CHI-RIVER
ZWANGERSCHAPSCURSUS & PILATES
Our lives are streams flowing into the same river towards whatever lies in the mist beyond the falls...
...close your eyes and let the waters take you home.
Tao is in zijn verborgenheid naamloos
en toch is Tao het enigen dat geeft en vervult.
Ik volg de loop van het water...
Ik zit stil,
doe niets.
De lente komt
en het gras groeit vanzelf.
Op een dag maken de wijsgeer Confucius en zijn volgelingen een wandeling bij een waterval die van honderdvijftig meter hoogte naar beneden stort. Het schuim drijft over een afstand van zestig kilometer voort. Geen schildpad, vis of krokodil kan zich in de kolkende massa handhaven. Dan ziet het gezelschap tot zijn verbijstering een oude man rondzwemmen in het kolkende water. Het kan niet anders of hij verkeert in doodsnood. De wijsgeer stuurt zijn volgelingen erop af om hem te redden. Toen ze dichterbij kwamen, liep de man echter alweer zingend op de kant. Zijn haar hing los en hij genoot van de prachtige omgeving. Confucius sprak hem aan, en zei: "Ik zag u voor een geest aan, maar nu zie ik dat u een mens bent. Mag ik vragen: hebt u soms een bijzondere truc om door dit woeste water te gaan?" De man antwoordde: "Nee, een bijzondere kunstgreep heb ik niet. Maar ik begon het te leren op jeugdige leeftijd en toen ik opgroeide, werd het mijn tweede natuur. Nu is de goede afloop zo zeker als het lot. Ik ga erin en met het water omlaag tot aan het middelpunt van de draaikolk. Ik kom weer boven als het de andere kant uitdraait. Ik volg de loop van het water en doe niets uit mijzelf dat daar tegeningaat. Aldus is de manier waarop ik er doorheen kom."
... en doe niets dat daar tegeningaat.
In dit verhaal van Zhuang Zi is het onstuimige water een metafoor voor de woelingen van het leven. De manier waarop de oude man zich in het water beweegt, staat voor een levenshouding: hij weet de wispelturigheden van het leven spontaan en op volmaakte wijze te volgen.
Het taoïstische ideaal houdt in dat de mens zich zowel individueel als collectief volledig aanpast aan de wet van eeuwige verandering; aan de spontaniteit van de natuurlijke processen. Hij moet afstand doen van al het bewust willen en handelen, in de zin van krampachtig doelen nastreven, want
Forceren leidt tot verlies van krachten.
Dit is niet de weg van Tao.
Lao Zi
"Without going outside, you may know the whole world. Without looking through the window, you may see the ways the ways of Heaven.
The further you further you go, the less you know."
Lao Zi
Childhood, in Germany
Childhood brought Joseph Pilates the experience that shaped his masterpiece method of exercise, the experience of unhealthiness. Born near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1880, Joseph Pilates suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a child. The troubles of being a weak, defenseless boy in a rough world, inspired Pilates on his lifelong pursuit for health and strength.
Pilates engaged in diverse movement arts studies as a youth, including yoga, martial arts, ancient Grecian and Roman regimens, and boxing, all in with the singular determination to become healthy. Either from his diverse studies, from that heightened sensitivity between body and mind of the invalid, or from a combination of these, Pilates constantly developed mind and body together, focusing on their relationship in his combination of more spiritual with more physical arts. Joe's recollections of studying an anatomy book as a child, of observing the movements of his own muscles, and of watching animals move in the forest indicate that the intuition that created the method already operated in his mind.
By age fourteen, Pilates had achieved the goal of his youth, boasting now a body exemplary of perfect fitness, which he modeled for German medical anatomy charts.
Pilates continued diverse work as a physical trainer and athlete in Germany, in boxing, gymnastics, skiing, and diving.
Between 1912 and 1914, Pilates traveled to England an unspecified type of athletic work there. One account claims Pilates went to England as a boxer, another that he went as a circus performer.
England, the war, and afterwards
At the onset of World War I, authorities interned Pilates in a camp for "enemy aliens" in Lancaster, because of his German nationality. However, even exiled wartime conditions couldn't quell the master, who trained fellow prisoners, and began to develop his original method of exercise, which he would call Contrology.
Sometime during his internment, Pilates got transferred to another alien camp, this time on the Isle of Man, working in some ambiguous capacity with fellow inmates, many of whom had suffered from diseases or serious wartime injuries. During his time there, Joe began to construct the first apparatus to rehabilitate these injured prisoners.
He initially constructed these apparatuses for maimed men; but later he created apparatuses, like the Reformer and Cadillac, utilizing spring resistance to open movement in all bodies. He constructed the first machines with bedsprings, mattresses, and other materials available to him in an English prison camp; but later he created apparatuses with universal use for all through Contrology, from the same simple materials.
In 1918, an influenza epidemic spread worldwide. Accounts vouch that not a single person in Pilates' camp was infected. Furthermore, the very warden of Pilates wartime home in England, made the Method mandatory for all in the camp, prisoners, guards, and the warden himself.
After his release from wartime internment, Pilates returned to his native land, and engaged in training the Hamburg Military Police in the movement arts of his expertise, and also began to work one-on-one with clients, just as instructors now do in Pilates studios worldwide.
His diverse work brought Pilates some renown, to the point that, in 1925, he was invited to engage as the trainer of the German army.
However, Pilates decided to leave Germany again, unable to compromise his unfavorable opinion about the country's current political direction.
Emigration to New York, the first studio, and the beginning of renown
Pilates left Germany, and settled in New York City, upon the recommendations of some colleagues in the world of athletics.
Whilst aboard the steamer that brought him to America, Pilates met the intelligent, charming Clara, a Yankee nurse who then suffered symptoms of arthritis. They developed an acquaintance when Joe offered to cure her arthritis through his method. Pilates shared with Clara his dreams of opening a studio devoted to his developing method of exercise, they fell in love, and contemplated the potential of Pilates' work.
When Pilates arrived in New York, he continued to develop his method of exercise. Clara and Joseph Pilates were married, and opened the world's first Pilates studio, in New York City of the 1920s.
For decades, Pilates dedicated the strength of his life to training others in his method, developing exercises, routines, and apparatus, and expressing his ideas in writing. He always considered himself the test of the validity of his method of exercise, and continued to have young, vibrant strength, even into his eighties.
He trained various teachers, thereby beginning the tradition of Pilates exercise, and the tradition of arguing about the right, or "traditional" way to execute the movements of the method. He also rehabilitated and trained famous dancers and companies, some of whom had studios in the same building as Joe's studio. His work with these dancers, as much as anything else he did, created the culture of Pilates exercise, which has lived on in the conditioning workouts of premier companies to this day. Some have claimed that the flowing, controlled character of the exercises composing Contrology resemble a dance, and famous choreographer George Balanchine was so enamored of the Pilates method's movements that he incorporated them into his "Seven Deadly Sins."
back to top
The New York fire, and afterwards
Pilates dedicated his life and great, humanitarian intellect to his method, even to the extent of sacrificing his life to save his meticulous documentation from burning in a fire, which started by some mishap in January 1966. At the time, Pilates was thriving still with youthful vitality, in his mid- to late eighties. Without consideration of his age or the outcome, Pilates dashed into the studio to salvage what he could of his documentation, scores of photographs, and apparatuses. Much of the studio's contents suffered ruin, and Pilates sacrificed his vibrancy, poisoning and burning his lungs with smoke and fire. One anecdote runs, that Pilates clasped the studio rafters as the floor collapsed beneath him, and he hung there for two hours, with his indomitable physical power.
In 1967, at age 87, Pilates' powerful body died from lung injuries sustained during the blaze, leaving the world the cherished remains of the creations of his mind: his method, apparatus, writings, and the teachers he'd trained, some of whom still live and work today.
Landmark Evolutions of the Pilates Method
The Pilates method of exercise
Viewing the aerobic revolution all around him, with its placebo dosages of reps, Pilates declared that no one would understand the importance of his method of exercise for fifty years. He witnessed and worked within an environment speeding off in directions contrary to the tenets of Contrology, but had the optimism to believe that our age would understand and respond to the need for his method.
In spite of the predominance of aerobics, running, weight training, and sport as exercise since Pilates' death, his method lived on in the culture of premier dance companies, in the studios of his scattered groups of followers, and as a form of physical therapy. However, the general public only began to learn of Pilates over the last ten years, and the Method only became a buzzword in most cities over the past few years. Following Yoga's much-publicized renaissance into the faddish fitness press, Pilates has become a household name, and cities worldwide contain studios bursting with excited clients from all walks of life.
Pilates today
The tragic fire in Pilates' New York studio, and his even more tragic death thereafter, left his students to complete the daunting task of universalizing the method. As Pilates has spread worldwide, it has obtained a cosmopolitan diversity of styles.
As each of Pilates' students began to attract followers who'd never worked with or met the late Joseph Pilates, they found themselves in positions of authority, to define the correct or traditional method for completing the exercises, and to articulate the ideas of Contrology in their own way.
Ironically, as these teachers insisted on doing Pilates their own way, they perpetuated a key important aspect of Joe's style: to working uniquely, because each body is unique.
Recently, a court decision was made, that Pilates is a name for a general type of exercise, a conflict that had arisen an attempt was made to copyright Pilates' name, method, and numerous other pieces of documentation the master had left behind without indicating a successor. However, even throughout this conflict, studios and instructors who disagreed with the attempted copyright continued to develop and spread worldwide.
Pilates studios have continued to form an overall community with diverse perspectives and methods, but in spite of their disagreements, these studios have continued the spread of Pilates.
Hand in hand with the increase of media attention, Pilates studios have spread from city to city, blossoming in response for the increased demand for Joe's method of exercise.
Pilates undoubtedly continues to grow in popularity because of its effectiveness. As science has continued to increase our understanding of the body and kinesiology, Pilates has gained legitimacy because of its medical consistency. Also, people all over continue to rave about the long, lean muscles, and youthful vibrancy they gain through Pilates' method of exercise.
...close your eyes and let the waters take you home.
*
Tao is in zijn verborgenheid naamloos
en toch is Tao het enigen dat geeft en vervult.
*
Lao Zi
Zhuang ZiIk volg de loop van het water...
Ik zit stil,
doe niets.
De lente komt
en het gras groeit vanzelf.
Op een dag maken de wijsgeer Confucius en zijn volgelingen een wandeling bij een waterval die van honderdvijftig meter hoogte naar beneden stort. Het schuim drijft over een afstand van zestig kilometer voort. Geen schildpad, vis of krokodil kan zich in de kolkende massa handhaven. Dan ziet het gezelschap tot zijn verbijstering een oude man rondzwemmen in het kolkende water. Het kan niet anders of hij verkeert in doodsnood. De wijsgeer stuurt zijn volgelingen erop af om hem te redden. Toen ze dichterbij kwamen, liep de man echter alweer zingend op de kant. Zijn haar hing los en hij genoot van de prachtige omgeving. Confucius sprak hem aan, en zei: "Ik zag u voor een geest aan, maar nu zie ik dat u een mens bent. Mag ik vragen: hebt u soms een bijzondere truc om door dit woeste water te gaan?" De man antwoordde: "Nee, een bijzondere kunstgreep heb ik niet. Maar ik begon het te leren op jeugdige leeftijd en toen ik opgroeide, werd het mijn tweede natuur. Nu is de goede afloop zo zeker als het lot. Ik ga erin en met het water omlaag tot aan het middelpunt van de draaikolk. Ik kom weer boven als het de andere kant uitdraait. Ik volg de loop van het water en doe niets uit mijzelf dat daar tegeningaat. Aldus is de manier waarop ik er doorheen kom."
... en doe niets dat daar tegeningaat.
In dit verhaal van Zhuang Zi is het onstuimige water een metafoor voor de woelingen van het leven. De manier waarop de oude man zich in het water beweegt, staat voor een levenshouding: hij weet de wispelturigheden van het leven spontaan en op volmaakte wijze te volgen.
Het taoïstische ideaal houdt in dat de mens zich zowel individueel als collectief volledig aanpast aan de wet van eeuwige verandering; aan de spontaniteit van de natuurlijke processen. Hij moet afstand doen van al het bewust willen en handelen, in de zin van krampachtig doelen nastreven, want
Forceren leidt tot verlies van krachten.
Dit is niet de weg van Tao.
Lao Zi
*
"Without going outside, you may know the whole world. Without looking through the window, you may see the ways the ways of Heaven.
The further you further you go, the less you know."
Lao Zi
History of Joseph Pilates
Childhood, in Germany
Childhood brought Joseph Pilates the experience that shaped his masterpiece method of exercise, the experience of unhealthiness. Born near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1880, Joseph Pilates suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a child. The troubles of being a weak, defenseless boy in a rough world, inspired Pilates on his lifelong pursuit for health and strength.
Pilates engaged in diverse movement arts studies as a youth, including yoga, martial arts, ancient Grecian and Roman regimens, and boxing, all in with the singular determination to become healthy. Either from his diverse studies, from that heightened sensitivity between body and mind of the invalid, or from a combination of these, Pilates constantly developed mind and body together, focusing on their relationship in his combination of more spiritual with more physical arts. Joe's recollections of studying an anatomy book as a child, of observing the movements of his own muscles, and of watching animals move in the forest indicate that the intuition that created the method already operated in his mind.
By age fourteen, Pilates had achieved the goal of his youth, boasting now a body exemplary of perfect fitness, which he modeled for German medical anatomy charts.
Pilates continued diverse work as a physical trainer and athlete in Germany, in boxing, gymnastics, skiing, and diving.
Between 1912 and 1914, Pilates traveled to England an unspecified type of athletic work there. One account claims Pilates went to England as a boxer, another that he went as a circus performer.
England, the war, and afterwards
At the onset of World War I, authorities interned Pilates in a camp for "enemy aliens" in Lancaster, because of his German nationality. However, even exiled wartime conditions couldn't quell the master, who trained fellow prisoners, and began to develop his original method of exercise, which he would call Contrology.
Sometime during his internment, Pilates got transferred to another alien camp, this time on the Isle of Man, working in some ambiguous capacity with fellow inmates, many of whom had suffered from diseases or serious wartime injuries. During his time there, Joe began to construct the first apparatus to rehabilitate these injured prisoners.
He initially constructed these apparatuses for maimed men; but later he created apparatuses, like the Reformer and Cadillac, utilizing spring resistance to open movement in all bodies. He constructed the first machines with bedsprings, mattresses, and other materials available to him in an English prison camp; but later he created apparatuses with universal use for all through Contrology, from the same simple materials.
In 1918, an influenza epidemic spread worldwide. Accounts vouch that not a single person in Pilates' camp was infected. Furthermore, the very warden of Pilates wartime home in England, made the Method mandatory for all in the camp, prisoners, guards, and the warden himself.
After his release from wartime internment, Pilates returned to his native land, and engaged in training the Hamburg Military Police in the movement arts of his expertise, and also began to work one-on-one with clients, just as instructors now do in Pilates studios worldwide.
His diverse work brought Pilates some renown, to the point that, in 1925, he was invited to engage as the trainer of the German army.
However, Pilates decided to leave Germany again, unable to compromise his unfavorable opinion about the country's current political direction.
Emigration to New York, the first studio, and the beginning of renown
Pilates left Germany, and settled in New York City, upon the recommendations of some colleagues in the world of athletics.
Whilst aboard the steamer that brought him to America, Pilates met the intelligent, charming Clara, a Yankee nurse who then suffered symptoms of arthritis. They developed an acquaintance when Joe offered to cure her arthritis through his method. Pilates shared with Clara his dreams of opening a studio devoted to his developing method of exercise, they fell in love, and contemplated the potential of Pilates' work.
When Pilates arrived in New York, he continued to develop his method of exercise. Clara and Joseph Pilates were married, and opened the world's first Pilates studio, in New York City of the 1920s.
For decades, Pilates dedicated the strength of his life to training others in his method, developing exercises, routines, and apparatus, and expressing his ideas in writing. He always considered himself the test of the validity of his method of exercise, and continued to have young, vibrant strength, even into his eighties.
He trained various teachers, thereby beginning the tradition of Pilates exercise, and the tradition of arguing about the right, or "traditional" way to execute the movements of the method. He also rehabilitated and trained famous dancers and companies, some of whom had studios in the same building as Joe's studio. His work with these dancers, as much as anything else he did, created the culture of Pilates exercise, which has lived on in the conditioning workouts of premier companies to this day. Some have claimed that the flowing, controlled character of the exercises composing Contrology resemble a dance, and famous choreographer George Balanchine was so enamored of the Pilates method's movements that he incorporated them into his "Seven Deadly Sins."
back to top
The New York fire, and afterwards
Pilates dedicated his life and great, humanitarian intellect to his method, even to the extent of sacrificing his life to save his meticulous documentation from burning in a fire, which started by some mishap in January 1966. At the time, Pilates was thriving still with youthful vitality, in his mid- to late eighties. Without consideration of his age or the outcome, Pilates dashed into the studio to salvage what he could of his documentation, scores of photographs, and apparatuses. Much of the studio's contents suffered ruin, and Pilates sacrificed his vibrancy, poisoning and burning his lungs with smoke and fire. One anecdote runs, that Pilates clasped the studio rafters as the floor collapsed beneath him, and he hung there for two hours, with his indomitable physical power.
In 1967, at age 87, Pilates' powerful body died from lung injuries sustained during the blaze, leaving the world the cherished remains of the creations of his mind: his method, apparatus, writings, and the teachers he'd trained, some of whom still live and work today.
Landmark Evolutions of the Pilates Method
The Pilates method of exercise
Viewing the aerobic revolution all around him, with its placebo dosages of reps, Pilates declared that no one would understand the importance of his method of exercise for fifty years. He witnessed and worked within an environment speeding off in directions contrary to the tenets of Contrology, but had the optimism to believe that our age would understand and respond to the need for his method.
In spite of the predominance of aerobics, running, weight training, and sport as exercise since Pilates' death, his method lived on in the culture of premier dance companies, in the studios of his scattered groups of followers, and as a form of physical therapy. However, the general public only began to learn of Pilates over the last ten years, and the Method only became a buzzword in most cities over the past few years. Following Yoga's much-publicized renaissance into the faddish fitness press, Pilates has become a household name, and cities worldwide contain studios bursting with excited clients from all walks of life.
Pilates today
The tragic fire in Pilates' New York studio, and his even more tragic death thereafter, left his students to complete the daunting task of universalizing the method. As Pilates has spread worldwide, it has obtained a cosmopolitan diversity of styles.
As each of Pilates' students began to attract followers who'd never worked with or met the late Joseph Pilates, they found themselves in positions of authority, to define the correct or traditional method for completing the exercises, and to articulate the ideas of Contrology in their own way.
Ironically, as these teachers insisted on doing Pilates their own way, they perpetuated a key important aspect of Joe's style: to working uniquely, because each body is unique.
Recently, a court decision was made, that Pilates is a name for a general type of exercise, a conflict that had arisen an attempt was made to copyright Pilates' name, method, and numerous other pieces of documentation the master had left behind without indicating a successor. However, even throughout this conflict, studios and instructors who disagreed with the attempted copyright continued to develop and spread worldwide.
Pilates studios have continued to form an overall community with diverse perspectives and methods, but in spite of their disagreements, these studios have continued the spread of Pilates.
Hand in hand with the increase of media attention, Pilates studios have spread from city to city, blossoming in response for the increased demand for Joe's method of exercise.
Pilates undoubtedly continues to grow in popularity because of its effectiveness. As science has continued to increase our understanding of the body and kinesiology, Pilates has gained legitimacy because of its medical consistency. Also, people all over continue to rave about the long, lean muscles, and youthful vibrancy they gain through Pilates' method of exercise.