It is very much individualised to the client, rather than delivered as a general group exercise. At our practice, Clinical Pilates sessions are conducted one-on-one between the patient and practitioner, ensuring that the exercises are appropriate & prescribed at a suitable level. This method is useful for anyone who is recovering from an injury, who wants a stronger ‘core’, postural correction, or who requires control of muscle imbalances. At our practice, we integrate Clinical Pilates into the treatment of many of our patients.

History

Josef Pilates was born in Germany in 1880, and moved to England in 1912. He had a background in gymnastics, skiing, boxing & circus performance, and was a keen student of anatomy, as well as health and fitness methods. Being a German national living in England, he was incarcerated on the Isle of Man during WWI. It was here that Clinical Pilates first emerged. Josef helped injured German prisoners to exercise themselves back to health. He used springs for resistance training, and developed methods his patients could adopt lying down. This allowed them to maintain and improve their core strength, and to avoid the severe muscle atrophy & body de-conditioning inherent with long-term bed-rest.

After the war, Pilates continued to develop his methods. He emigrated to the US in 1926, where he opened a physical fitness studio. It was here that he started working with elite dancers, and before long his methods were warmly embraced by the dance community. In the top ballet schools around the world, ‘Pilates’ has become an integral part of the overall conditioning programme. In the past 20 years, it has re-emerged in the fitness and health industries. Expert health professionals, particularly physiotherapists, have further refined Josef Pilates’ original techniques, and made them applicable to injury rehabilitation.

There are many different explanations for what the Pilates approach entails. In a nutshell, it involves teaching the body to have efficient muscular control, while adopting healthy postures, through many different body positions and activities. It is a way of training effective ‘core-control’ for our sporting pursuits and the activities of our daily lives.