What is the Meaning of the Name Pilates?
This method of physical and mental conditioning now goes by the name of its creator, Joseph Hubertus Pilates (Pi-LAH-Teez). Joseph was born in Germany in 1880. He was a sickly child, suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. As a teenager he began his quest to improve his health, which ultimately led to the method we know today. During his lifetime, Joseph called his work Contrology.
When was the Pilates Method brought to the US?
Joseph immigrated to America in 1926 and opened a studio in New York City. His upstairs neighbor was George Balanchine. Then a dancer, Balanchine went on to become a noted choreographer and ballet company director. It was through Balanchine’s and his friend Martha Graham’s connections to performers that the Pilates method became known as the “Dancers’ Exercise.” Joseph died in 1967, at the age of 87, from complications of a fire in his studio. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Pilates became readily available to the population at-large. Today Pilates is enjoyed not only by dancers, but by Hollywood actors and actresses, professional athletes, golfers, tennis players and joggers, people with bad backs, hips, knees and shoulders, expectant moms and new moms, and all of us who want to feel and look better and be healthier.
“Physical Fitness is the First Requisite of Happiness.” Joseph H. Pilates
What is the Focus of Pilates?
The focus is to develop the body and mind uniformly. Joseph intended his method to enable people to become more productive both physically and mentally. Rather than wasting time and effort on failed attempts to isolate a particular muscle, Pilates treats the body and mind as an integrated whole. The three guiding principles in Pilates are Concentration, Core and Control; but every movement begins with Concentration, our mind’s willing the body to move.
What Does Pilates Accomplish?
The matwork improves endurance and flexibility of muscles and joints; lengthens and strengthens the body by developing long, lean muscle; corrects the body’s balance, alignment and coordination; helps relieve chronic back pain, stress and stress-related disorders; helps stimulate the circulatory system and heal injured tissue.
“In ten sessions you will feel the difference, in twenty you will see the difference,
and in thirty you’ll have a whole new body.” Joseph H. Pilates
What is the Core?
Joseph called this part of the body the Powerhouse. The Core extends from the sternum to the pubic bone and is comprised of the muscles of the abdominals, lower back, hips and buttocks. When these muscles are weak, we sink our body’s weight into the lower back, hips and knees, causing not only pain and poor posture, but bulging bellies and love handles, as well. A catch-all phrase in the fitness industry, “Core work” does not match the focus, efficiency, safety and results of true Pilates taught by instructors trained in his method.
Can I Begin Pilates if I’m Not Physically Fit?
Absolutely! Remember that Pilates was designed to be a restorative form of movement. The matwork is infinitely adaptable for beginners with specific ailments or low fitness levels. Conversely, the movements can be adapted over time to be more challenging. Pilates is not built around the faulty “no pain, no gain” philosophy of fitness. There is no jarring of the joints, no ripping of muscle tissue, no soreness caused by pushing beyond effectiveness. You will enjoy Pilates well into your retirement years. Teachers that Joseph himself taught are now in their early 90s and still inspiring their students.
How Often Should I Do Pilates?
For beginners, practice three days a week. However, don’t be concerned if you can’t attend three classes. Your instructor will teach you simple movements that you can do at home on days when you are not in class. As you become more proficient, you will find yourself incorporating basic Pilates principles into daily activities at home, at work, while driving, sitting at your computer or walking down the street. You will do Pilates all-day- long!
What Is the Difference Between the Matwork and the Apparatus?
Joseph was living in England when WWI began. As a German national, he was interned on the Isle of Man with other “hostile aliens.” Toward the end of the war he began to work with wounded English soldiers brought to a military hospital on the island, using his techniques to aid in their recoveries. For the non-ambulatory patients, he attached springs to their beds to support theirs limbs while working with them. These spring-enhanced movements became the basis for the apparatus. But the matwork was his original system of movement and is as effective as the apparatus.
“People won’t understand the brilliance of my work for fifty years.”
Joseph H. Pilates, circa 1949
Pam Sheldrick first began teaching fitness in the mid-1970s. For the past six years she has focused her teaching on the matwork of Joseph Pilates. A resident of Morris Township. Pam holds group and private classes in Morris, Union and Somerset counties. She is certified by the Pilates PhysicalMind Institute of New York and teaches the Pilates classes at Studio Yoga Madison & Chatham NJ.
