Why PILATES? Why Pilates Works & The Benefits of Working With Gratz Pilates Equipment
Why PILATES? Why Pilates Works & The Benefits of Working With Gratz Pilates Equipment
- October 20th, 2014
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“Why Pilates?” The simplest answer for this is, because we are right handed,
left handed or ambidextrous. We have predominant movement patterns that
make us unbalanced, and in Pilates, we work evenly. From the moment you
step into a Pilates Studio you are visually immersed in Joe Pilates’ creations –
his patented Gratz equipment. And on a subconscious level you start thinking
about rectangles and how your body relates to rectangles and how your body
is a rectangle. Pilates is about learning how to work in your box and most of us
are trying to work outside the box. It is a conscientious study of moving from the
inside out.
But beyond the rectangles, Pilates’ genius comes from his using springs to not
only strengthen muscles but teach muscles how to engage. The first piece of
equipment that Joe Pilates created was the Cadillac. He was interned in The Isle
of Man during WWI:
In the fall of 1916, a Prisoner of war Employment Committee was formed,
which lifted [these] restrictions and allowed internees to work in the
camps. It was most likely during this time that Joe began working in one
of the hospitals as a nurse/ physical therapist.
Having been a sick, frail child, he was determined to find a way to help
people confined to a bed from illness or injury. Joe experimented by
taking bedsprings and rigging them up to the hospital bed headboards
and footboards. He also hooked springs to wheelchairs. These springs
provided a form of resistance to those confined. He also devised a variety
of handholds above the beds, for patients and nurses to hold to facilitate
changing patient positions. These small apparatus drew great attention
from doctors as they witnessed tremendous improvement in their
patients’ strength and health. These first bedsprings led to Joe’s first
official piece of apparatus, which later became known as the “Trap Table”
or “Cadillac.”1
All Pilates’ equipment has springs, but the way he taught us to use the
equipment and the way he designed his equipment causes us to use and
understand how to use our muscles differently. He makes us become the
apparatus – the springs (legs) and the bed (torso) of the Reformer, the Cadillac
and the Chair. If one was to have a Gratz reformer, and conscientiously practice
Pilates, they would discover how to use their body. He lives on through his
apparatus. His words and his exercises live on through his students. Today
there are few schools worldwide that teach the true Pilates practice. It is no
small amount of learning and quite costly but it is one of the most worthwhile
pursuits. It is a calling. Pilates wrote, “Since we are living in this modern age we
must out of necessity devote more time and thought to the important matter of
acquiring physical fitness.” His method inspires this. And the result: A strong,
stretched, balanced body and mind and life that feels wonderful.
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