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A
Lifetime in Pursuit of 21st Century Fitness
I was born in 1937, only a few years after Muscle Beach in Venice, California
had become the focal point of fitness in the United States. Those were
the days when big muscles and "the Tarzan look" were quite
the rage. However, even though weight training was gaining in popularity,
in many ways it was still considered avant-garde. Fifteen years later
the dust had settled, and weight training was not only accepted, but
also adopted as the chief training method in nearly every gym in the
country. Despite this national surge of interest, weight training for
teenagers remained, if not avant-garde, certainly unusual.
I was one of the rare ones. In 1951, at age 13, I started pumping iron
at the Youth School of Bodybuilding in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, a suburb
of Philadelphia. There, under the watchful eye of the young owner/trainer,
Roger Servin, I developed my love for fitness. Roger was a bodybuilder
and heavily involved in the muscle world, a subculture that was continuing
to gain momentum and acceptance. Philadelphia was also home to George
Eiferman, who in 1948 earned the title of Mr. America. Soon after, he
became Mr. Universe. Although George was certainly an inspiration, it
was Roger who was my most important influence. At age 14 I was awarded
a handsome trophy that read, "Mr. Youth School, 1952". It
was my reward for two years of work to add bulk, shape and definition
to my swimmer's body, and it symbolized my dedication to weight training
and the emerging bodybuilding scene.
Stretch and Resistance
During this time I was also spending two months every year at summer
camp. I had started at age 7, and by the time I was 14 I was the best
swimmer there. Because I both swam and lifted weights, I discovered
the principle of stretch and resistance. The weight trainers I
admired also employed this principle, but where my method for stretch
was swimming, theirs was gymnastics and tumbling. This two-tiered principle
became an important aspect of the thinking that led me, much later,
to make the additions to the Pilates mat, weight resistance, and walking.
As gyms opened across the country the pairing between stretching and
resistance was somehow lost. Focus shifted to muscle building and aerobics;
overlooked were the connected stretch movements such as gymnastics and
swimming. In fact the new gyms rarely made these exercises available.
I, too, would succumb to the chrome and glitter of the latest gyms.
As a student at Tulane University in New Orleans, I joined just
such a facility, the first of many to which I would eventually belong.
In
1960, I moved to New York City, and shortly upon arrival I made my first
visit to the Pilates Studio on 8th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Joseph
Pilates was alive at the time - very much alive - and he was working
with a client at one end of the room. Pilates' wife Clara, dressed in
a starched nurse's uniform, greeted me with a heavy German accent. Everything
about this studio seemed strange; there were weird machines that looked
like they may have been used in the Spanish Inquisition. Clara gave
me a quick rundown on the Pilates philosophy and asked me if I
would like to make an appointment for a workout. I said, "Not right
now. I'll call you." Of course I didn't. I was cocky about my fitness
knowledge and rejected Pilates to return to my comfortable, traditional
training at a more conventional gym.
For the rest of my 20s and into my 30s I worked out diligently at a
variety of gyms. It is important to understand that at this time
I was not a "hothouse flower." I lived it up and partied
with the best of 'em. I loved my down-home Carolina cooking: lots of
fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, ham biscuits, etc. In spite of all
of this I looked good, but at age 35 things started to happen.
The Crossover Age
To my amazement and frustration, no matter what I did or how hard I
worked out, my posture and flexibility were going. I was "thickening"
and "dropping". My knees ached. I couldn't turn my head properly.
I didn't look or perform at all as I had in my youth. Contributing to
my decline were results from two stomach operations I underwent at age
30. In both cases the 12 inch incisions through the abdominal muscles
caused my doctors to offer opinions that my stomach would never again
be flat. To counter this I added more to my weight resistance, swimming
and jogging routines. I tried bicycling, Judo, Yoga, and Aerobics. You
name it, and I tried it. Even my old reliance on stretch and resistance,
swimming and weights, was not enough. None of these worked to stop the
decline I was experiencing. I was under the preconceived notion that
all I had to do was increase my workout schedule, but that only
resulted in making things worse. My time was being eaten up. And as
I realize now, I was working hard to stay unfit.
Return
to Pilates
Around this time I remembered my short visit to the Pilates Studio more
than a decade before. I remembered, too, the words of Clara Pilates:
"STRETCHED...TALL...FLEXIBLE...ALIGNED" and "EVERYTHING
CENTERS ON THE SPINE." So in 1973, I returned to the studio,
at age 36, that was then under the direction of Romana Kryzanowska,
who had been handed the reigns by Joseph Pilates himself. To this
day it is Romana's standards that set her a world apart from most
certified Pilates instructors. And to have studied under her for so
long was a privilege. Within a few months I was getting exactly what
I wanted - and what I needed! My body was reawakening to its former
youthfulness, and over time I felt my agility and flexibility return.
I was standing taller, and not only did I start to feel years younger,
I looked it!
But training at Pilates was work! I would have pools of perspiration
surrounding me after a non-stop hour of their specialized workout
routines. THE REFORMER...THE MAT...and then the trainer would say, "TO
THE TOWER...TO THE BARREL." Finally, just as I thought I had reached
the end, I would hear, "TO THE CADILLAC!". I would feel like
crawling to the shower. Eventually I had THE REFORMER, THE CADILLAC,
LITTLE BARREL, and BIG BARREL built for my new home in Greenville, South
Carolina because I was commuting between there and New York. As you
can see, Pilates had become an important part of my life! It was now
clearly evident that at age 35 I had reached what I referred to earlier
as the crossover age. Up until this point most exercise regimens will
yield partial and sometimes nearly complete fitness. Past 35, however,
the body's changes are insidious, and to maintain or attain the essentials
of youth in one's later years one needs a program of specific design.
That is exactly what I received training under Romana. Not only did
I return to the youthfulness I had enjoyed in my 20s, but I became more
flexible and more agile as I climbed plane after plane of sustained,
life-long fitness.
The
21st Century Fitness Formula
At age 47 I realized my lifestyle was preventing me from performing
the traditional Pilates workout routine. My demanding business schedule,
which included a considerable amount of travel, was the chief culprit.
I needed a program that offered me fast, efficient workouts that could
be done anywhere, at any time, with no equipment requirements. To make
the needed changes I put my years of experience to work. It required
a new way to think about fitness. I tested, edited and rejected, stripping
away the excess. The adage held true: less was more, and as I refined
this efficient new formula it became apparent that what was not
in it was as important as what was in it.
It is important to note that within a few years of developing this new
formula I suffered another fitness decline due to an illness. I
became borderline emaciated and lost a good bit of muscle tone.
My body had aged prematurely. At this point the 21st Century Fitness
formula was put to the critical test. Having recovered from my illness,
I began working out again. With patience and time the formula worked,
and I was able to achieve the level of fitness I had enjoyed at the
Pilates Studio and carry forth those results even today.
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