Most of the time, bad habits are simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom. Everything from biting your nails, overspending on a shopping spree, drinking every night, wasting time on the internet all can be a simple response to stress and boredom.


Recognizing your bad habits is crucial to overcoming them.

You don’t eliminate a bad habit, you replace it.

All of the habits that you have right now — good or bad — are in your life for a reason. In some way, these behaviours provide a benefit to you, even if they are bad for you in other ways. (1)

How Pilates can break bad habits

In modern live most of us are drawn more and more to spend time on our phones, tablets and computers. Have a look around you and notice how many people are walking with heads in front of their bodies. This posture can be caused by the habit of using screens too often. We seem to be reversing evolution: it took us millions of years to walk upright and now ironically with modern technology we appear to be going backwards! It does not only make us look old before our time but in the long run it can give us injuries.

Doing Pilates on a regular basis will help us to rethink on how we move our bodies and in the long run will help correct our postures. Strengthening our extensor muscles of our spine and lengthening flexors can help us to correct the posture we have created while sitting at our computers or other ‘screens’.

Pilates also teaches us to use our core muscles the proper way. It will strengthen the deep core muscles around your spine which will keep you strong while bending down, turning your body or while moving furniture. It will improve your balance which will help you to become more stable and therefor hopefully have less injuries.


It is not just the functionality of our body movements that Pilates is correcting, it can also help you to eliminate another possible bad habit, stress. Pilates makes you aware of your breathing, making sure you are breathing through the lower lobes of your lungs. To have a ‘3 Dimensional Breath’, will help you to get less stress in your neck area and it will also help to make you feel calmer.

Changing a bad habit takes time but it is best not to think like that. Pilates is a dynamic work-out, not only will strengthen you it will also make you more flexible and it is fun. Why not just think about that and take it from there?

“In 10 lessons you will feel the difference, in 20 you will see the difference, and in 30 you will be on your way to having a whole new body.” Joseph Pilates

Make Pilates one of your good habits