REFORM YOURSELF

The Perfect Workout

Balance through Personalized Fitness

True Pilates is the perfect form of fitness. The secret lies in its founding philosophy, principles and the attention to details that make the difference.

True Pilates is an art and a science:
  ·   The science: anatomical understanding of how every muscle group correlates with eachother within the body. It's the consideration of alignment and the movements to both develop and support a healthy structure.
  ·   The art: adaptation of exercises to the individual body's needs which makes it universal.*

Knowing what, when, where, why, how and for whom to give an exercise is the Pilates distinction. It is this philosophy which allows each session to be unique in general and with the variations of each day. At its simplest Pilates is successful because of the continuous emphasis on using the core through movement.

* In some rare circumstances (mainly where injury is prevalent) exercise may not be appropriate for a client, in which case medical attention may be needed/suggested.

Created by a Man for Men

Only the Strong will Survive.

The Backstory

Joseph Pilates was a gymnast-turned-boxer who, from his youth, had dedicated his life to the improvement of the human body with the mission of achieving the quintessential physical form. In its origins the method and its system ("Contrology") was already in development during WWl, at which time Joseph Pilates was in an internment camp for men in England.
Once in The States Joseph, and his wife Clara, opened a gym in NYC. It drew the likes of businessmen, athletes, and dancers (benefitting from its close proximity to some of the world's top ballet companies). George Ballanchine famously would send his dancers to work with Pilates (Romana Kryzanowska was one of them).
In the early 2000's the Pilates method saw a surge in popularity with marketing aimed at targeting women. It is perhaps the result of the workout's notoriety among the prevalently female dance world and/or this marketing that has birthed this false myth and has turned men off from the workout originally designed with them in mind. Fortunately, in recent years the method has been gaining traction in the world of professional athletes and more men are finding their way back into Joe's version of a gym.
Currently over 50% of TPLA's clientele are men.

What's in it for Men?

  ·   A great core workout! Pilates is the most core-targeting workout in existence. Using the core, aka Powerhouse, is literally everything in Pilates with every movement originating from the center of your body.
  ·   Feel muscles you never thought existed
  ·   Touch your toes and beyond (one of the most common tests to check hamstring and lower back flexibility)
  ·   Fix neck tension and cut back on massage costs
  ·   Be better, stronger and more flexible
  ·   Stay active beyond your youth
  ·   Stress relief - nothing like relieving your psoas to get you in a better mood

True to the Core

Finding your Power from the Center.

So what is the core?

Perhaps the most enigmatic of body parts, it's often described with the promise of limitless strength and balance. You've heard, correctly, that achieving a "strong core" is vital for your health. So what is it? What makes it all-powerful? And how do you build it to benefit your body in the way it's been advertised?

The truth is that the term "core" is a vague descriptor and differs in meaning to each person. And you can't work to strengthen something if you don't know what it is or how to use it.

The "core," or "powerhouse" as it's referred to in Pilates, is comprised of sets of muscles working cohesively to both support your body's structure as well as allowing it function. Body movement, whether big or small, is created when multiple sets of muscles contract and decontract accordingly.
We'll say that the primary initiators of the core/powerhouse are the group of muscles that wrap around the abdomen/waist (picture a wrestling belt). The secondary/supporting parts include the muscles in your back and derrier. These engage to both support and deepen the abdominals; the primary working with the secondary (hence the "house" part of the term). Working the powerhouse is only achieved when proper alignement is paired with specific spine-moving exercises, which in turn support and maintain that proper alignment.

A Renewed Body

How Pilates can help

There is no quick fix. Pilates takes time but with patience you can reap these rewards:

Movement Therapy

The Opposite of Stiffness is Movement.

Most pain is caused by the misalignement of the body which can be either completely aleviated or eased by correcting this, unless permanent structural damage has occurred by an accident or there is a genetic predisposition to certain body conditions. We do not function in accordance with our anatomy, nothing about our daily societal lives supports our body's design. We hold stagnant positions for longer periods of time than is healthy causing them to react rather unnaturally, be it standing or sitting, etc.
The notion of fitness was designed to counteract our sloth-like tendencies but going from one extreme to another is not the answer. There is such a thing as "too much of good thing" when it's done incorrectly. With regards to our bodies, we end up forcing extra strain on the same select set of muscles that we unknowingly have already been using.
Posture, done properly and in alignment, is everything!
Overuse of a limited set of muscles causes an underuse of counter muscles. This throws off your alignment and places a repeated burden on only some muscles causing them to fatigue from overuse. Despite the fatigue we continue moving in repetitive ways so the body compensates to achieve these actions and redistributes actions onto muscles not intended to be used for those movements, thus perpetuating the problem in a catch 22 situation until the cycle is broken.

Some body conditions that have been successfully treated to aleviate or minimize the pain:

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* Results may vary. Pilates is a great form of body conditioning with "healing-like" results, but like all things there are certain exceptions to every rule. It's usually a good indicator that if Pilates is not right for you / you experience lasting pain then it is very likely that a more serious structural situation exists, at which point seeing a medical professional is advised.