Pilates

Edited by Fabio Silverio

JH Pilates, a German from Dusseldorf born in 1880, is the creator of this method; as a boy he had a poor health and a rather frail physical structure that spurred him, growing up, to have a strong and healthy body, so that he dedicated his life to the practice of many sports and

what today we could call body building.

He acted as a model for making the anatomical papers of the human body.

The study of anatomy, muscle development and health became the main interest of his youth and he was also a valid athlete in skiing and diving.

The research led him well beyond the knowledge of the official Western science of that time, since he also studied in depth the Eastern philosophy and some disciplines of Yoga.

In 1912 he moved to England where he was a self-defense instructor for the police school; he practiced boxing and was also a circus acrobat.

During the First World War he was taken prisoner in Lancaster, but he did not lose heart organizing the training for himself and his fellow prisoners, refining his theories on health and body building. Later, having moved to the Isle of Man, living in contact with veteran soldiers of war, injured wounded, bedridden and immobilized patients, he had long had the great intuition to build some machines for the rehabilitation of those people. Some of these equipments are still used today.

The work and methodology of Pilates were also highly appreciated by the dance world.

In 1925 he was also called by the German government as athletic coach of the new army.

In June 1926, he began to codify the technique in New York and opened his first studio.

The first part of the technique was focused on MATWORK, a series of free-body exercises performed on the ground on a mat (mat), which he codified in a book entitled "Retum lo life through Contrology" published in 1945; he himself called his technique CONTROLOGY, referring to total mind control of the body during movement.

He also devoted himself to perfecting the tools he had already built, applying springs to the patients' beds to regain and maintain a tonic musculature despite being bedridden.

From this idea the Universal Reformer was born, the tool that constitutes the central part of its methodology; it is similar to a bed equipped with a mobile trolley that allows intense dynamic work against the resistance of springs, involving all muscle groups.

Pilates invented other tools including the Barrel and the Magic Circle.

The Barrel involves the spine which is mobilized in all segments; it can be used to help or intensify an exercise.

The Magic Circle is a circle of about 40 cm in diameter, for isometric work, in matwork exercises or when using the Universal Reformer to fix joint heads. Increase the difficulty of the exercises and can be used for both arms and legs.

The Matwork is a complete global gymnastics program that includes about 70 exercises and is preparatory for the use of the tools. It is a training program in its own right that is initially carried out freely until the correct posture of the spine and joints has been fully learned during the exercises.

When the subject has acquired total control of his body it is possible to insert small resistances such as the circle or the elastic, to increase the muscular work.

In the 50s two Pilates students, Carola Trier and Bob Seed, and later his other students, opened their studies in various parts of the United States, following the teachings of the master and spreading his method.

Pilates died in 1967. He did not leave official heirs to continue his school.

Pilates Improve: