La Storia del Pilates
Pilates is an exercise method involving physical movements with a view to stretching, strengthening and balancing the body. By systematically carrying out specific exercises alongside studied breathing methods, Pilates has proven to be of great value not only as a physical work out for oneself, but also as an important supplement to training for traditional sports and any type of physical rehabilitation.
If practised regularly, Pilates can be very beneficial. The first aim is to increase the capacity of the lungs and circulation through deep, wholesome breathing. Strength and flexibility, above all in the abdominal muscles and the back, and coordination, both muscular and mental, are key to the success of the Pilates program. Posture, balance and inner strength are developed gradually. It increases bone density and the condition of the joints and, furthermore, a lot of people experience a positive physical awareness for the first time. Pilates teaches balance and bodily control and these skills are, in turn, reflected in other aspects of one’s life.
Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in a small town near Düsseldorf,
Germany, in 1880. He was a frail child and suffered with asthma,
rickets and was tormented by rheumatism. In order to improve his
physical condition he had to diligently dedicate himself to sport,
even doing such sports as free diving. Through a series of exercises
thought to be of help to his condition, he managed to develop
not only a healthy body, but strong and sculptured too. In fact,
he often modelled for anatomical drawings.
In 1912 he moved to England to train as an inspector for Scotland
Yard. But, at the beginning of the war, due to his nationality,
he was detained in Lancashire and then sent to the Isle of Man.
He worked as a volunteer in the military hospitals and, faced
with bedridden patients, maimed in battle or weakened by disease,
he resorted to his matured personal experience to develop specific
rehabilitating exercises that could offer some kind of relief.
By perfecting his techniques, the basis for Joseph’s technique
began to take shape. He designed and created new equipment and
modified the beds in the wards allowing the injured soldiers to
exercise.
In the early 1920’s he returned to Germany where he continued
designing rehabilitation equipment, some of which is still in
use today. Besides his creative work, his profession took him
to Hamburg where he got a job with the local police as fitness
trainer for the recruits and the police force.
During that time he met Rudolph van Laban, inventor of Labanotation,
which incorporates some Pilates techniques in its teaching approach.
The Pilates method opened the door to the world of dance for Joseph
and he subsequently adapted his method with a view to acquiring
ease, elegance and grace and eliminating painful symptoms, typical
of dancers, namely hip problems and backache and managing to establish
a relationship that has lasted until today; this explains why,
for a long time, the Pilates techniques has mistakenly been associated
exclusively with the world of dance.
In 1925, the Pilates method caught the interest of the German
government, who invited Joseph to personally design the training
program for the new army. Joseph saw this as the perfect time
to emigrate to the US.
During the journey, he met a young nurse called Clara, whom he
later married. Having reached New York, Pilates opened a studio
and began to codify his technique: the first part is centred around
Mat Work, or a series of floor exercises carried out on a little
mattress (mat).
This program was codified in a book called Contrology, which is
what he himself called his technique. However, the work didn’t
break down the codification of the exercises but extended it to
allow the perfection of particular equipment.
At the time of his imprisonment in England, in fact, Pilates
attached springs to patient’s beds hoping to help them rebuild
and maintain muscle. As a result the Universal
Reformer was created, a piece of equipment that,
still now, is very important to the Pilates method.
During his work, he invented other pieces of equipment as well
as other Mat Work exercises. Joseph H. Pilates wrote numerous
books on fitness, but he never published an official training
program.
As a result, there are now several similar versions of his legendary method. Joseph Hubert Pilates died in 1967, his studio in New York was taken over by Romana Kryzanowska, a Pilates student and teacher of the method for ten years. In addition, some of his best students like Ron Fletcher and Kathy Grant, opened other studios.
In many ways, the Pilates equipment used today doesn’t differ greatly from the original equipment. Elastic tension, straps used to hold hands and feet in place, supports for the back, neck and shoulders are as important now as they were then. Thanks to the exceptional nature of this equipment, that stimulates and sustains the body, one can learn and move more effectively, the inimitable pieces perfectly complement the Mat Work exercises.
L'Unicità del Peak Pilates®
Throughout his life, Joseph Pilates personally selected and trained his instructors, working in close contact with them and keeping them under his strict supervision for two to three years. Initially, this small community kept the work going, training instructors in their own time and the Pilates technique was developed in a domestic environment. Completed studios were few and far between and very different to the spacious studios today.
Within the Pilates community, the use of the name “Pilates” has become part of a legal battle. On 19 October 2000, it was decided in court that the name Pilates, like yoga and karate, is a type of exercise and not a brand. The court noted that during his life, Joseph Pilates “promoted his exercise method and tried to diffuse its use among the public, never doing anything to prevent people from using his name to describe what they were teaching”. Many considered this decision as a victory, giving the public more access to Pilates
The fact that Pilates is a mainstream trend hides a possible danger that could weaken its potential. Before 1990 there were no training programs for instructors and training was carried out orally during a long apprenticeship. As it grew in popularity and as a result of the increasing the need for instructors, more training programs were developed including some that altered the traditional Pilates method. Many instructors continued to spread the Pilates method as Joseph himself had taught, while others began to adapt it. Gradually schools “based on Pilates” or “inspired by Pilates”, as oppose to pure Pilates, began to crop up. Those programs that are very similar to the original are often defined as the Classic method.
Peak Pilates® was founded by Julia Lobdell in 1996, with a view to improving and conserving the classic Pilates method. To begin with, the idea was to build equipment of unbeatable quality, that would completely preserve the original projects, but integrating them with safety and performance innovations.
In 2002, this vision materialised with the Peak Pilates® Instruction Program, which is based on beliefs and deep values connected to Peak Pilates®. The intention was to create a new classic Pilates teaching model, that would preserve its entirety but at the same time render it more accessible and easier for users. As the founder of a society that influences Pilates on a global level she has a lot of responsibility because in the health and fitness industry and even within the Pilates community, the classic Pilates method is a vague concept that is often misunderstood and only learnt in part.
Today Peak Pilates® offers a variety of programs that allow each individual progress along a learning curve that is flexible, accessible and complete. Under the guidance of a highly competent team, Peak Pilates® has reached its objective to redefine the classic training by integrating science and anatomy, like in exclusive teaching formulas, producing well prepared instructors, qualified to teach all levels.
The Peak Pilates® approach is different from all the others because of its emphasis on Pilates as a system of movement designed to be taught using an integrated and systematic method, where every movement is connected to the next. This system creates more strength, resistance and flexibility, which leads to improved performance and better health.
Peak Pilates® tries to maintain a classic teaching approach, that is based on fitness, systematic and integrated, preserving the original integrity of Joseph Pilate’s work and providing students with instruments to help them understand and communicate the principles that they are using and teaching.