“Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.”
— Joseph Pilates
What is the Contrology/Pilates method?
When Joseph Pilates introduced a special type of stretching and breathing exercises in 1929, he called it “Contrology”. He used the word Contrology because those exercises had a fundamental principle: let your mind control the muscles.
Unlike other exercises, which you can do while listening to music or daydreaming, Contrology requires you to concentrate on each body part that you move with utter awareness. The goal: to get a balanced body, mind and spirit.
To attain these goals, Pilates incorporated six principles in his book Return to life through Contrology:
Breathing
Centering
Flow
Concentration
Control
Precision
Joseph Pilates at work in his studio in New York
What are the differences between Contrology Pilates and Contemporary Pilates?
In 1929, Joseph Pilates started a studio in New York City to practice Contrology and named it “Pilates”.
Since then, Contrology is also known as Pilates. He introduced a group of exercises that can be performed on a mat, known as Mat Pilates, and pieces of equipment, known as Reformer Pilates. He designed the equipment himself with precise measurements and features.
After Joseph Pilates’s death in 1967, people started changing the original Contrology methods and added new types of exercises to it.
Now the original Contrology is known as Classical Pilates and the altered version of Pilates is known as Contemporary Pilates.
