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Pilates, Alexander and the Usefulness of Exercises

© Robert Rickover

After a few months of Pilates classes, I proudly announced to my teacher that I could now do 100 of the "Hundreds"--an introductory abdominal strengthening exercise Pilates describes in detail in his book "Return to Life Through Contrology". "Good", she said, "now let's aim for 200!"

This statement was a bit of a turning point for me about my attitude towards Pilates. It had the familiar ring of "more is better" so often associated with fitness programs and I had come to Pilates precisely because of its reputation for highly-targeted, well-thought-out exercises designed to improve physical functioning. As a teacher of the Alexander Technique I was always a lot more interested in quality of movement than in quantity and, from what I had heard, so too was Joseph Pilates.

My experience with the Hundreds, and with other aspects of my classes, caused me to go back to the source and read Pilates' two books.* There I discovered that Pilates was indeed a great believer in doing exercises well, and most definitely not in excessive amounts. In his description of the Hundreds, he urged people to gradually build up the number of repetitions, while carefully following the precise instructions for the exercise, and "Never exceed 100 movements." For many of his exercises, he suggests a very small number of repetitions, often as few as three.

In "Your Health", Pilates elaborates on the whole question of quality versus quantity: "...be sure never to repeat the selected exercise(s) more than the prescribed number of times since more harm will result than good by you unwittingly or intentionally disregarding this most important advice and direction. Why? Because this infraction creates muscular fatigue--a poison. THERE IS REALLY NO NEED FOR TIRED MUSCLES." (emphasis mine).

How different an approach this is than the common "no pain, no gain" school of thought. In my experience with Pilates training, there definitely was pain and virtually no gain after the first few months.

I do not know a lot about the history of Pilates training after his death in 1967, but I recently spoke with another Alexander Technique teacher who actually studied and then worked in the original Pilates studio in New York City with Romana Kryzanowska some twenty-five years ago. He said the training had done a lot to transform his body in a positive way and that the exercises, while sometimes quite demanding, were done with only a few repetitions.

Another Alexander colleague, who is also certified as a Pilates instructor, believes that in at least some of the current versions of Pilates training, very "non-Pilates" ideas have been added to the mix. I would love to hear from those more knowledgeable about current trends in Pilates training about their take on the current situation.