Staying Young & Healthy Over 40 with Pilates

Mike Mergener, of Lake Forest, is an avid golfer, runner, and skier. Every week, he runs 15 miles-more or less-and every year, plays some 100 rounds of golf.

To maintain his physical fitness, he uses free weights and a foam roller to work out back issues. He has tried yoga, but prefers Pilates, because, "The resistance works. I think it is a better work out."

Mergener, 60, retired from ABN AMRO, Lake Forest, 2 years ago as business development vice president and has discovered, like many living on the North Shore, that Pilates helps him "stay flexible and in shape."

Based on German-born Joseph Pilates' method of fitness in the early 1900s, 21st-century Pilates is practiced in greater numbers by students on the North Shore, a subset of an estimated 10.5 million Americans identified in a 2012 American College of Sports Medicine article. In it, author Jan Schroeder said sustained passion for Pilates grew out of "ever-rising stress levels from work, family and other obligations, which fueled the need for a calming activity that also provides health and fitness benefits."

Co-owner Susan Pines, of Northbrook's Swan Dive Center for Pilates, where Mergener books weekly or biweekly private lessons, said more residents are experiencing the benefits of Pilates-including core stability, good posture, and maximizing breath control while exercising.

Pines said the studio has noted up to a 20 percent increase this summer, including customers who work in the surrounding industrial park as well as area North Shore residents, both groups in the 40-plus age bracket.

"They are golfers, tennis players or clients who weight train and want to add a mix to their workout routine," said Pines.

Mergener said he plays more golf than before retirement and now skis in the winter. One of the benefits of his sports regimen is to keep the weight down. But it's more than that.

"Like all of us Baby Boomers, we want to stay as young and healthy as long as possible," he said.

Mergener believes that Pilates has improved his athletic abilities and overall fitness level. He explained that after playing two 36-hole rounds of golf, he wasn't sore until he "really worked out" during a Pilates session.

"It tells me that even at my age I am able to perform at a level that other people my age would find difficult."

Mergener said he prefers private lessons at Swan Dive, with Pilates Method Alliance board certified instructor Iryna Pantelyuk, over classes he took at another studio, in which he said he became bored. "She's good at mixing up the routine and keeping me interested in coming back."

Pantelyuk, Mergener said, is serious about training, instilling humor and showing genuine concern for his comfort. "I enjoy working with Iryna because she knows me, and how I work out. She knows what muscles to work on, and that, I think, is a big factor."

For example, if his muscles cramp up, he said, she knows what to do.

Pantelyuk, who is offering a free massage with the purchase of a Pilates session for Swan Dive's eighth anniversary promotion through September, said her students realize positive results by coupling Pilates with massage.

As a licensed massage therapist whose work is influenced by Ben Benjamin orthopedic massage and myofascial release techniques, Pantelyuk said that massage therapy helps identify and heal problem areas that can be caused by acute injury or chronic pain from older injuries and lifestyle patterns that inhibit muscles from firing properly.

Large core muscles are important, but so, too, are the smaller ones.

For example, said Pantelyuk, a competitive shooter and physical education instructor from the Ukraine, traditional crunches can overdevelop abdominals and leave back muscles weak, creating imbalance in the body trunk.

Awareness of balance, posture and movement is key, said Pines and co-owner Wendy Helton, about Pilates training offered at the center on 16 pieces of equipment, originally designed by Joseph Pilates, and supplemented with the use of various props.

"We have people who have not been in sports for years," said Helton. "They played when they were younger and they want to stay fit and healthy, and they have that natural ability to pick up movements (taught by an instructor)."

"We teach people to move better," Helton added. "Within that groundwork, we can make them more limber, but primarily they need awareness and improved body mechanics. Whether it's moving in sports or everyday life, they'll feel stronger and feel better and be able to ward off potential injuries."

"The Pilates method restores the muscle's function and strength, and along with flexibility training, this creates harmony inside the body," Pantelyuk explained.

Pilates' holistic, mind-body sessions make students think as they move through a range of motion, in exercises that promote overall strength and elasticity of muscles. Full body workouts include leg stretching and movement of the spine in all directions, while keeping the pelvis steady, said Pantelyuk.

The results are also pleasing in the mirror, as students build "good posture, and lean, long, flexible muscles," similar to those of a dancer, Pantelyuk added.