Tone Your Body Without Breaking a Sweat

	Founder Joseph Pilates
	Photo: Pilates Method Alliance

For his introduction to pilates, dancer and choreographer Ron Fletcher recalls his impression of founder Joseph Pilates' Manhattan studio: "It was a scary place, full of springs and leather. It looked like a medieval torture chamber."

"My first thought was 'this isn't for me,'" Fletcher continues, but Pilates immediately started leading him through his unique exercises, and quickly pointed out how Fletcher was off-center. "Within 15 minutes, I became an addict," he says.

That was in 1948, when Fletcher had taken the recommendation of a fellow student of dancer Martha Graham to visit Pilates in order to help with a knee injury. Now, at the age of 86, he has been practicing pilates for nearly 60 years.

You've probably seen similar hulking machines in the corner of your gym or at least heard the word "pilates" mentioned, but many are not aware of the rich heritage behind this revolutionary exercise regime.

Contrology Takes Hold

Pilates originally developed his method out of necessity: Growing up as an asthmatic, sickly child in Germany in the 1880s, he sought to improve his physique and stamina.

As a teenager, he studied yoga and martial arts, ancient Greek exercises and anatomy texts. However, it was as a prisoner at an English internment camp during World War I that Pilates refined a series of exercises and stretches to keep him and his fellow inmates limber and healthy.

Here, he developed a series of focused, therapeutic movements -- even rigging springs to hospital beds as makeshift resistance equipment -- in conjunction with controlled, mindful breathing. This led to a regimen that Pilates termed contrology, or the "complete coordination of body, mind and spirit," as he explained.

Although he returned to Germany after the war, Pilates decided to immigrate to the U.S. in 1926, and soon after opened a Manhattan studio adjacent to the New York City Ballet. Students of the famed choreographers George Balanchine and Martha Graham -- especially those recuperating from injuries -- were frequent practitioners of his gentle yet effective method.

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Today, Fletcher is the oldest ambulatory member of the prestigious pilates "elders" -- a group of five talented men and women who studied directly with Pilates and his wife Clara and have since helped to spread the practice worldwide. Professional ballerina Lolita San Miguel, 72, is another of the group.