What is Pilates?
Pilates is a form of exercise designed to improve core stability, strengthen and lengthen muscles, and increase flexibility and range of movement at the joints. Practiced regularly, Pilates will transform the way you move.
Joseph Pilates was a sickly child, and he recognised from an early age that he needed an exercise programme to help him regain his strength. He took an eclectic approach, drawing on many different exercise modalities.
After the war he developed his own training studio in America where he coached dancers, gymnasts and athletes and injured soldiers. All of his exercises were tailored to the individual and their specific postural needs.
Over the years his methods and philosophy of a mind/body approach to exercise has developed in many ways.
Sports science, biomechanics, and neuroscience are now informing the practice of Clinical Pilates, which is helping to re-train and rehabilitate people with a wide range of injuries and postural problems.
Concentration and thoughtful awareness is central to the Pilates method. Joseph Pilates guiding principles of Contrology instructs us to:
“concentrate on the correct movements EACH TIME YOU EXERCISE, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value.” (Pilates. J.H. & Miller W.J 1945:9).
