About Pilates

Pilates History

Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates and perfected throughout his life to become a full-body movement experience. It is a discipline connecting mind, body and breath though regular dynamic practice. Ahead of his time, he identified the link between happiness, health and fitness. Fitness industry supported by recent research is just catching up with his vision.

Joseph practiced multiple movement disciplines such as boxing, gymnastics, martial arts, yoga, skiing, self-defence, dance, weightlifting and circus training. He selected the most effective elements from each and developed the Pilates Method, which he called Contrology. Reformer and mat order of exercises have been carefully designed: each exercise prepares for the next part and takes you through ranges of movement. The method provides continuous challenge for the mind and body through introduction of new exercises, apparatus and the experience of what you know already. 

It is available to everybody and everybody can benefit from regular practice of Pilates.

Principles of Pilates

The mind controls the body as they cannot be separated. Joe called it CONTROLOGY.  Developing the multi-dimensional awareness, connecting to your body. They are conditioned by lifestyle, injuries,  postural and movement habits, state of mind and sometimes need reminding to move from the CENTER. Bring stability through opposition of movement. This can be achieved by practicing with mindful intent and focus. You need to CONCENTRATE, discipline your mind and body. Without focus, the body defaults to our survival mode: minimum effort. BREATH can facilitate the movement, bring it all together. Just a part of life, but altering breathing patterns  has great impact on state of our mind and body. We are the only living creature who can control our breath. You are now working as one: mind and breath work together to train the body. You move with PRECISION, trying the find the optimal alignment of the body as a whole. Practice the exercises with appropriate attention but do not lose the sight of the FLOW of your practice. Only movement can bring change so move through your Pilates practice, be efficient and observe. Move first, strength later. And take what your have learned into your life.

Benefits of Pilates

Pilates discipline uses springs and apparatus to teach stability, build strength, stretch the body and improve stamina. We believe that regular practice of the whole method is the ultimate exercise system to keep you fit for life whether it is to get stronger, improve imbalances, avoid injuries, empower your body and mind.  

• Strengthens your core which are around 30 muscles working in synergy around your torso; they provide stability and shock absorption for the entire body which is directly linked to good posture, production of power and speed

• Improves range and synchronisation of movement, flexibility, co-ordination, agility, strength, power, stability and balance

• Prevents injuries by keeping the entire body in a good shape

• Addresses imbalance in the body, especially when working on a reformer that provides stable point of reference

• Improves breathing and influences your nervous system

• Improves flexibility through lengthening of the muscles and oppositional force

• Impacts out mental well-being by improved self-confidence, self-control, stress resilience, sleep

• Works the entire body, so if you have limited time this is the hour you can do all you need and spend the rest of your time doing other things in life

• Improves posture allowing force and stress to be distributed ‘as designed’ throughout the structure of the body

• Improved dynamic stability allowing body to hold itself in the aligned position for longer, helping muscles to work at their full range protecting bones and joints from repetitive impact

Pilates Method is available to everybody regardless gender or age. Each of us will look different performing the same exercises depending on the way we are built, our strengths and weaknesses and previously learned movement patterns. The client and the teacher will observe the body without judgement as there is no ‘incorrect’ movement. With regular practice and smart choice of exercises specific to your individual needs, the body and mind will continuously improve.

Pilates as Strength and Conditioning

Judyta and Scott come from a different movement background but between the two of them, you could say they have tried it all. And both believe that Pilates is the method to go to for building strength, conditioning the body and keeping fit globally to avoid overuse injuries performing other activities. If you are a triathlete, you want to swim bike run to get better, but repetitive movement in one plane is not something the body is designed to do. Working on neuromuscular adaptation and dynamic stability, your body can maintain correct alignment for longer, maximising muscle efficiency and protecting bones and joints from overuse injuries (good posture is not just for good looks!). Often speaking to physiotherapists, watching another video of top 10 exercises to do… we find that it has already been covered by Joe in the Pilates exercises. So if you have to work on your core strength, thoracic spine mobility, shoulder stability, glute activation, better rotation, hip mobility… it is all there! Pilates should be part of athlete’s preparation and more professional athletes do include Pilates in their programme.