Method

The movements will have a noticeable impact on your body in terms of improved posture, general well-being, strength and flexibility, but they will also help to heal any long or short term injuries or muscular imbalances caused by today’s sedentary lifestyle.

Pilates stretches, tones and re-aligns the body using exercises requiring total core stability. This method uses concentration, precision and control to work the deep postural muscles particularly around the waist and back, but will also challenge the body as a whole, aiming to co-ordinate the upper and lower muscle groups with the centre of the body.

While the exercises are designed to put a minimum amount of strain on the body – practised without shoes either standing, kneeling or laying on the floor, with no impact on the joints – they also aim to challenge its capabilities. This means that Pilates is accessible to anyone of any age or fitness level. Pilates will strengthen your body and focus your mind, and make you feel and look a new person!!

PILATES PROVIDES A FULL BODY WORKOUT THAT CHALLENGES YOU LIKE NO OTHER EXERCISE. THE MOVEMENTS SYSTEMATICALLY WORK ALL THE MUSCLE GROUPS IN YOUR BODY, CHALLENGING THE WEAK AS WELL AS STRONG AREAS, IMPROVING STRENGTH, FLEXIBILITY, POSTURE AND CO-ORDINATION, RESULTING IN A LEANER BODY, A NEW PHYSICAL POISE AND A WONDERFUL FEELING OF WELLNESS.

Joseph H. Pilates was born in Germany in 1880 to a German naturopath mother and a Greek gymnast father. Joseph Pilates was a sickly child suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever He began studying body-building, yoga and gymnastics, and by age 14 was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts. He came to believe that the “modern” lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing lay at the roots of poor health.

In 1912 Pilates moved to England, earning a living as a boxer, circus-performer and self-defense trainer. During World War I the British authorities interned him with other German citizens in a camp on the Isle of Man, where he trained other inmates in fitness and exercises, his method began to take shape. Around 1925 Pilates emigrated to the US and met his future wife Clara on the ship taking him there. The couple founded a studio in New York City where they taught and supervised their students until the 1960s.

His method, which he and Clara originally called “Contrology”, related to encouraging the use of the mind to control muscles. It focuses attention on core postural muscles that help keep the human body balanced and provide support for the spine. The couple established a devout following in the local dance and the performing-arts community of New York. Dancers such as George Balanchine (who arrived in the United States in 1933) and Martha Graham (who had come to New York in 1923) became devotees and regularly sent their students to the Pilates for training and rehabilitation.

Joseph wrote several books, including “Return to Life through Contrology” and “Your Health” and was a prolific inventor with over 26 patents cited. Joe and Clara had a number of disciples who continued to teach the method they learned during their studies with Joe and Clara. Joseph, a genius ahead of his time, died in 1967 at the age of 87 in New York.