Joseph Pilates’ book Return to Life

It's short, it has pictures of his 34 mat exercises and is available on Kindle - so no excuses to not order and have a quick read!

Reading hats on and we shall begin...

Even though it was published in 1945 many of the things Joseph Pilates' book Return to Life Through Contrology (RTL) talks about are essential today for a healthy and balanced life. It was written after he had spent over 30 years devising the exercises, teaching bodies and in reaction to the effects of our modern lifestyle;

"the faster tempo of living that leads us to suffer some form of nervous tension..."

The book provides a guide for improving and negating the effects of modern living by learning the 34 exercises he details in the book's second half.

Topics discussed in the book's first section:

Breathing and blood flow; uniform development of the body; the importance of a supple spine; concentrating and the mind/body connection; eating, sleeping and lifestyle choices we can make for health.

Breathing

Learning how to breathe correctly was of paramount importance. Exhaling fully until the lungs are almost as empty as a vacuum.

"SQUEEZE" EVERY ATOM OF AIR FROM YOUR LUNGS UNTIL THEY ARE ALMOST AS FREE OF AIR AS IS A VACUUM" (J. Pilates, Return to Life).

As you can see by his use of capital letters Pilates forcefully believed exhaling would wring all the stale air out of our lungs. We can then fully refill our lungs with oxygen. This form of body 'house-cleaning' he called the “internal shower”. Along with the oxygen from breathing correctly, the movement in his mat exercises would improve the health of our cardiovascular system. Increasing blood flow and improving circulation, that will flush out metabolites and impurities from our body's tissues.

Uniform development

The idea of uniformity was very important to Pilates. The body had to be in balance, with the small intrinsic muscles supporting the major and more global muscles. Like a finely tuned machine all parts are necessary to support the efficient running of the whole. If in our daily life we focus or spend a large amount of time doing mainly one thing we will not be 'uniform' - for example: sitting shortens and tightens our hip flexor muscles, we tend to be dominant on one side and mostly use one hand. He believed we should focus on our bodies becoming more flexible, adaptable and as symmetrical as possible.

He thought we needed to be like a wild animal, so we can achieve efficiency and balance. To illustrate this he detailed how a cat moves from sleep, to stretch, to movement, constantly stretching and relaxing.

"Observe closely how all its back muscles actually ripple as it stretches and relaxes itself. Cats as well as other animals acquire this ideal rhythm of motion" (J. Pilates Return to Life)

Keeping our spines supple
Modern life, Pilates thought, had created stiff spines and poor posture. So the exercises he created focused on rolling and freeing up the vertebrae. RTL describes our spines as being very spring-like and moveable - indeed he thought they should be flat like a baby's! Many of his exercises are designed around rolling and unrolling the spine - we should articulate through vertebra by vertebra to keep it healthy and supple.

"...when you lie down or when you rise, "roll" and "unroll, your spine exactly in imitation of a wheel rolling forward and backward."(J. Pilates, Return to Life).

Concentrating the mind
Pilates holy trinity was of the body, mind and spirit in harmony. He emphasised concentrating on the 'correct' movements to commit them to our subconscious minds. The concentration, focus and repetitious nature of his exercises means that the movements can eventually become unconscious and embodied.

"Contrology exercises build a sound mind fitted to perform every daily task with ease and perfection..."(J. Pilates, Return to Life).

Although he was not overtly religious, perhaps what he meant by the “spirit” is the idea that we are more connected to our 'instinctual' and 'natural' state. In this state we feel part of a living 'system' that is connected to its environment.

humans cannot 'improve' with Pilates alone...
Pilates also acknowledged that lifestyle had to match the physical and mental work of the exercises. He briefly focuses on eating, sleeping, relaxing and having a healthy balanced lifestyle.

"...proper diet and sufficient sleep must supplement our exercise in our quest for physical fitness."

He believed we needed sunshine and even to vigorously brush our skin with a stiff brush to open pores, increase blood flow and let our skin "breathe" again.

The Exercises

There are 34 mat exercises with descriptions in RTL. Most of them you will be familiar with but some (probably the more advanced ones) you may not. He was clear that you should study and master each exercise before you move on:

"...do not attempt any other exercise until you first have mastered the current one and know its routine down to the last detail without any reference to the text." (J. Pilates, Return to Life).

Done like this he argued that the exercises would become securely stored away forever in our subconscious minds. Have a look and read of The Hundred description below for a flavour of the book: