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News
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Pilates - The
Full Range
By
Julian Wise - February 15, 2007
From Martha's Vineyard Times
Since opening the Vineyard Pilates Center
four years ago, Stefan Knight has introduced
many Islanders to an exercise program that he sees as
a balance between weight training and yoga. Photos
by Kathy Retmier |
When
Stefan Knight made Pilates instruction his business, it was
more than a commercial pursuit; it was a commitment to bringing
the healing benefits of the fitness system to those seeking
greater health and mobility. Four years after founding the
Vineyard Pilates Center at Woodlawn Market in Vineyard Haven,
hundreds of Islanders have experienced the physical and mental
benefits of this popular exercise philosophy. Despite the
high profile of Pilates in recent years, Mr. Knight finds
it an ongoing challenge to communicate the essence of the
discipline to those who only know about it from hearsay or
mass-market advertising. It's especially difficult to encapsulate
the philosophy of Pilates in a 30-second sound bite in line
at Cronig's or getting on the ferryboat. "The longer you're
in the business and the more you learn, the more difficult
that question is to answer," he says. "Articulating what Pilates
is about is like describing the taste of salt. You can talk
about it all day long, you can read articles about it, you
can read a book about it, but it's not the same. At the end,
if you don't taste salt you don't really know what you're
talking about."
Furthering the analogy, he adds, "You can taste salt, but
if you don't use it as it's designed to be used, you still
don't really get it until you put it on something in a way
that's appropriate. You can over-salt something and it doesn't
taste good. You can under-salt something and it doesn't bring
it to its full potential."
The Pilates system was pioneered by Joseph Pilates (1880-1967),
a German emigrant who overcame childhood illness to found
the Pilates Method (originally called "Contrology") with his
wife Clara at their fitness studio in New York City. Contrology
was based on the principles of strengthening core postural
muscles and developing control, concentration, centering,
precision, flowing movement, and conscious breathing. Dancers
George Ballantine, Martha Graham, and Jerome Robbins studied
with Pilates and sent their students for training and rehabilitation.
In his text "Return to Life through Contrology," Pilates wrote,
"Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness," and
noted, "Because of poor posture, practically 90 per cent of
our population suffers from varying degrees of spinal curvature,
not to mention more serious ailments.... Fortunately, the
spine lends itself readily through correction." The text goes
on to articulate his vision of health and vitality, in which
people are invited to live their lives free of aches and ailments
by performing exercises that realign and restructure their
muscular-skeletal system.
For Mr. Knight, Pilates has become the culmination of a process
that began when he worked as a personal trainer at several
Island gyms. After observing patterns of muscle and join pains
in his clients he pondered a career in physical therapy or
chiropractic medicine. While weighing his options, he studied
at the Massage Therapy Institute of Colorado, training in
Swedish, myofascial, deep-tissue, and neuromuscular reflex
therapy. He discovered The Pilates Center of Boulder was located
nearby and joined a nine-day workshop. "It blew me away,"
he recalls. "It was exactly what I wanted it to be."
In Pilates Mr. Knight discovered the perfect balance between
the bulkiness of weight lifting and the looseness of yoga.
"Yoga left me too flexible too fast," he says. "I felt wishy-washy."
He enrolled in a rigorous curriculum of bodywork, logging
1,060 hours of massage instruction, 900 hours of Pilates training,
and 1,500 hours of Rolfing coursework. "I was drawn to Pilates
because it encouraged people to take an active role in their
healing process," he says. "The western medical model doesn't
necessarily encourage that."
Mr. Knight works with a client. |
In
learning the philosophy behind Pilates, Mr. Knight began to
see fitness as something that comes from within rather than
from without. "Fitness is not about a sculptured body," he
says. "I want a body that functions well, that enjoys being
within itself."
Joseph Pilates saw the body as a source of joy and pleasure
rather than a burdensome collection of aches and pains. By
increasing mindfulness and efficiency of movement, practitioners
can exercise their body in life-enhancing ways.
"It's definitely a challenge," Mr. Knight says. "I've never
met a body that cannot be deeply challenged by it, and I've
never met a body that was too injured for it."
His clients have ranged from teens and triathletes to 90-year-olds.
Mr. Knight attributes the system's success to the lifelong
passion that Joseph Pilates brought to his work. "If anybody
works on something for 60 years, they're probably going to
come up with some really smart ideas," he says.
One of the major misperceptions about Pilates is that anything
with the Pilates label on it represents the founder's original
vision. Due to a copyright technicality, the name Pilates
is public domain, leading to a profusion of videos and fitness
equipment that bear little resemblance to Joseph and Clara
Pilates's original philosophy. "Consumers need to be careful
about where they go," Mr. Knight says, noting that some Pilates
instructors become certified with weekend seminars and online
courses. "People take the form and they continue to dilute
it until the form becomes formless."
While many perceive Pilates as an exclusive pursuit for the
wealthy, Mr. Knight says his studio is accessible to all,
regardless of economics. One can attend a class for the price
of a 12-pack of beer.
Another misperception is that Pilates is too rigorous for
beginners and one needs to get into shape before studying.
Mr. Knight views this as putting the cart before the horse,
setting up a perpetual impediment to getting started. In reality,
anyone can begin any time, regardless of their present condition.
"Mr. Pilates said that physical fitness can neither be attained
by outright purchase nor wishful thinking," says Mr. Knight.
"You actually have to do it. There's no one else that can
do that for you other than you."
Mr. Knight says that daily, seven-day-a-week practice isn't
necessary to reap Pilates' benefits. "I don't do it every
day," he says, "but I know that when I do, I feel dynamite.
If I only do it once a week, I also experience benefits."
Pilates is not a "bunch of sit-ups," Mr. Knight says. The
exercises are core-related, focusing on the abdominal and
pelvic region, the lower back, inner thighs and other areas
that support the body's structure. Pilates retrains the nervous
and muscular system while elongating muscle tissue to give
it a different resting length. While it's not a weight loss
system per se, many practitioners find themselves making healthier
diet choices to correspond with their improved physical wellness.
"If you do healthy movement, your body will crave healthy
foods," Mr. Knight says.
Many are finding Pilates beneficial in addressing joint and
back pains, especially those whose livelihoods depend on physical
exertion. Pilates looks beyond the specific ailment to address
whole body alignment.
"When there's a joint problem, there's an inappropriate firing
pattern around the joint," Mr. Knight says. "Our joints are
supposed to channel energy from one bone to another. When
force is spilling out of the joint there's going to be an
injury over time."
While many with a back or joint injury point to a specific
incident that's responsible for the injury, i.e. the lifted
cinderblock or the bad turn on the basketball court, Mr. Knight
says these incidents are often the straw that breaks the camel's
back.
"Injury is always an accumulation of something that's happened
for a very long time," he says. "Everything is preexisting.
There is never an isolated incident in the body. It's an accumulation
of compensations. Pilates is rehabilitative by nature. We
are always looking at biomechanics."
In the past year Mr. Knight has traveled the country giving
instructor trainings to other Pilates teachers. His future
goals include continuing his national trainings while expanding
Pilates awareness in the Island community. He has managed
to commit himself to the Pilates philosophy without becoming
rigid or dogmatic. "When we think we 'get it,' it's a dangerous
place to be, regardless of who we are," he says. "I don't
want Pilates to be intimidating. I want it for everybody.
I want construction workers to know this is an option."
"I absolutely love my job," he adds. "I have thought about
other professions, but I feel that there is nothing else I
could be doing that would bring people more benefit in 50
minutes than this job. I can't top it."
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