What Do You Know About Pilates?

What do you know about Pilates?

Did you know that a German invented it?

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Inventor of the Pilates method (1883-1967)

Denise Steger (Linz am Rhein)

In 1929, Pilates opened his body training studio (Universal Gym) at 939 8th Ave, The Van Dyck Building. On his business cards, he gave his date of birth as 1880. It is not known why he made himself three years older, presumably to promote how fit you can be even at almost 50 years of age. The text on the cards read: ‘A MAN IS AS OLD AS HIS SPINE IS FLEXIBLE – A WOMAN AS OLD AS SHE LOOKS IN THE MORNING’.

The ‘Universal Gym’ in New York, run by Pilates.

Despite the world economic crisis, Pilates was able to make a great success of the studio, with athletes, business people and actors, including Catherine Hepburn (1929-1993) and Sir Lawrence Olivier (1907-1989), but it was mainly dancers who were enthusiastic about his training method. Among them were the pioneer of modern dance, Martha Graham (1894-1991), who founded the Martha Graham School of Dancing in Manhattan in 1926, and many stars of the New York City Ballet. During his 38-year career as studio manager, his client list included over 2,000 students. In the 1940s, a Canadian magazine classified the Pilates studio as ‘a high-class exercise salon’ due to the high fee of $10 per session. In addition to Clara, his niece Mary Pilates and Clara's niece Irene Zeuner-Zelonka assisted him.

In 1934, Pilates published his writing ‘Your Health’ and in 1945 ‘Return to life through Contrology’ (Return to life through ‘Contrology’), which describes the philosophy and principles of his method. They are based on the pursuit of whole-body health, in which body, mind and soul are in balance, which can be achieved through physical exercise, proper nutrition, hygiene, balanced sleep, plenty of outdoor exercise and a balance of work, leisure and relaxation. Through the exercises he developed, ‘Contrology’, mental strength and mental well-being are also developed. The special form of Pilates breathing, consciously performed during the exercises, allows the body to function optimally. As an ‘inner shower’, it is said to cleanse the body and ultimately lead to the rejuvenation and strengthening of the entire person.

A Pilates class at Jacob's Pillow University of the Dance, where Joseph Pilates taught between 1941 and 1951.

The equipment developed and patented by Pilates himself – there were over 20 of them – not only added an additional dimension of body strengthening and correction of posture to the so-called ‘mat training’, which consists of a series of 34 floor exercises, but was also used in rehabilitation. Pilates created a special exercise programme for injured people, such as dancers, and worked with these clients in a separate room. The success must have been considerable, because the orthopaedic surgeon Dr Henry Jordan adopted the Pilates training concept in his therapy, as did Dr James Garrick, founder of the first clinic for dance medicine.

Pilates held numerous lectures and courses for both doctors and students at the Chiropractic Academy, taught on US military bases and founded the health group called ‘Return to Life’. He documented his work extensively with photographs and film. 1939-1951, Pilates regularly taught at the summer camp for dancers ‘Jacob's Pillow’, Berkshire Mountains, where the pioneers of contemporary dance, such as Ted Shawn, and many students met. Joe and Clara owned a house there.

Joseph Hubertus Pilates treating a customer.

Pilates died of emphysema, which had apparently been bothering him for some time, at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York on 9 October 1967, shortly before his 84th birthday. His urn and, later, Clara Zeuner's urn were buried in the Ferncliff Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.

Clara Zeuner continued to run the studio until 1972. After her death in 1976, it was taken over by the classical dancer and Pilates student Romana Kryzanowska (1923-2013) in 1977.

In the meantime, his students had spread the Pilates method worldwide, which in its further development split into different styles. Even today, many stars who are looking for fitness and figure-improving methods see Pilates as the ideal training and contribute to the popularity of his method. But the Pilates method has also been incorporated into modern sports science, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, where it has been supplemented and refined according to the latest findings.

Publications

Your Health; a corrective system of exercises that revolutionizes the entire field of physical education, New York 1934. New edition: Presentation Dynamics, Incline, NV 1998.

Return to Life Through Contrology, edited by Joseph H. Pilates and William John Miller, New York 1945, new edition: Presentation Dynamics, Incline, NV.

New edition of both works: A Pilates' Primer: The Millennium Edition, Presentation Dynamics, Incline, NV 2000-2005.

Literature

Geweniger, Verena/Bohlander, Alexander, Das Pilates-Lehrbuch, Berlin/Heidelberg 2012.

Kryzanowksa, Romana/Gallagher, Sean P. (ed.), Joseph H. Pilates Archive Collection, The Photographs, Writings and Designs, 2000.

Online

Aparicio, Esperanza and Javier Pérez Pont, Hubertus Joseph Pilates, The Biography. HakaBooks.com e-ditions 2013. [online]

Geweniger, Verena/Bohlander, Alexander, Das Pilates-Lehrbuch, Berlin und Heidelberg 2013. [online]

Thomson, Bruce, Joseph Pilates life & biography. [online]

Wiggin, Mej, Joseph H. Pilates: The History. [online]

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Yes, it is frightening how humanity is sacrificed to the rational, justified thinking of the brutal makers in this world, which has not improved at all.

Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and so on and so forth.

Death and destruction only bring more death and even more destruction. We are, in parts, truly disgusting, violent beings who are far from any concept of civilisation that we could achieve.

I am ashamed of humanity.

Religion, power, stupidity, arrogance, greed, fanaticism, all of this is unworthy of us.

And even if our so-called civilisation were to last for another thousand years, we would still kill each other.

Only those who understand what real peace means will do everything they can to ensure that all people benefit from it.

The rest are just motherfuckers who play power games for some kind of ulterior motive.

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Those who love people make sure that they can live in peace and unity. This emphasises their connection, unites them and leads them to the realisation that we all have to live together on a tiny planet and make it our paradise and not our hell.

@gisele-bechaufsnz thank you!

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

Anthony Perkins

Whatever you say, living a double life is better than denying your nature.

Today it is easier to be open about your sexual inclinations, at least for certain kinds of passion.

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Come on, Jimmy, come on, you can do it.

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en.wikipedia.org

Maggie Smith - Wikipedia

I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone.

Maggie Smith

Listen, I must be 110 by now. Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point.

Maggie Smith

If you're lucky, I think you know what you want to do with your life. I think that's a greater gift that any of the gifts you might have when you do know, if you know what I mean. It must be awful to not know what to do.

Maggie Smith

If you like Shakespeare, you've come to the right place.

Othello is a 1965 film based on the National Theatre Company's staging of Shakespeare's Othello (1964-1966) staged by John Dexter. Directed by Stuart Burge, the film starred Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, and Frank Finlay, who all received Oscar nominations, and provided film debuts for both Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.

Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Dame Maggie Smith

1934-2024

Maybe we should point out that this is precisely the problem with normal people: they only officially recognise the achievements of disabled people when it is obvious.

They cheer on the Paralympics, but in everyday life, disabled people are marginalised.

It's time for an Revolution of Inclusion, and you can shove your crappy pity from the normal world up your arse!

The economy is missing out on the full potential that lies fallow when companies make up all sorts of excuses for not hiring disabled people.

A brief question: How many disabled people worldwide are in corporate management positions as CEOs and what does the internet say?

Or how many people with disabilities hold high positions in state organisations or are even heads of state?

Well, it all looks pretty bleak, doesn't it?

It is a historical travesty that to this day there is no equality, no equal opportunities, no equal understanding at eye level.

In workshops for the disabled, the most disadvantaged of us can screw things together for an exploitative wage. That is pathetic.

Disabled people can and want to help shape this world to make it a better place for all of us.

If the revolution does not come, then disabled people would have to provoke it with all its consequences.

Sometimes you have to hit society in the face to be seen if there is no other way.

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About 16% of all people worldwide have a disability. It is evident that we have a significant presence in this world.

Facts about disability and development

1.3 billion people live with a disability. Measured against the world population, this is 16 per cent.

On the one hand, people are living longer and longer; on the other hand, there is a worldwide increase in chronic health problems. Both trends are leading to an increase in the incidence of disabilities.

80 per cent of all people with disabilities live in developing areas.

Women, older people and the poor are disproportionately affected by disability.

In poverty-stricken areas, an estimated 65 million children of school age live with disabilities. Around half of them do not attend school.

Visual impairment

Every 10 seconds, a person goes blind due to poverty, including one child every minute.

Worldwide, around 43 million people are blind, including 2 million children. Of the 43 million blind people, 17 million suffer from correctable cataracts, the most common cause of blindness.

3.6 million have lost their sight due to glaucoma.

3 million people are forced to live blind simply because they lack optical correction.

2.8 million people are at risk of going blind from trachoma. Countless numbers are infected with the bacterial pathogen. 1.9 million people are already irreversibly visually impaired or blind as a result. Clean water, improved hygiene, eye ointments or tablets, and eyelid surgery can prevent blindness.

In Africa in particular, millions of people are at risk of going blind from river blindness. Around half a million people have lost their sight to river blindness. The tablet Mectizan® stops the process of going blind.

80 per cent of blindness could be prevented and 50 per cent of child blindness if the necessary means were available.

Approximately 295 million people suffer from low vision, 10 per cent of whom are children.

Around 90 per cent of all people with visual impairments live in developing areas. There, people are eight times more likely to risk going blind.

In large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, there is only one ophthalmologist for every million people (in Switzerland, the ratio is 1:13,000).

Physical disability

Approximately 150 million people worldwide have a physical disability. Among them are around two million children.

Hearing impairment

Around 450 million people worldwide have a moderate to severe hearing impairment, including 30 million children.

Over 70 million people are deaf.

Each year, less than ten percent of the hearing aids needed worldwide are produced. In developing areas, fewer than three percent of people with hearing loss receive a hearing aid each year.

About half of all cases of hearing loss could be avoided with early treatment.

Mental disability

One in four people will develop a mental illness at some point in their lives.

Approximately 250 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Around 50 million people live with schizophrenia.

Sources, including: World Report on Disability of the World Health Organization WHO, 2011; WHO Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities, 2022; International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness IAPB, 2023

We should build a monument to this man....