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Yoga Journal
December 2000, pages 96 ff.
Fill in the Gap
by Rhonda Krafchin
Crosstraining with Pilates, Feldenkrais, and Body-Mind Centering can help free up those hard-to-reach stuck places your yoga practice may be missing.
German-born fitness buff Joseph Pilates first came up with the precursors to this equipment while in a World War I internment camp. There he rigged hospital beds with levers, straps, pulleys, and springs, so that the infirm could exercise. The equipment was designed for resistance training without overstretching, and focused on alignment and strengthening the core muscles — abdominals, buttocks, and lower back. Pilates called them the "Powerhouse."
"There's no question that Mr. Pilates studied yoga and borrowed a lot of the positions," says Jillian Hessel, director of The Well-Tempered Workout, a fitness studio in West Hollywood. "There's an exercise that we call 'up-stretch' that begins in Downward-Facing Dog, but it's done moving on a piece of equipment called the Universal Reformer, a sliding apparatus that works on spring action." Another strong connection between the two practices, says Hessel, is "the relationship between breath and movement. In Pilates, you become more conscious and aware of moving oxygen in and out of the body, synchronizing the rhythms of breath and movement, and really focusing on the Powerhouse." The fluidity of Pilates has attracted members of the dance community like Fry and Hessel since 1926, when Joseph Pilates and his wife first opened their New York studio. Today, many yoga students are using the Pilates method to enhance their practice and understand how movement is rooted in the lower chakras at the core of the body. Pilates' focused flow may be especially appealing to lovers of vinyasa, but all yoga practitioners can benefit from its attention to core strength, breath, and inner balance.
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© 2000 Yoga Journal
