Rapid Rehab LA Pilates Based Physical Therapy Brentwood California

Born in Germany, Joseph Humbertus Pilates (1881-1967) has been called a fitness innovator since his inception of the Pilates exercise system in the 1920’s.

Joe was a sickly child, which may be accredited for his interest in physical fitness and rehabilitation as well as mental wellness from such an early age. Much of his adolescence was dedicated to yoga, martial arts, and Zen-like meditation. His interest in physical strength overlapped with his acute awareness for mental harmony. Joe began forming a unique fundamentalism out of his personal experience and a springboard was assembled.

At the onset of World War I, Joe was interning as the self-defense instructor at a “camp” for enemy aliens in Lancaster. What initially began as a rehabilitation regime for his bedridden English patients became a blueprint for the Pilates exercise phenomenon that would follow decades later.

After being transferred to another “camp” on The Isle of Man, he began refining his methodology and engineering hospital beds with a series of tension based springs. These resistance “rigged” beds enabled patients to participate in strength exercises right from the hospital. He referred to this type of training as “contrology”, which proved to have miraculous results for his ailing patients.

In 1918, an influenza epidemic spread throughout the world, killing tens of thousands of England’s citizens alone. None of Joe’s patients fell victim to the disease and this was a true testament, in his eyes, to the healing and staying power of his training methods.

When German officials asked Joe to implement his ideas of “contrology” to the army he declined. He then decided that it was time to leave Germany indefinitely.

Upon arrival in New York City in 1926 with his wife Clara, Joe opened a studio adjacent to the New York City ballet. It wasn’t until 1945 that Joe published, “Return to Life Through Contrology”, which described in detail his approach to exercise and solidified his methods to a standard.

He believed that “the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind and the ability to perform life’s daily activities with zest and ease” to be the basis for his teachings. With his new book and a prime piece of real estate in New York City Joe’s classes began to fill up with dancers seeking out his innovative strength training. His classes became known for gentle rehabilitation, and many injured dancers were sent there to begin their recovery.

In the 1960’s George Balanchine began studying “pilates”, and began instructing his young ballerina’s to train “at Joe’s” as well. A few students opened their own studios which initiated the slow reaching expansion of the Pilates practice.The “golden years” for Joseph and Clara Pilates, ended with Joseph’s death in 1967. Clara continued to teach out of the New York City studio, but turned over the bulk of responsibility to a former student, Romana Kryzanowksa, in 1970.

Joe’s dedication to the development of his intricate yet accessible equipment, coupled with his passion for rehabilitation surpassed conventional ideas of exercise and has made Pilates an inspirational answer for so many. www.rapidrehabla.com

Since Joe had made such a remarkable impact with his Pilates training over the last decade several of his understudies went on to open their own studios.

Two former students, Carola Trier and Bob Seed were the first to open up their own studios. Joe had personally assisted Carola in opening her studio in the late 1950’s before his death. Carola was a dancer whom Joe helped rehabilitate from a non-stage related injury. They were very close up until his death. Bob Seed, on the other hand, was a former hockey player, and obviously still in dire need of a little competition.

He went head to head with his once mentor, by scheduling his studio hours to coincide with Joe’s. The potential for Joe’s clients to be lured away by someone he had trained didn’t go over well. Apparently, a gun-wielding Joe put an end to that with a little visit to Mr. Seed, warning him to get out of the city. Which Mr. Seed did. And quickly!

While Clara continued to manage the original “Pilates” studio in New York City, students Bruce King and Robert Fitzgerald opened theirs in other parts of the city.

However, New York City was no longer the only place where you could study Pilates. The ever growing “mind-body concept” began to spread all across North America. Just months before Joe’s death in 1967, students Kathy Grant and Lolita San Miguel, were “certified” by Joe himself. They are considered to be the only Pilates instructors to do so. Lolita opened her own studio at the Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Eve Gentry, who studied as well as taught “at Joe’s”, opened her own studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mary Bowen opened her studio in Northampton, Massachusetts.

One past student in particular, Ron Fletcher, who studied under Joe to aide a chronic knee injury, opened his Los Angeles studio in 1970. The temperature of the social climate in Hollywood made Pilates an instant hit, falling right in step with the social elite and celebrities alike.

The 1980’s and 1990’s donned the era in which more and more people were made aware of Pilates. With the media abuzz, the newly founded exercise began to boom. Celebrities had set the trend for the practice and everyone else was following.

Today, Pilates has gained exponential popularity with all facets of the general public. It is no longer an exercise for the rich and famous, but has become widely accessible to people of all ages and origins.

Ironically, what began in an infirmary at the peak of World War I has become a staple in the lifestyle-wellness of many Americans. Before Joe had passed away he is famous for having said, “I am fifty years ahead of my time”, this not only proved to be true but also set the powers-at-be in motion for the success and longevity of the study of Pilates. www.rapidrehabla.com

In America today over ten million people practice Pilates, but its inception began with just one man. In 1914, German-born Joseph Humbertus Pilates, began developing his unconventional approach to “mind-body fitness”. He was a sickly child and struggled with asthma. It was his early adversity that led him to the search for alternative forms of exercise. Initially Joe’s career began as a self-defense instructor for Scotland Yard detectives before becoming a self-defense and wrestling trainer during World War I for an enemy aliens “camp” in Lancaster.

Upon a transfer to another “camp”, he became the hospital intern. Joe claimed that his training methods had healing and restorative components, so he was assigned to the patients that needed treatment for wartime diseases as well as the incarcerated. His ideas about how to combine strength training with natural movement led him to experimentation and invention. He devised spring rigged hospital beds, which he believed to be the basis for his patient’s recovery. Daily routines could be executed from their hospital room and the exercises were rigorous enough that it quickly progressed their health.

He refined his machines during his time in these “camps”. The evolution of these first contraptions would later be the basis for all “Pilates” equipment. Up until that point he had been using his own body weight and strength to assist patients. In order to preserve his body, he further developed his system of pulleys and springs. With the machines implementing a natural “push and pull” maneuver, the patients noticed a gaining of lean muscle mass and increased strength.

In 1918 a wide spread epidemic killed tens of thousands of England’s residents. In the aftermath of the influenza a pattern occurred in all of Joe’s patients, they survived! He considered this to be the jumping off point to solidify his life enhancing practices.

He has said that to do his “contrology” correctly you must, “…concentrate on movement. You must always do it slowly and smoothly. Then your whole body is in it.” After the miraculous survival of his patients, in the year 1925, he began using his machines with his clients on a regular basis.

Joe was asked by the German army to transfer but he declined. He then decided that it was time to leave Germany indefinitely. He immigrated to the United States in 1926. On that voyage he met Clara, who would become his wife and business partner.

They settled into New York City and opened a studio in the same building that housed the New York City Ballet. This was the first introduction of Joe Pilates to America. The proverbial handshake went over well, and Pilates quickly became a popular practice with the New York City Ballet students. Since Pilates is rooted in rehabilitation, dancers found his practices to be extremely beneficial in keeping their muscles and joints “limber”, as well as being the prefect medicine for their sports and stage related injuries.

Once Joe Pilates passed away in 1967, there was potential for his life’s inspiration to fade away too, since he left no will to speak of. Quite the contrary happened. www.rapidrehabla.com