What is Pilates?
Pilates is a safe, balanced exercise method that conditions and energises the whole body. Exercises focus on developing core strength, healthy breathing patterns and spinal flexibility, mobility and alignment. Whilst the exercises are flowing and gentle they can also be challenging!
Pilates teaches ‘mindful’ movement – ie. mental focus/concentration on the quality of your movement. Tuning into your body and deepening self-awareness develops the mind/body connection as your body learns or re-learns to move at its optimum. This can bring about many positive changes!
‘Our body moves as our mind moves’. (Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen)
History of Pilates
The Pilates method of exercise is named after Joseph Pilates who was born in 1880, near Dusseldorf, Germany. Having suffered with his health in early years, he developed a programme of exercise and body building that helped him overcome his own physical limitations. He emigrated to the United States in 1923, meeting his wife Clara during the voyage, and together they opened a fitness studio in New York. By the early 1960’s the exercise style of ‘Pilates’ had become widely popular. The original form of Pilates has evolved over the years and specialists are now using a variety of modified versions of the original method.