Pilates Facts & Information - Exercises To Improve Your Flexibility and Strength

About Pilates
Imagine an exercise program that you look forward to, that engages you, and that leaves you refreshed and alert with a feeling of physical and mental well-being. The Pilates Method (pronounced puh-LAH-teez) of body conditioning will do all this...and more.

Developed in the 1920s by the legendary physical trainer and founder of the Pilates Studio™, Joseph H. Pilates, The Pilates Method is an exercise system focused on improving flexibility and strength for the total body without building bulk. Not surprisingly, some of the first people to use the Pilates Method were dancers such as Martha Graham and George Balanchine.

The Pilates Method is not just exercise, however. It is a series of controlled movements engaging your body and mind, performed on specifically designed exercise apparatus and supervised by extensively trained teachers.

Because conditioning sessions are done one-to-one with a certified teacher or in closely supervised small groups, each session is tailored to your specific needs.

Regardless of your current level of fitness - from sedentary office worker to fitness enthusiast - the Pilates Method can be your primary mode of body conditioning and injury prevention.

Recently discovered by physical therapists, chiropractors and orthopedists, The Pilates Method of body conditioning can also be integrated into rehabilitative exercise and physical therapy programs designed to speed recovery of soft tissue injuries.

The Pilates Method can be safely used by pregnant women to learn proper breathing and body alignment, improve concentration, and recover body shape and tone after pregnancy.

The Difference
Joseph H. Pilates designed more than 500 specific exercises using five major pieces of unique apparatus to develop the body uniformly.

Instead of performing many repetitions of each exercise, Joseph H. Pilates preferred fewer, more precise movements, requiring proper control and form.

Because your mind is required to engage with your body to perform the movements correctly, you experience a new awareness of muscle function and control.

The "powerhouse" - abdomen, lower back, and buttocks - is supported and strengthened, enabling the rest of the body to move freely.

To provide safe and effective conditioning for our clients, instruction is given only by teachers who complete a rigorous certification program including seminar training and 600 apprenticeship hours. The certification program has been continued by Romana Kryzanowska, Master Teacher, who was personally trained by Joseph Pilates. After Joseph's death, his wife, Clara, asked Romana to carry on Joseph's work.

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