subject: Movement And Physiology In Pilates [print this page] Pilates is the name of a system of exercises developed by Joseph Humbertus Pilates years ago.
It's based on his study of martial arts, exercise systems, gymnastics, Greek physical development, observing animals and yoga.
When he opened his first studio in New York City in 1926, it struggled until a dancer from a nearby studio tried him out. Word of the miraculous results he achieved soon spread throughout the Manhattan dance community.
Rudolph von Laban adopted some of Pilates into his system of Labanotation. So did other dancers such as Hanya Holm, Martha Graham and George Balanchine. More then 80% of Pilates teachers are from a dance background.
He himself believed he was fifty years ahead of his time. He agreed with the German philosopher Schiller: "It is the mind which controls the body."
It helps when studying Pilates to understand the various terms for physical body movements, because Pilates is focused on movements to help people develop their inner muscles, and balance all their muscle groups and to strength their muscles, joints and tendons.
"Extension" means straightening or lengthening out.
"Hyperextension" refers to extending more than 180 degrees.
"Flexion" means folding or bending.
"Abduction" is movement that draws away, outward, from the midline of your body. When doing the first half of a jumping jack, where you jump up and land with your feet separated, is abduction.
"Adduction" is movement that goes inward towrd the midline of the body. If you leg is pointed out, but you move it back, that's adduction. Doing the second half of a jumping jack, where you jump up and land with your feet back together, is adduction.
"Lateral flexion" is bending to the side.
"Rotation" means just what it sounds like -- movement around an axis, such as twisting.
Lordosis is a condition involving the hyperextension of the normal curve in the lumbar or cervical spine, your back.
Kyphosis is a condition of forward flexion of the normal thoracic curve of the your spine.
Scoliosis is the lateral curvature of your spine.
Range of motion is how doctors and physical therapists refer to the degree you can comfortably movement one of your limbs.
Your skeletal system has two hundred twenty-six bones. You have two kinds of joints:
Hinge joints such as your knees and elbows.
Rotational, or ball and socket, joints such as your ankles, hips, shoulders and wrists.
