What We Do
Pilates
"Contrology is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit."
– Joseph H. Pilates
Joseph H Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. As a frail child, he suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. He began studying body-building and gymnastics, and by the age of 14 was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts.
During WWI, Joseph Pilates was interned in England, where he created exercises to aid the rehabilitation of prisoners. He experimented with attaching springs to their hospital beds, allowing the men to exercise before they could even get out of bed.
Pilates came to believe that the "modern" life-style, bad posture, and inefficient breathing lay at the roots of poor health. In 1926 he migrated to the United States and met his wife Clara on the ship over. Together they founded a “Contrology” studio in New York City and created the most effective and time-withstanding form of exercise to better your body and live in balance.
Pilates is ideal for you if you are rehabilitating from surgery or an injury, have been at a desk just a little too long, or are looking for a transition into an exercise program that is more gentle on the joints and body.
Benefits of a regular Pilates practice include improved posture and flexibility, strength and awareness, greater physical confidence, energy, balance and clarity.
Therapeutic Bodywork
Massage
Experience the benefits that come from combining therapeutic bodywork with your Pilates training. Benefits of therapeutic massage include improved circulation, reduced muscle tension & stiffness, better flexibility and range of motion.
Read more about Massage Therapy and Pilates, A Healthy Partnership
View April Elder's available massage times
KMI Structural Integration
"The Anatomy Trains help to clarify, strengthen and integrate the experiential awareness of the moving body and deepen the perception of one’s body image."
– Eric Franklin
In going for stability and balance, many Pilates instructors find the Anatomy Trains map helpful in generating deep core balance, and in seeing the blocks to easy and pain free movement.
KMI is a synthesis of the fascial work of Dr. Ida Rolf, the movement insights of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, the whole-systems geometry of Buckminster Fuller and many other influences as developed by Thomas Myers. KMI Certified Practitioners employ a wide vocabulary of touch and movement via a thorough understanding of the Anatomy Trains concept, which provides a clarifying map for analyzing the whole body soft tissue patterns.
KMI sessions can be used to resolve particular problems, as a “tonic” for your posture, movement, and what used to be called “carriage” – how you carry yourself through the world.
Your body is your most proximate tool. How do you use it? KMI can be seen as an extended course in reqcquainting yourself with your body in motion, whether you are a finely tuned athlete, or a computer-bound couch potato.
The KMI approach is to free the binding and shortening in the body’s connective tissue – known as the “fascial network”, and to re-educate the body in efficient and energy sustaining patterns.
Read more about KMI & Anatomy Trains
