Pilates Exercise Equipment - There's More Than Just The Reformer
There's been a lot of interest in the Pilates method of exercising and also in Pilates exercise equipment since the mid 1990's. Pilates is a form of exercise that has the reputation of bestowing its practitioners with long lean musculature. Being that there are many people who would like to have this type of appearance, Pilates has become extremely popular over the last fifteen years or so. As you may know, Pilates is an exercise modality originated by Joseph Pilates when he was imprisoned in a German internment camp during World War I.
Although originally a frail and sickly youth, young Pilates had studied exercise and done so well at the practice of physical disciplines like wrestling, bodybuilding and gymnastics that in his teen years he was being paid to model for anatomy charts.
When imprisioned by the Germans, Joe Pilates became very interested in helping his fellow prisoners who were in ill health build their frail bodies back to prime condition. Proving that the old saw about necessity being the mother of invention isn't just a worn out cliche, he created a piece of exercise equipment out of hospital beds and the bed springs. This was the genesis of what came to be known as the Pilates Reformer, which remains the main piece of Pilates fitness equipment to this day.
In addition to the Reformer, Joseph Pilates also created four other pieces of equipment to be used with his exercise method. They were known as the Pedipull, the Chair, the Barrel and the Cadillac. While home gym versions of the Reformer are now available through many fitness equipment stores both locally and online, using any of the other four pieces of equipment will probably require a visit to a professional Pilates studio and some time with a trained Pilates instructor to learn the proper methods of using them. For that matter, even if you purchase a Reformer for your personal use, it could only be beneficial to get a few lessons from a Pilates trainer to learn the proper implementation of the exercises, because the Pilates method depends very much upon all the exercises being done in a very controlled, precise, concentrated manner. While doing a bench press with poor form may still result in added muscle (albeit also with injuries), doing Pilates with poor form will probably get you nowhere. Many modern-day Pilates afficianados now use Pilates resistance bands in lieu of the Pedipull, so you may want to keep that in mind should you be doing any further research on the availability of Pilates exercise equipment in your area.
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