What is Pilates?
What is Pilates?
Pilates is a total body/mind technique and as such does not seek to isolate limbs or muscles, but to stabilise the body and when the stabilising element is functioning correctly, then to challenge that stability with movement, and so require concentration and focus.
It’s not about exercise, it’s about movement and how to use your muscles in a controlled way so that they work for you in harmony with the breath. Pilates strengthens the body through movement so that the muscles you work will become muscles that work for you in every day activities.
History of Pilates
Pilates was developed over ninety years ago by Joseph H. Pilates.
As a sickly child, who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheimatic fever, he dedicated his life to becoming physically stronger. He called his method “The art of contrology” or muscle control, to highlight his unique approach of using the mind to master his muscles.
He studied and became proficient at bodybuilding, diving, skiing and gymnastics in his youth.
Interned during the First World War, he taught his method to fellow internees and successfully maintained their health during the deadly influenza epidemic of 1918. During the later part of the war he served as an orderly in a hospital on the Isle of Man, where he began work with people disabled from wartime.
He began working with these patients by moving their arms and legs gently, systematically using his own body to bear the weight. Doctors noticed the patients improving and allowed Joe to continue experimenting.
He started using springs from the hospital beds, he devised special machines that would allow patients to move on their own.
These springs would provide progressive resistance, similar to ones own muscles activity and bear the weight at the same time to enable the muscle to heal. These spring-based exercises became the basis for the apparatus Joe would later design to be used in conjunction with the matwork.
He emigrated to America in 1926 where he set up the first official Pilates studios in New York.
Since its introduction to American culture Pilates has maintained a steady devout following.
Why Pilates?
Pilates within the established class structure is for everyone. The health benefits for the mobility impaired have been proven since the early days of hospital beds and springs, and now through development, the classes flow from one movement to the next enabling all comers to achieve flexibility normally beyond their confidence.
The main benefits of the Pilates Classes are:
- Longer leaner muscles (less bulk, more freedom of movement)
- Helps prevent injury
- Improves postural problems
- Increases core strength/stability
- Enhances balance, strength and flexibility, coordination and circulation
- Heightens body awareness
- Can be customised to accommodate everyone from rehab patients to elite athletes
- Improves performance in other sports
In Jersey we regularly see a wide cross-section of the population at the classes, from the surfers who have discovered the benefits of core balance to the young mothers who are regaining the pre-pregnancy shape.
“In ten sessions you will feel the difference, in twenty you will see the difference, and in thirty you will have a whole new body.” Joseph H. Pilates.
If you would like to know more about Pilates, please click here.