PILATES EXERCISES are addressed to :

• those who recover from an accident
• those who want to improve their posture ; specific exercises for improving scoliosis, kyphosis and lordosis
• those who want to improve muscle asymmetries
• those who want to tone their muscles
• those who need to train in a safe environment to complete a healthy lifestyle
• future mothers for toning the muscles, for learning proper breathing and for preparing the body to give birth
• fresh mothers for a safer recovery

PILATES COURSES

Pilates is a method of exercise and physical movement designed to stretch, strengthen and balance the body. But the Pilates Method is not just exercise. It is a series of controlled movements engaging your body and mind, so you will learn to move with grace and balance. The exercises are performed on a mat or specifically designed exercise apparatus, and supervised by a trained pilates instructor. With two to three Pilates classes a week you’ll see results in your looks, your posture and the way you feel. Plus, you’ll enjoy increased flexibility, stronger bone density and greater endurance.

This innovative system of mind-body exercise, developed by Joseph Pilates is perfect for anyone who wants to strengthen and tone their body without gaining excess muscle mass. The Pilates workouts at our studio will help you achieve a lean, slender body and even help alleviate back pain.

Like many other kinds of exercise, Pilates increases metabolism, promotes respiratory and circulatory function, and improves bone density and muscle tone. And like Yoga and martial arts, it can help you to “get centered” and calm your nerves.

Unlike many other forms of exercise, however, Pilates balances out muscular asymmetries, streamlines your silhouette, and improves your balance, coordination, and breath control. Pilates does all this because the exercises work to simultaneously develop your muscular flexibility and your strength. The exercises also help to awaken new body awareness.

In conclusion, Pilates is a relaxing, enjoyable experience that tones, stretches, strengthens and rejuvenates the body. Pilates is adaptable so no matter your age or physical condition, there is a Pilates program that can work for you.

Pilates Courses – Movement Studio

Why Pilates ?

1. Because promotes physical harmony and balance for people of all ages and physical conditions while providing a refreshing and energizing workout.

2. Because it can be practiced by every person from sedentary office worker to fitness enthusiast for body conditioning and injury prevention

3. Because it can also be integrated into rehabilitative exercises and physical therapy programs designed to speed recovery of soft tissue injuries.

4. Because conditioning sessions are done one-to-one with a pilates instructor, each session is adjusted to your specific needs.

5. Pilates has proven effective with: Injury Prevention & Recovery Improved Alignment Enhanced Breathing & Circulation Increased Strength, Flexibility & Balance Improved Muscle Tone, Energy & Mental Concentration.

6. Because it can be safely used by pregnant women to learn proper breathing and body alignment, improve concentration and recover body shape and tone after pregnancy.

Pilates Principles

1. Breathing
The breath is the essential bond between the mind and the body. It is the rhythm that accompanies us through our lives. It brings our wondering mind back into our bodies and back to the task at the hand. The pattern of breathing is connected with the pattern of movement. All exercises are done with a rhythm and a dynamic related to the heartbeat and respiration, ensuring a free flow of oxygen throughout the body. This improves circulation and helps avoid unnecessary tension in the muscles.

2. Concentration
The mind is responsible in defining our body’s actions. Exercises are performed with focused concentration, paying attention to how the individual executes the exercises. The mind guides the body, and they work together as a team, with every exercise requiring the full attention of the participant. Without concentration the exercise has no form and purpose.

3. Control
When performing the exercises properly, you are in control of all of the movement of your body. Momentum has no place in Pilates, and habit does not guide the execution of the exercises. Being in control means to understand and maintain the proper form, alignment and effort during an entire exercise.

4. Centering
All the exercises are initiated and controlled through the center, “Core” or “Powerhouse”. It includes the deep abdominal muscles along with the muscles closest to the spine, the muscles in the back, the gluteal muscles, and the upper thigh muscles. In Pilates every movement starts from here. This center generates the energy which spreads all over the body. Building a strong and stable center is one of the characteristics of this form of work-out.

5. Precision
All exercises are performed with a clear structure and precise form. The work emphasizes quality, not quantity in order to reach the full benefit of each exercise. Precision is the result of the bonding between concentration, control, centering and practice.

6. Rhythm-Flow
All movements are done with a sense of rhythm and flow. Flow creates smooth, graceful and functional movements. In combination with deep and relaxed breathing, the flowing movements in Pilates reduce stress on the body and the risk of injury.

7. Relaxation
To be healthy in body and mind it is important to understand the balance between effort and relaxation. Learning to release unnecessary tension in our bodies helps us to find balance and flow in movement and in the rest of our lives. To be healthy in body and mind it is important to understand the balance between effort and relaxation. Learning to release unnecessary tension in our bodies helps us to find balance and flow in movement and in the rest of our lives.

The Pilates method is named after its inventor Joseph Hubertus Pilates.

Joe was born in 1883 on December 9 in Mönchengladbach Germany to parents of Greek and German ancestry. His father was a prize-winning gymnast of Greek origin and his mother a naturopath of German origin. A sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever, he dedicated his entire life to becoming physically stronger. In order to improve his own health he began exploring ways to strengthen his body and his mind. Joe became intrigued by the classical notion of the ideal man who combined a well trained body with an equally well trained intellect. He began studying body building and gymnastics and by the age of 14 was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts. In pursuit of his goal he participated in boxing, fencing, wrestling, gymnastics and diving. He practiced martial arts and studied both eastern and western philosophies, including yoga. He came to believe that our modern lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing were the roots of poor health. So, he ultimately devised a series of exercises and training techniques and engineered all the equipment, specifications and tuning required teaching them properly.

In 1912 he moved to England, and prior to World War I toured the country as a circus performer and professional boxer. He taught self-defense to the Scotland Yard police force. However, at the outbreak of World War I he and other German citizens were placed under forced internment as enemy aliens in a camp in Lancaster, on the Isle of Man. It was here that the beginnings of the True Pilates Method began to take shape. While interned, he taught fellow camp members the concepts and exercises developed over 20 years of self-study and apprenticeship in yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman physical regimens. It was at this time that he began devising the system of original exercises known today as “matwork,” or exercises done on the floor. According to Joe, when the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 broke out, none of the inmates who followed his regimen got sick.

His success with his group of inmates brought him to the attention of the camp leaders and he was given the job of an orderly at a hospital for wounded soldiers. He was put in charge of 30 patients and worked with them every day to exercise whatever they could move. Nursing during this time usually meant extended bed rest which lead to muscular atrophy, loss of aerobic capacity and a weakened immune system. Joe’s exercises helped his patients to get better faster and helped them to fend off the secondary infections that killed so many people in similar circumstances.

Working as an orderly also led to the development of Joe’s first piece of exercise equipment. Manually working out 30 patients every day was exhausting. So, Joe came up with the idea of attaching springs to the patients bed frames and so the patients could exercise themselves under Joe’s supervision.

This equipment was the forerunner of the reformer as we know today.

After his release, Joe returned to Germany. His exercise method gained favor in the dance community. Primarily through Rudolf von Laban, who created the form of dance notation most widely used today. When German officials asked Joe to teach his fitness system to the army, he decided to leave Germany for good, so he immigrated to the United States in 1926. On the ship to America he met his future wife Clara who was a nurse. The couple opened a fitness studio in New York, sharing an address with the New York City Ballet on 8th Avenue, where they directly taught and supervised their students well.. Pilates’ method, which he and Clara originally called “Contrology,” refers to the way his system encourages the use of the mind to control the muscles. By the early 1960s, Joe and Clara could count among their clients many New York dancers. George Balanchine studied “at Joe’s,” as he called it, and also invited Pilates to instruct his young ballerinas at the New York City Ballet.

Except ordinary people, his students also included Martha Graham, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Katherine Hepburn, Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. Pilates has always had a close connection to the world of dance.

Joseph Hubertus Pilates exercised and instructed to the last day of his life. He personally trained a small number of his pupils to become instructors themselves and in this way his life’s work continued.

Joe’s studio was destroyed by fire in 1967 and he died soon after that from complications of smoke inhalation. His wife Clara carried on the work until her death in 1977.

Amongst the primary teachers who carried on Joe’s work was :

Carola Trier who had an extensive dance background and ‘she opened her own studio in New York where she taught until her death in 1990;

Romana Kryzanowska, a ballet dancer who worked very closely with Joe, taught at his studio for many years and currently teaches through Romana’s Pilates;

Ron Fletcher was a Martha Graham dancer who worked with Joe and Clara very late in their lives, he brought pilates to the West Coast and introduced it to many famous actors and actresses. His work incorporated a more “dancerly” style and more complicated choreography into the original exercises.

Pilates has now become a household word thanks to the work of all of these first generation teachers and many others who kept the method alive after the death of Mr. Pilates. Without them, we would not have the wonderful exercise system we have today. We are grateful to all of them.

“I must be right. Never an aspirin. Never injured a day in my life. The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises. They’d be happier.”

Joseph.H.Pilates.