Ben Basar has climbed mountain peaks all over the country, skied the toughest black diamonds, navigated turbulent white waters, and logged endless miles by mountain bike. He has a degree in adventure education – emphasis on “adventure.”

Then there was the car accident followed by the chronic pain and the fear and the journey back to normalcy through a physical regime crafted by a German trainer in the late 1800s who immigrated to United States. His name was Joseph Hubertus Pilates.

“I had never experienced anything like Pilates – it was as challenging and scary as anything I’d ever done,” says Ben. In 2006, he founded Fox Valley Pilates in the town where he was raised, Geneva, Ill.

Why is Pilates relevant for busy, work-hard, play-hard executives?

According to Ben, to compete at a high level, it’s important to find your zone and be present in what you do.

“To get good at anything takes practice. Pilates is a connection between our mind and body. It teaches you to nail down what you need to nail down to make it happen.” He adds, “You don’t just show up for class and crank away.”

People turn to Pilates for a variety of reasons: recovering from surgery, maintaining a healthy body, and being mindful. Regardless, the starting point is the same: coordinating breath with movement and then learning how to use your body in a mindful, intentional manner. Pilates himself called the practice “contrology” – the art of using your mind to control your body.

Such extreme focus is a staple for successful executives.

Ben says, “You start to understand your deep self and how your body functions. That relationship strengthens the mind because you connect with the body and the body becomes stronger because you are using it to perform the exercises. The more you accomplish, the stronger all the pumps are, like lungs and heart. You sleep better at night.” He continues:

“It’s like an internal shower, the sweat wells up from deep inside you and you expunge the bad stuff like toxins.”

He points out that the brain is the strongest muscle and the least used. With a knowledgeable teacher, Pilates strengthens neural connections. When you “reboot,” you feel more in balance. You’re conscious of your breath so you know that if you’re slouching in a meeting, you instinctively pull in your stomach muscles so everything flows through you and you are a better vessel to deliver your presentation or contribute ideas. You are able to receive and give better at the same time. You have greater clarity with less distraction – utopia for most of us in business.

“I sink my teeth into what is productive. I’ve been at this a long time. It’s tangible. It’s real. I witness it all the time,” Ben says, adding:

“Be patient with the process. When I start my tomato seeds in the spring, it doesn’t matter how fast I want it to grow. I’m not getting tomatoes until August.”

Pilates – being mindful of your body and your mind – is a lifelong practice. Ben advises taking it one day, one lesson at a time. He sees a lot of people wanting it all immediately. “They’ll say ‘I haven’t done anything for three years and I’m going to Hawaii so I’m going to starve and do cross fit three times a week.’ After 10 days, they are starving and eating cheeseburgers and then they hurt their shoulder because they thought they could do it all in two months,” he says.

Being present means knowing your faults.

With Pilates, Ben says, you acknowledge your faults. This, perhaps more than anything else, is how truly successful people stay that way. When you know your faults, you know how to change them. “With Pilates,” Ben says, “you have to believe in it and do things daily that reinforce your goals and it’s hard in our modern day society. All that extra stuff is not helping us be our best self.”