Weekly wrap up. Week 25. 2024. What actually IS Pilates? part 1.

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Weekly wrap up. Week 25. 2024. What actually IS Pilates? part 1.

What is Pilates. Joseph who? Why do I do it? 34 what? Part 1

If someone asks you why you do Pilates, what do you say? If they ask you what it is, how do you answer? Let’s be fair - how many of us actually know much about it? We know it is good for us but do we actually know what it really is? I mean obviously I do but you get my point!

When I used to teach the Level 3 Pilates qualification, one of my very first questions was “what is Pilates?” To be met frequently with total silence… how do you put into words what it is all about and I ask you now, before you carry on reading - What is Pilates? Do you truly KNOW what is is and why you do it? Do you actually know about the namesake at all?

There are a lot of variations and opinions on Pilates and there are a lot of Pilates classes that are not Pilates!

There is a saying that “80% of people doing Pilates are not doing Pilates”. There are plenty of options to work slowly and sequence moves but that does not mean it is Pilates. IMHO, in order to fully immerse, you need to know about the creator, it’s history and the thinking behind it to fully understand why Pilates is the unique form of exercise that it is. By the way - yes, it absolutely can be an intensive, high powered work out - just check out the moves here before you think it is all slow and stretchy - CLICK HERE

There are lots of classes that adapt Pilates moves and I myself very much enjoy some "fusion" or "power" work and why not - if it is safe, effective and appropriate it can be a fun way to adapt but let's talk pure Pilates here.

So who was he?

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in 1883 near Dusseldorf, Germany. Now here already I wade into controversy as the famous story is that he was a sickly child, suffering from rickets, asthma and “ rheumatoid fever”. However I was fortunate enough to attend a talk with German author and historian Eva Rincke who wrote his biography in 2015 after exhaustive research (and interestingly when speaking to his remaining family, they declined to be involved).

So the alternative thinking is that Joseph’s mother was a naturopath and it suited her very well to display his “healing” as a result of her remedies that saw her sales grow considerably and that perhaps his ailments were not all totally genuine. Something we will never know.

What is not in question is that he was bullied at school and his damaged eye was a result of being hit by a stone from a catapult. What is also known is that he used to spend hours hiding in the woods and so on, observing wild animals and became fascinated with their movement and from here, ideas grew as he recognised that they did not present mobility restrictions that humans did. Here too was the basis for some of his moves - think of all the animal names such as Crab, Seal, Swan Dive, Grasshopper, Dolphin and more.

Joe started training to build strength and confidence and took up boxing, bodybuilding and gymnastics. As a mere teenager, he was so well developed that he was used as a live model for anatomy education. Can you imagine the work and dedication back in a time when this was not recognised at all as it is today?

He studied Eastern and Western exercise methods and was very much invested in Greek and Roman philosophy. There is a definite divide in opinion on the influence of Yoga in his work but while some moves definitely appear similar, Contrology (to give it the original name) was always based in functional rather than spiritual foundation.

In 1912, JP travelled to England (and a lesser known belief is that he abandoned a wife and children on the docks)

When WW1 broke out, along with other German nationals, Joe was interned in a POW camp on the Isle of Man. It was here that he started really developing his work, rehabilitating injured soldiers. Can you believe the famous Reformer and some other studio equipment ideas were created here - JP created apparatus from metal hospital beds and used springs for resistance and the success in rehabilitation work widely reported. (Further down the line it was also noted that no-one who was practising his breathing and exercise methods succumbed to the Spanish Flu epidemic)

After the war, Joe returned to Germany but on being invited to train the New German Army, decided that raised certain implications and moved on again. Possibly, he was invited by World boxing Champion Max Schmelling but either way, he found himself sailing to New York and on board, met Clara who would become his wife (again, a famous belief although Eva states that they never married).

In 1926, Pilates and Clara set up a studio on Eight Avenue, NYC. The clientele was very mixed with dancers, gymnasts and circus performers. It was the dancers particularly who were drawn to him and his deep understanding of how the human body moved and he famously went on to work with the New York Ballet.

Joe was approached many times to expand and open more branches of his gym but he flat out refused as he was fiercely protective of his work and wanted total control so while he undoubtedly restricted his income, did it display some control issues or was he just very possessive of his work?

The studio was full of all the equipment you would find in any Pilates studio today and he had a rule that you needed to attend a minimum of 3 times a week and failing that, you would not be welcome. There was no routine - you went in and just started working on a piece of equipment you fancied and he or Clara would wander by to observe.

Elders is the name given to “first generation teachers” - anyone who trained directly with Pilates and Clara and I attended a convention with Jay Grimes who is a retired dancer and Elder, training with Joe in the 60’s until his death and then for a following 10 years with Clara and he gave us a fascinating insight into the studio regime. (It was he that told us that he was Joe and not Jospeh). He told us that Clara was called “The Ghost” as she would silently appear as if from nowhere and with minimal direction, would just prod you here or there and say “this - this” as suggestion of what to work on.

All pictures of Clara show her wearing her nurse’s uniform. The fact is that she was not a nurse and had no nursing training but believed it offered her a more authoritative look.

I follow a hilarious Indian comedian/Yoga teacher who does this skit on why people are "rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing" to get to Yoga and therefor, this is not Yoga.

Pilates has the same theory. It is SO much more than just turning up once a week to attend a class. It is learning about your body, how you move, how to balance and build strength all these lessons into your everyday life. It is a lifestyle and an appreciation of how to appreciate and protect your body - read some of the quotes to help you better understand this. I say over and over that I want you to learn more about yourself and how you move and to use this in your other activities and sports so that you can always be the best possible version of yourself and look towards a long and healthy senior life!

Remember - Look after your body. It's the only place you have to live in.

Of course we cannot all have a fully fitted studio and in addition to the studio equimpment, there is archive footage of Joe teaching on the mat where he believed you practised the moves you perfected on the large studio equipment.

There are countless ways that we recreate some studio equipment using bands, balls, poles and ore. Did you know that the Magic circle was created when Joe and his brother were knocking back a few beers and he was looking at the metal rings around the beer barrels and thought about how else they may be utilised. Fact.

In 1945, Pilates published his most notable book “Return to life through Contrology” Here, he presented his beliefs for a healthy mind and body as well as documenting the original 34 moves that we practise today. Every Pilates teacher worth their weight should have read this book from cover to cover!

His work was renamed Pilates after his death.

Pilates was famously quoted as saying he was 50 years ahead of his time, and to read his work now and see how current it is, that was clearly an understatement.

It is no doubt that Joe was a genius . His reference to breath, mind body connection, the need for relaxation, fresh air, and functional movement are all things we see being preached now 100 years later. He really understood the need for better breathing and as recently as our fight against Covid, there was so much reference to how to breath - the Radio 2 DJ Jo Wiley wrote about her sister who was hospitalised with Covid during lockdown. She has Downs Syndrome and tends to really shout when she is talking and Jo stated that she truly beleived it was that heavey exahling through her shouting that saved her.

Pilates put it a different way - “The human lungs are a graveyard of toxicity” - food for thought indeed.

According to the Elders, (including Carola Trier, Bruce King, Mary Bowen), Clara played a pivotal role in developing a program for apprenticeships and it was believed that she was the driving force behind making sure the the method was kept abreast of scientific development and was adapted to cater for individual needs. Possibly his most famout protegè was Romana Kryzanowska who trained with both Pilates and Clara and only she was allowed by him to add some of her own adaptations and additions to his original method.

Romana contined to run the studio with Clara after Joe's death.

Pilates died at 83 from emphysema. This might have been exacerbated after a fire not long before, when he repeatedly returned to the building to try and save items from his studio. Photos from his 80’s show his very impressive physique but what a shame he was unable to stop his smoking.

Some of Pilates' quotes

Breathing is the first act of life and the very last. Our lives depend on it.

‘Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.’

‘Physical fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking, nor outright purchase.’

In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 you'll see the difference, and in 30 you'll have a new body

Change happens through movement and movement heals.’

The mind, when housed within a healthful body, possesses a glorious sense of power.

The Pilates Method teaches you to be in control of your body and not at its mercy.

If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old. If it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.

Pilates is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control over your body.

Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.

Everyone is the architect of their own happiness

It’s the mind itself which shapes the body.

A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.

Contrology is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit.

Above all, learn to breathe correctly.

And one from Romana

"Pilates can be described in 3 words. Strength and stretch with control but the control is the most important as you are using your mind. “

Next week - What are the 34 Moves?

What we have been up to. What is coming up.

It has been a fun week, trying to teach in the garden with slightly wonky wifi and very enthusiastic dogs but we always find a way! I never take for granted how amazing it is to be able to connect to so many locations and join together. I had a busy day last week with the amazing 'Becky takes Photos' to give my website a facelift and a refresh. Bertie and Gretl were very involved in that too and Becky did a wonderful job as I am a totally hopeless muse. My ex husband is a professional photographer who told me I was more wooden than Pinocchio so I knew what she was up against but I think we will find some good pics for both website and new flyers etc.

Please cast an eye over the new homepage and do give me your thoughts. ...it is a work in progress and will continue to develop. I hope you are enjoying the new content in the library and also the new layout which I think you will agree, is easier to navigate.

Congratulations and counselling available to Lou and Clare who successfully not only ran up and down various mountains in Wales last Saturday but also encountered orienteering and actual mountain climbing. Please now rest a bit you too!

What is everyone else up to? I am very jealous of one online member rocking it out to Taylor Swift last week at Wembley and some others are Glastonbury bound, not least our own Frome resident being escorted in a double decker bus!

And to the beach!

At last, the sun is shining and we have managed to get to the beach.

In awnser to questions this last week -

no, it is not sandy,

yes it might be windy,

I have no idea, I am not a weather expert,

No of course there is nowhere to change,

it's a beach,

I don't know the tide times, why don't you look?

No, you don't have to swim, I am not the swimming police

Maybe it will be chilly? dont come then

To those of you online - thank you for your patience as I know the quality is not the same and there are distractions but it is so lovely to be outside and love where we live.

To those of you more local - you are so welcome to join us and being outside by the sea is an absolute joy and such a treat.

N.b. If you are not on mute, I can hear you on my headphones regardless of whether I am in front of or behind the screen!!

Do come and join us if you can. Updates on instagram and the what's app group x

How have you got on with the June challenge? The July challenge will be going up in the library in the next few days and coming soon - The 34 moves. I am writing about this next week and we will be hitting this hard in the Autumn!

I can highly recommend the Federer documentary on Netflix and I also really enjoyed the James Blunt documentary - he is a very funny guy but do prepare for some fruity language. I will always remember my dear, then 12 year old daughter, sitting in the back of the car with my Mother in the passenger seat and as we drove past some very grafitti'd bill boards, saying "Oh I think you should look away Grandma, there is some very inappropriate language"....

Have a great weekend all xx

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 8. 2025. There's none so easy to delude as oneself....

By juliet • February 20, 2025

Ok, full disclosure. I think it was me that dropped the clanger yesterday morning... those of you who joined me would have seen that I was not at home, and when I arrived at my destination the night before, I realised I didn't have a magic circle with me and went into the 8am class and edited it to avoid the little hiccough and I THINK I may not have saved the changes. I may be wrong as I am in and out of the library ever such a lot but I am going to put my hand up and say it was me. I could probably wing it and get away with it but I have never been very good at lying and dishonesty does not sit well with me. Mind you, I say that..... I remember many moons ago... many, many moons ago when I was 15. My parents had a bar at the side of the lounge - terribly "all the rage" at the time, then terribly naff and I believe, quite the rage again now. Anyway, I was home on my own, I was bored and I started looking for mischief. I took the carefully hidden key ( hidden above the door as we all knew very well) and let myself into the little bar. I worked my way through the optics of many, almost certainly past their sell by date bottles of revolting sticky liquid and tried each and every one. Needless to say it was not long before I thought I was going to die. I staggered out of the back door to find somewhere to hide (and possibly die) and spied my sister's Hillman Minx which I crawled into and gratefully slept. When I woke, the effects were swift and I just managed to wind down the rear window and get my head out before events overtook me. As I was walking slowly back up the garden, my mother and sister arrived home and my sister was horrified at the state of her car. I still, to this day do not know how I did it but without missing a beat, I just informed her that there had been a load of seagulls flying overhead and they must have poo'd down the car door. Im still laughing now, some 42 years later, at how I just came out with that line and that, as I was staggering up the stairs "with the start of a bad cold", I heard my mother and my sister discussing how shocking it was that the seagulls had done that.... dear reader, we lived in Enfield, North London. There is not a coast for a hundred miles. My mother told us stories about when we were little and I recall the story of how my sister furiously denied writing all over the new wallpaper in her bedroom with a crayon. It was the fact that she would not back down and insisted it could not be her that saw her sent to bed. "But how did you know it was me?" she sobbed and my mother told us that the writing was, quite literally on the wall - all around her bedroom in wonky letters read "Louise 4" Yet, as the saying goes, there is none so easy to delude as oneself. I can say for fact that I have on many occasions talked myself into or out of situations, telling myself I could justify that cake because I deserved it, I could have that drink because I had earned it, I could slack off work because I had earned the right to... How many times have you gone to do something and then given yourself permission not to because of the story you came up with? I guess that can go too far and I know more than one or two who have lied for so long that they started to believe their own warped narrative. One such was my ex husband who lied to me about his age... when he asked me once to get his passport from his laptop bag, I flipped to the photo page to see how bad his picture might be, only to be confronted with a date of birth quite different from the one he had told me.. and he admitted that he had been telling me for so long that he had actually convinced himself he was indeed 8 years younger... Mind you, I still married him so who's the fool!! We all tell white lies and we don't want to cause unnecessary discomfort - if someone has just spent a fortune on a new outfit and they are thrilled, would we honestly tell them we didn't like it? ..... on that note though.... when we were teenagers, a friend of mine's mum and her neighbour went down their road to the church to watch the arrival of a bride for her wedding. Maybe it was because they hadn't been invited and were a bit miffed but they were less than complimentary and I can honestly remember this to the word and I am laughing as I write this ..."Crikey, the bride has clapped some weight on, hasn't she? I thought brides were meant to lose weight in the run up - do you think she has already eaten all the wedding cake? I would definitely wear sleeves with those arms" ... "And WHAT is Sheila wearing on HER HEAD? Call that a hat? ".... all this said unfortunately, very close to the videographer, back in the days of wedding videos being very new and with none of today's editing available. Every word was captured and saved.... on their ACTUAL wedding video... I kid you not... Learning to be brutally honest with ourselves is one of life's greatest lessons. One of my favourite books is Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes. Marian is an addict in recovery and weaves addiction of many forms into all her novels (also brilliant - Again Rachel and Grown Up's) and she talks with such candour on the subject of addiction - I have heard her interviewed many times and it is the power to delude ourselves that is so shocking. The lies we can tell ourselves when all around us can see through it. Another great speaker on the subject is the mighty Edith Eger, who I have mentioned before. A holocaust survivor, she continues to lecture as a psychotherapist in her 90's - her books The Choice and The Gift are absolute must reads. She talks about healing without distraction - whether that is alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, exercise, scrolling social media... it takes so many forms but it is only when we remove the many distractions that we can start to sit with ourselves, get to truly know ourselves and then, and only then may we move forward. We know the need to be present, to be still, to be quiet but sometimes it helps to hear it delivered in a different voice or explained around another approach for us to see how it may benefit us. Anyway - my name is Juliet Nicholas. I am 56 and when I was 15, I vomited down the outside of my sister's car. There are no seagulls in Enfield.