THE EFFECT OF REFORMER PILATES EXERCISES ON BODY WEIGHT, PERCENT BODY FAT AND FLEXIBILITY IN SEDENTARY MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of regular reformer pilates exercise on body weight, percent body fat and flexibility in middle age sedentary women. Twenty women who had a membership in gym and were between 30-40 years old, voluntarily participated in the study. The participants were randomly divided into a control(n=10) and an experimental (n=10)groups. The women in the experimental group performed regular reformer Pilates exercise 3 times/wk. Each session lasted 50 minutes. The control group did not perform any regular exercise during this period. The body weight, percent body fat and flexibility values between pre and post-tests of the both groups were statistically compared. All statistical analyses were done by SPSS, version 20. The mean and standard deviation were taken into account in the calculation of the data. As a result of the research; the difference between preand post-tests body weight and body fat percentage measurements were not statistically significant (p>0.05) in the both groups. The difference between arithmetic mean of pre-test flexibility (p<0.01) and post-test flexibility of experimental and control groups were found statistically significant (p<0.05). Arithmetic means of body weight, flexibility and fat percentages between pre- and post-tests of the experimental group were statistically significant (p<0.05). While the differences of body weight and percent body fat between pre- and post-tests were statistically significant in the control group (p<0.01), flexibility measures was not found statistically significant (p>0.05). As a result; women who did reformer Pilates were more likely to decrease in percent body fat and increase their flexibility values than women who did not perform reformer Pilate