PILATES (pronounced Pi-LAH-teez) is a series of low-impact flexibility and muscle-strengthening exercises developed by German fitness guru Joseph Pilates during the 1920’s.  After studying Eastern and Western exercise disciplines, as well as the human anatomy, Pilates created the ideal physical training for achieving what he called the Quality of Life:  Live to be a 90 year-old who moves and feels like a 20 year-old!  This uniquely transformational method of body conditioning yields profound results for people of all ages and abilities.  Equally engaging your body and mind, the Pilates method emphasizes the uniform development of all muscle groups while promoting flexibility, strength, good posture, and skeletal alignment.  This development occurs once the initiation of all movement comes from the core.

This integrative systematic approach of body conditioning allows you to correct and improve imbalances in musculoskeletal structure and function.  Meaning??  You'll move taller, stronger, and better!  Through the use of classical Pilates, symptoms such as chronic lower-back pain, muscle fatigue, flabby abdominals, limited flexibility, and poor posture have greatly diminished.  Due to its profound benefits and results within the century, Pilates is now being used in conjunction with clinical chiropractic practice and physical rehabilitation programs.

The GOAL of Pilates is to develop a high degree of abdominal strength, better posture, refined overall balance and stability, greater flexibility of the spine and limbs with the combined power of the body and mind.  By performing many different exercises for a low number of repetitions with intense concentration on form and precision, the muscles are elongated and strengthened.  This then turns the abdominals, lower back, and gluteals into the body’s “powerhouse.” The powerhouse is your main source of movement, power, control, and balance.  Weakness in these areas can result in injuries, poor posture, lower-back pain, and neck/shoulder fatigue.  The greatest aspect of Pilates is discovering a new sense of body awareness.  You’ll learn to listen to your body and to think about your posture as you move, not only during class, but throughout the day.  Since Pilates teaches you how to move your body more efficiently and is easy on your joints, it compliments all other types of physical activities and sports!

ANYONE can do Pilates, and everyone can benefit from it!  While your muscles may occasionally shake in Pilates, they should never actually hurt.  You will be encouraged to push yourself hard, but to omit or modify any exercise that bothers you.  Remember – exercise is about health not injury! You owe it to yourself to find out what the excitement over Pilates is all about!  If it looks too complicated – it isn’t. If it looks too wimpy – it’s not!  Ask those who’ve stuck with Pilates, and they’ll tell you it has improved their “quality of life!”

HISTORY OF PILATES

The Pilates Method was developed in 1926 by Joseph Hubertus Pilates. It combines the mental focus of Eastern disciplines such as Yoga and Tai Chi with Western emphasis on strength and stamina.

Born near Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1880, Joseph Pilates suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a child. Looking for a way to improve his health and condition, he studied various forms of exercise and developed a special regimen which allows practitioners to strengthen and elongate their muscles.

Joseph Pilates was a gymnast and pugilist who had creative, indeed brilliant, ideas about physical fitness and rehabilitation following physical injury. In a British internment camp in World War I, he rigged a hospital bed so that patients could still exercise while lying flat on their backs. That idea evolved into the Trapeze Table (aka Cadillac, pictured on the right), one of the main components of what was to become a whole method of exercise, which Mr. Pilates called "Contrology". He also invented, for this purpose, the Universal Reformer, which is equipped with straps and springs to provide resistance.

His method of exercise later became known as the "Pilates Method". For more than 70 years the Pilates Method has been utilized in studios and physical therapy centers around the world, becoming increasingly popular in the last 20 years. The primary focus of the Pilates Method is the process itself, experiencing movement from the inside out. It is a series of sequential and carefully performed core movements, each designed to stretch and strengthen the muscles involved. It increases tone, flexibility, postural alignment, coordination and endurance.

In 1967, Joseph Pilates died in a fire succumbed by smoke at the age of 87.