Joseph Pilates https://www.sommetfitness.com/blog/who-was-joseph-pilates)

Dear Readers, today I was back at Pilates Central in Islington for the first time in over three months, and what a relief it was! I’ve been going to this studio for nearly twenty years now, having first attended after a bout of sciatica which left me incapable of standing up for more than a few minutes at a time. As anyone who has experienced sciatica will tell you, the pain is excruciating – I couldn’t believe that something so painful wasn’t caused by something serious, and so off I went to the doctor.

His advice? “You can take ibuprofen and paracetamol at the same time, you know”.

Hah! I was determined to try to ‘fix’ myself (although painkillers did play a role for a few weeks). I had acupuncture. I visited a chiropractor. But most importantly of all, I started going to pilates. What I liked about the studio in Islington was that it wasn’t a ‘class’ as such – the instructors would do an assessment and then give each person a programme of different exercises to help with their particular problems and goals. It meant that if I had a flare-up of my back, or a tight shoulder from too much time on the computer (not that anyone ever does that), the instructor would suggest how to ‘tweak’ my usual routine, and make sure that I was doing the exercises properly. And what excellent exercises they are! After today’s session I can feel my body ‘remembering’ how it’s supposed to work, especially my core muscles which have had a bit of a holiday just lately. And I’ve noticed how I can flex my uninjured foot much further than the one attached to the injured leg – if you’d asked me, I’d have said that they were both the same. Clearly, this is one reason that I still have a limp, and it’s something that we can gently work on.

Plus I got to show everybody my fracture X-ray photos, which is always fun (for me, anyway).

But I thought that the father of pilates should get a shout out here, because he was a most unusual man. Joseph Hubertus Pilates (1883 – 1967) was a very sickly child, suffering from rickets, rheumatic fever and asthma. His father introduced him to physical fitness and gymnastics, and by the time Pilates moved from his home in Germany to the UK in 1912, he earned a living as a circus performer and self-defence trainer for Scotland Yard. Alas, this was bad timing as he, along with many other Germans, was interred during World War I. Pilates spent his time teaching physical fitness to the other internees, boasting that they’d be in better physical condition when they left than when they went in.

At this point, Pilates’s methods were beginning to form the basis of what we now know as pilates, though it was called ‘Contrology’ at the time. There was an emphasis on the core muscles, on breathing correctly, and on alignment of the spine. One feature of pilates is the importance of correctly lining everything up, and paying close attention to what various muscles are actually doing – a subtle change of posture can have an extraordinary effect. Pilates also discovered that his methods could help some of the severely-injured veterans who were starting to return home.

After the war, Pilates returned briefly to Germany, before emigrating to the United States – he met his wife Clara on the boat, and the two of them set up a studio when they arrived. The pair of them were teaching well into the 1960s. Pilates as a technique was recognised by some of the foremost dancers and choreographers of the time, including Martha Graham and George Balanchine. Both luminaries sent their students to Pilates for help with conditioning and recovery from injury, and soon pilates became the flavour of the month.

Pilates died of emphysema in 1967, but the techniques that he developed are still helping people today, including me. Ironically, a few days before my accident I remember waking up and thinking “I don’t remember the last time that I had back pain”. Sadly, at the moment the back pain is back, mainly due to the weakening of my muscles during my enforced rest, and my limp, but I have little doubt that with persistence and patience (and by being realistic about what I can do) I can sort myself out. Thank you, Joseph Pilates!