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United Methodist
Church
40 Church Street, High Bridge NJ
08829
(732)
261-7722
Joseph Pilates (1880 - 1967)
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What
is Pilates?
In
10 sessions you
will FEEL the difference...In 20 sessions you will SEE the
difference...In 30 sessions you will have a WHOLE NEW BODY.
-Joseph H. Pilates
The
Pilates
method of body conditioning is a unique system of
stretching and strengthening exercises developed over ninety years ago
by Joseph H. Pilates. It strengthens and tones muscles, improves
posture, provides flexibility and balance, unites body and mind and
creates a more streamlined shape.
At a time
when the fitness industry is tripping over itself to create
new, innovative trends, the Pilates method, with more than nine decades
of success, stands out as a tried-and-true formula of wisdom and
unwavering results. Pilates was developed to create a healthy
body, a healthy mind and a healthy life, and people are ready to heeds
its message of balance.
Whether
because of a new consciousness or an intense dissatisfaction
with the results of trendy exercise programs, in the past five years
there has been a tremendous surge in the mind-body focus
movement. People are beginning to realize how inefficient the
exercises of the 1980s really were. We may have bought into the
no-pain-no-gain mentality, but ultimately that led us to spend too much
of our precious spare time chained to the gym. We now realize
that while exercise should be an important part of our lives, it should
add to and not take away from our enjoyment of a full life. With
Pilates, specifically the matwork, we can minimize the amount of time
spent in a gym or in front of an exercise video, but maximize the
results achieved from a full-body workout. The matwork teaches us
that the body is the finest and only tool necessary for achieving
physical fitness.
Our old
exercise regimes are failing us for another reason: They
are based on isolating muscles and working each area of the body
individually rather than treating the body as the integrated whole it
is. The poor physical condition many of us are in today comes
from the imbalance of engaging in complicated, ineffective exercises
that isolate certain body parts while neglecting others. If our
goal in exercising is to balance our bodies, improve circulation,
reduce stress, improve endurance, look better and feel great, then
wouldn’t it stand to reason that we should utilize the one method that
for over nine decades has proven its ability to achieve all these
things?
The Pilates
philosophy focuses on training the mind and body to work
together toward the goal of overall fitness. Although born in a
completely different era, Joseph Pilates understood the physical and
mental pressures of a busy schedule. He sought to reeducate us to
work our bodies with the efficiency of performing our daily tasks in
mind. Pilates believed that his method would propel people to
become more productive both mentally and physically. For this
reason the Pilates matwork is designed to fit into the physical and
time constraints of the individual without diminishing its
comprehensive elements.
Pilates began
developing his exercise system in Germany in the early
1900s. Plagued by asthma and rickets as a child, Pilates’ method
sprang from his determination to strengthen his frail and sickly
body. He called his method “The Art of Contrology”, or muscle
control, to highlight his unique approach of using the mind to master
the muscles. Interned during the First World War, he taught his
method to fellow internees and successfully maintained their health
through the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918. During the latter
part of the war Pilates served as an orderly in a hospital on the Isle
of Man, where he began working with nonambulatory patients. He
attached springs to the hospital beds to support the patients’ ailing
limbs while he worked with them, and he and the doctors noticed that
the patients were improving faster.
These
spring-based exercises became the basis for the apparatus Pilates
would later design to be used in conjunction with the matwork.
That is why the Pilates name is often associated with
antiquated-looking machines, but the matwork is the original movement
system that Joseph Pilates created and is just as effective as the work
done on the machines. The movements of Pilates need no
accoutrements and can be performed anywhere a normal human body can fit
comfortably when stretched out at full length.
Joseph set up
the first official Pilates Studio in New York City after
immigrating to the United States in 1926. Since its introduction
to American culture Pilates has maintained a steady and devout
following. It has been the secret of dancers and performers since
the late 1920s; Martha Graham and George Balanchine were big
fans. In recent years it has been discovered by athletes, models
and actors who say they owe their strong, lithe bodies to the Pilates
method.
- Excerpted
from The Pilates Body, by Brooke Siler
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©
2007 High
Bridge Pilates.com - All rights reserved.
Clinton Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey
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