Joseph Pilates Quotes - Page 3

You're only as old as your spine.

Time and progress are synonymous terms--nothing can stop either. Truth will prevail and that is why I know that my teachings will reach the masses and finally be adopted as universal.

Contrology is not a system of haphazard exercises designed to produce only bulging muscles. ... Nor does Contrology err either by over-developed a few muscles at the expense of all others with resulting loss of grace and suppleness, or a sacrifice of the heart or lungs. Rather, it was conceived to limber and stretch muscles and ligaments so that your body will be as supple as that of a cat and not muscular like that of the body of a brewery-truck horse, or the muscle-bound body of the professional weight lifter you so much admire at the circus.

Breathing is the first act of life, and the last.

Normal muscles should function naturally in much the same manner as do the muscles of animals.

This is the equivalent of an “internal shower”. As the spring freshness born of the heavy rains and vast masses of melting snows on mountains in the hinterlands cause rivers to swell and rush turbulently onward to the sea, so too will your blood flow with renewed vigor as the direct result of your faithfully performing the Contrology exercises.

Contrology is not a fatiguing system of dull, boring, abhorred exercises repeated daily "ad-nauseam." Neither does it demand you joining a gymnasium nor the purchasing of expensive apparatus. You may derive all the benefits of Contrology in your own home.

Man should bear in mind and ponder over the Greek admonition - Not Too Much, Not Too Little.

Because of poor posture, practically 95% of our population suffers from varying degrees of spinal curvature, not to mention more serious ailments. Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.

The acquirement and enjoyment of physical well-being, mental calm and spiritual peace are priceless to their possessors if there be any such so fortunate living among us today. However, it is the ideal to strive for, and in our opinion, it is only through Contrology that this unique trinity of a balanced body, mind, and spirit can ever be attained.

Above all, learn how to breathe correctly.

I learned...every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young.

Were man to devote as much time and energy to himself as he has devoted to that which man has produced, what astounding and unbelievable progress would be made; a progress eclipsing all he has so far successfully accomplished.

The science of Contrology disproves that prevalent and all-too-trite saying; 'You're only as old as you feel.' The art of Contrology proves that the only real guide to your true age lies not in years or how you THINK you feel but as you ACTUALLY are as infallibly indicated by the degree of natural and normalflexibility enjoyed by your spine throughout life.

The lungs cannot be completely deflated at first without considerable effort. With perseverance, however, the desired results can be accomplished and with increasing power, gradually and progressively develop the lungs to their maximum capacity.

Civilization impairs physical fitness.

A man is as young as his spinal column.

Lazy breathing converts the lungs, literally and figuratively speaking, into a cemetery for the deposition of diseased, dying and dead germs as well as supplying an ideal haven for the multiplication of other harmful germs.

I'm fifty years ahead of my time.

Contrology is not a fatiguing system of dull, boring, abhorred exercises repeated daily "ad-nausem".

A man is as old as his spine is flexible!

Daily, from sunrise to sunset, the radio, newspapers and magazines broadcast to the world how to maintain health, how to regain health... the conflicting information, expressive of the different opinions of these various health authorities, has proved to be nothing less than confusion.