Joseph Pilates Quotes - Page 2

True flexibility can be achieved only when all muscles are uniformly developed

The man who uses intelligence with respect to his diet, his sleeping habits and who exercises properly, is beyond any question of doubt taking the very best preventive medicines provided so freely and abundantly by nature

Contrology (Pilates) is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. Through Contrology you first purposefully acquire complete control of your own body and then through proper repetition of its exercises you gradually and progressively acquire that natural rhythm and coordination associated with all your subconscious activities.

Concentrate on the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value.

Never slouch as doing so compresses the lungs, overcrowds other vital organs, rounds the back, and throws you off balance.

Not only is health a normal condition, but it is our duty not only to attain it but to maintain it.

It is the mind that shapes the body

When all your muscles are properly developed, you will, as a matter of course, perform your work with minimum effort and maximum pleasure.

Through the Pilates Method of Body Conditioning this unique trinity of a balanced body, mind and spirit can ever be attained. Self-confidence follows.

Concentrate on the correct movement each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits. Correctly executed and mastered to the point of subconscious reaction, these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities.

Moreover, such a body freed from nervous tension and over-fatigue is the ideal shelter provided by nature for housing a well-balanced mind that is always fully capable of successfully meeting all of the complex problems of modern living.

Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.

The Pilates Method of Body Conditioning is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body.

With body, mind, and spirit functioning perfectly as a coordinated whole, what else could reasonably be expected other than an active, alert, disciplined person?

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. In order to achieve happiness, it is imperative to gain mastery of your body. If at the age of 30 you are stiff and out of shape, you are old. If at 60 you are supple and strong then you are young.

We retire too early and we die too young, our prime of life should be in the 70's and old age should not come until we are almost 100.

It is the mind itself which builds the body.

I must be right. Never an aspirin. Never injured a day in my life. The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises. They'd be happier.

Ideally, our muscles should obey our will. Reasonably, our will should not be dominated by the reflex actions of our muscles.

As a heavy rainstorm freshens the water of a sluggish or stagnant stream and whips it into immediate action, so does the Pilates Methods purify the bloodstream.

It is better to be tired from physical exertion than to be fatigued by the 'poisons' generated by nervousness while lying awake.

You must squeeze every atom of impure air from lungs until they are almost as free of air as a vacuum.

Man should develop his physical condition simultaneously with that of his mind.

Self-confidenc e, poise, consciousness of possessing the power to accomplish our desires, with renewed lively interest in life are the natural results of the practice of Contrology [Pilates].

By exercising your stomach muscles, you wring out the body, you don't catch colds, you don't get cancer, you don't get hernias. Do animals get hernias? Do animals go on diets?