JOSEPH HUBERTUS PILATES
Born in Germany, 1880, Josephs father was a gymnast , mother a herbalist. Joseph was a sickly child, with rickets , rheumatic fever and asthma, but by the age of 14 he had improved his body shape and strength so much that he was posing as a body model for anatomists diagrams.
In 1912 he moved to England, and was hired to teach self- defence to the police force. he was interned during World War I on the Isle of Man, he devised exercises on the prison beds from the springs and iron frames in order to keep himself and other inmates fit and healthy. When released and returning to Germany, he taught his regime, but became disenchanted with Germany,as he was coming under pressure to teach his moves to the new German Army, and Joseph was a pacifist. He decided to emigrate in 1926 and travelled to America, where his brother, sister & uncle lived. He met his wife to be, Clara, on the boat.
They set up a studio together in New York and taught his method, which was then called "Contrology" and taught mainly to the dance community in the early beginnings, as they also shared space in the same building.
He published a book "Return to Life through Contrology " in 1945 and "Your Health" in 1934, showing photographs of himself carrying out each of the 34 exercises on the floor, plus chapters on health , very interesting to read, he was certainly ahead of his time, including a chapter on mattresses & beds, inventing a totally different bed shape and how it promotes restful sleep.
Joseph died in 1967, but not through bad health, he was still teaching and creating new exercises. He died through an illness caused bysmoke inhalation in a fire at his New York studio, but a year later than the fire itself. Clara carried on his teaching after his death, and carried on training others who went onto open their own studios teaching the Pilates method, becoming what is now known as the 1st generation elders.
The 8 Principles of the Pilates Technique:
Concentration: With Pilates, you don't switch off as you do in most fitness classes/gym programmes, every movement is a thought process and controlled by thought. The "mind body" side of this technique is that you block out other thoughts whilst focusing on the movement
Breathing: Breathing is an important part of the routine, the main rule is to breath out on the exertion and not to hold your breath. Lateral Thoracic Breathing is used during the technique, breathing wide and full into the ribcage, into the back and sides, whilst contracting your Transversus Abdominus during the moves. Sounds confusing? All is explained in the class, takes a little while to get used to, as you have been breathing all your life, now we are telling you to breath differently and to be in control of it.
Centering: In Pilates based routines, your centre is your POWERHOUSE , each exercise being controlled by the contraction of the Transversus, your deepest abdominal muscle.
Control: Working against gravity with Pilates based routines, strengthens the body, the slower the movement the greater strength we gain
Precision: To place the body to a certain exact position at the beginning is difficult but routine in the technique leads to control of the movement, and therefore exact execution of the exercise
Flow: The Pilates routine of exercises flows, one into the other, they are continuous movements, targeting the body with concentric and eccentric phases, resulting in a balanced and functional routine.
Isolation: The educational side of the technique is that through the balancing efforts of the technique we begin to learn our bodies structure and therefore the control of different muscle groups lets us isolate.
Routine: As with any principal repetition and frequency leads to to the skill level rising. The technique is not meant to replace any other activity but be an addition, to strengthen your body for whatever activity you need it for.
