Pilates is a body conditioning routine that seeks to build flexibility, strength, endurance, and coordination without adding muscle bulk. For decades, it's been the exercise of choice for dancers and gymnasts (and now Hollywood actors), but it was originally used to rehabilitate bedridden or immobile patients during World War I.

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Pilates

2. 1
Overview
Pilates is a body conditioning routine that
seeks to build flexibility, strength, endurance, and
coordination without
adding muscle bulk.
For decades, it's been the exercise of

3. 2
Overview
choice for dancers and gymnasts (and now
Hollywood actors), but it was
originally used to rehabilitate bedridden or
immobile patients during World War
I.

4. 3
What is Pilates?
Pilates (pronounced: puh-lah-teez) improves
mental and physical well-being, increases
flexibility, and strengthens muscles
through controlled movements done as mat
exercises or with equipment to tone

5. 4
What is Pilates?
and strengthen the body.
In addition, pilates increases circulation
and helps to sculpt the body and strengthen the
body's "core" or
"powerhouse" (torso). People who do pilates
regularly feel they have

6. 5
What is Pilates?
better posture, are less prone to injury, and
experience better overall health.
Joseph H. Pilates, the founder of the
pilates exercise method, was born in Germany. As
a child he was frail, living
with asthma in addition to other childhood

7. 6
What is Pilates?
conditions. To build his body and grow stronger, he
took up several different
sports, eventually becoming an accomplished
athlete. As a nurse in Great
Britain during World War I, he designed exercise
methods and equipment for
immobilized patients and soldiers.

8. 7
What is Pilates?
In addition to his equipment, Pilates
developed a series of mat exercises that focus on
the torso. He based these on
various exercise methods from around the world,
among them the mind-body
formats of yoga and Chinese martial arts.

9. 8
What is Pilates?
Joseph Pilates believed that our physical
and mental health are intertwined. He designed his
exercise program around
principles that support this philosophy, including
concentration, precision,
control, breathing, and flowing movements.