usedto determine the normal distribution of data. Covariance test was used to determine the effect of the dependent variables. The effect of cova-riate variables was adjusted using simple linear regression. Pilates exercises demonstrated a significant effect on BF % in non-athletic women (f=19.7, P=0.001). However, pila-tes exercises had no significant effect on WHR in non-athletic women (f=3.96, P=0.06). A pilates training course had a significant effect on BMI % in non-athletic women (f=4.54, P= 0.044). Also, a course of pilates training had a significant effect on flexibility in non-athletic women (f=11.5, P=0.03). Discussion & The results showed that Pilates exercises has a posi-tive influence on flexibility, BF% and BMI % but has no significant effect on WHR.