Richard Bolton<[log in to unmask]> writes:

<< Mel...When will you give up on this attack against pilates. I am both a PT
and a Pilates Teacher/Teacher Trainer. We all teach how Joe had some great
ideas but little clue about anatomy as we know it today. >>

***Pilates is by no means unique in being a topic of my evaluation. There
are many other topics that I have critically evaluated for many years and to
a far greater extent than Pilates. In my book "Facts & Fallacies of
Fitness", I have evaluated over 200 other topics besides Pilates. This list
alone features many other such critiques which I have written on various
topics over the years. You are simply responding like that because you have
a vested interest in that topic. For your interest, do a simple search of
the PHYSIO archives and see how many controversial topics that I have raised
over the years:

http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/physio/archive.html

If you search the archives of the Supertraining list, you will find that I
have raised many hundreds of other topics for critical analysis, with Pilates
analysis not attracting even 1 percent of my attention. See:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/messages

Pilates had great ideas? Kindly list objectively any ideas of his which are
or were unique. Incidentally, in my previous article
(http://www.dolfzine.com/page95.htm), I carried out an extensive study of
Pilates history and learned that he had very few original ideas, but borrowed
almost everything that he used from real innovators such as the great Sandow,
Krayevsky and others whose training methods were the rage of Europe and
America at the time when Pilates was living in Europe.

If all of you do teach how Joe had little clue about anatomy, why are many
aspects of his writings still being cited by Pilates practitioners today?
The belief that heavy strength training is deleterious to the body and
results in slow, inflexible, unbalanced actions is still widely quoted by
Pilates teachers, as is the Pilates claim that his system produces longer,
more flexible muscles. Similarly, his rigid proclamations about exactly how
his mat and machine exercises shall be executed are also accepted without
much question, despite the dearth of evidence supporting such rules. When a
Pilates teacher recommended that Pilates book to me, obviously I could not
simply allow that nonsense to remain unchallenged.

The fact is that far too many Pilates practitioners still rely on Pilates
beliefs and, despite the tens of thousands of clients, the amount of genuine
research into such methods is still sparse and of minimal value. If you are
one of those who takes the pains to stress that, while Pilates exercises may
have some definite conditioning value for many clients, the writings on which
his system are based are erroneous and outdated, then I applaud you, but I
can assure you are one of the few exceptions.

<Maybe that's why of all Pilates courses the world over, 60% of applicants
are PT's.>

*** Well, I certainly hope that they read the Pilates bibles a lot more
critically than most Pilates practitioners whose articles, seminar
presentations and web pages I have been exposed to during the past few years,
else the PT profession is soon going to suffer from some serious
developmental disorder.

<Funnily enough I also co-authored and researched the March 2000 UK National
Guidelines on the treatment of Occupational Low Back Pain. This was the
largest literature review and rating of articles the world has seen on Low
Back Pain (3500 articles were reviewed).>

***I fail to see how this possibly relates to the accuracy of what Pilates
wrote.

<Well on a final note, you got me to come out of the cupboard again by
mentioning a topic close to my heart. But provocation on the same topic over
and over seems like we have little else to talk about?>

*** Apparently you have missed the many dozens of other topics that I have
critically raised over the past few years on this list. I rarely, if ever,
repeat the same topic or the same material on the same topic. For example, on
ly this week I sent two new Puzzles & Paradoxes to this list, plus numerous
others like that during past years, but noticed that none of these has ever
attracted any reaction from you.

Now that I have successfully attracted the attention of a committed Pilates
fan, please fill in any research and clinical gaps that we may have missed
regarding the special efficacy of Pilates, especially with regard to its
frequent and vociferous claims that it produces a superior form of general
conditioning, physiological balance, spinal care and motor competence to
other methods of more strenuous strength and conditioning. Over to you!

Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/