History of Pilates
clinical pilates
Pilates is a specific system of exercises. It is named after its founder Joseph Pilates who began to develop his ideas in a World War I English prisoner of war camp while assisting injured prisoners to recover from war induced injury .He then moved to New York in the 1920’s and set up a studio there. In the early days his exercises were embraced by the dance world who found them to be excellent in terms of strengthening and performance enhancing. In the event of an injury the Pilates exercises also maintained strength and assisted with rehabilitation. In more recent times physiotherapists have embraced Pilates as it provides the specific strength and core stability needed by so many of our clients experiencing ongoing back pain. The program includes up to 250 exercises that focus on the use of the deep abdominal muscles, correct breathing and good posture.
The exercises can be very gentle. For clients with acute and sub acute pain we design a programme of exercises that don’t aggravate their pain but rather start to activate their deep stomach and back musculature to develop strength and control around their weakened segments.
The exercises at the other end of the spectrum can be designed to be very challenging with a very high level of core stability called upon. These are excellent for elite athletes to provide that edge over the opposition or to sharpen up slightly weak core stabilizers.
Exercises for elite sports people have a sports specific slant where we design exercises with the challenges of the sport in mind.
Exercises for dance professionals and
dance students have a dance specific slant where
we design exercises with the demands of dance technique in mind.