Pilates fitness craze started with work on WWI vets

Chyrel Love Miller, professor emeritus of theater and dance at Southwest Missouri State University, is owner of Studio One Pilates and Stott Pilates Midwest Certification Center.

The latest buzzword in exercise at fitness centers, in magazines and home exercise videos would come as a surprise Joseph Pilates.

He developed his method known as Pilates to work with individuals who were already in excellent shape and had complete mind-body correlation, but needed help with imbalances in their professionally trained bodies. He also honed his skills on World War I veterans who were hospitalized and used his training as rehabilitation.

The reflection of this work is in the spring-coiled Reformer that resembles the hospital bed and allows for eccentric and concentric muscular work that is the basis for Pilates.

Pilates' book, "Contrology," just about says it all when trying to figure out how Pilates is different from other exercise forms. In "Contrology," Joseph Pilates explains that an individual's mind can send nerve impulses to specific muscles to contract and cause the skeletal structure to move through range of motion with strength in a pain- and injury-free, efficient manner.

Pilates was never meant to be cardiovascular, figure trimming or bodybuilding. Pilates understood the biomechanics of the human body and how certain demands of workload and repetitive movement can cause muscular imbalances in the body to create joint pain and posture problems.

Since the early 1990s, Pilates' work was placed into a highly stylized format that could be repeated by trainers. This allowed the general population to benefit from exercise that was previously available only to extreme athletes and dancers.

Pilates classes emphasize strengthening the torso muscles and flexibility of the joints. However, characterizing all Pilates classes as the same would be as inaccurate as characterizing all professional sports as football.

So, when selecting a Pilates class, it is important to be educated about the class offered, the expectations, the style and credentials of the instructor, as it pertains to your personal needs. Some locations offer mat classes with instructors qualified to only teach mat. Other studios offer ball and small equipment, while others are fully equipped studios with fully certified instructors or master teachers. Some classes are designed for the healthy body only, and others are designed to work with private clients with specific needs.

When considering Pilates, don't forget that this is a method that has been proven to work for decades, and it is not a fad or something new. It does need the participant to become involved both mentally and physically.