Joseph Pilates - Return to life through contrology (1945)

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If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old. IF it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.

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

Joseph Pilates
By all means never fail to get all the sunshine and fresh air you can.

Joseph Pilates
As a heavy rainstorm freshens the water of a sluggish or stagnant stream and whips it into immediate action, so does the Pilates Methods purify the bloodstream.

Joseph Pilates
Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.

Joseph Pilates
Ideally, our muscles should obey our will. Reasonably, our will should not be dominated by the reflex actions of our muscles.

Joseph Pilates
Never slouch as doing so compresses the lungs, overcrowds other vital organs, rounds the back, and throws you off balance.

Joseph Pilates
Breathing is the first act of life and the last. Our very life depends on it. Since we cannot live without breathing it is tragically deplorable to contemplate the millions and millions who have never mastered the art of correct breathing.

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

Joseph Pilates
When all your muscles are properly developed, you will, as a matter of course, perform your work with minimum effort and maximum pleasure.

Joseph Pilates
Contrology is designed to give you suppleness, natural grace, and skill that will be unmistakably reflected in the way you walk, in the way you play, and in the way you work.

Joseph Pilates
Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.

Joseph Pilates
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.

Joseph Pilates
The man who uses intelligence with respect to his diet, his sleeping habits and who exercises properly, is beyond any question of doubt taking the very best preventive medicines provided so freely and abundantly by nature

Joseph Pilates
To achieve the highest accomplishments within the scope of our capabilities in all walks of life we must constantly strive to acquire strong, healthy bodies and develop our minds to the limits of our ability.

Joseph Pilates
Moreover, such a body freed from nervous tension and over-fatigue is the ideal shelter provided by nature for housing a well-balanced mind that is always fully capable of successfully meeting all of the complex problems of modern living.

Joseph Pilates
With body, mind, and spirit functioning perfectly as a coordinated whole, what else could reasonably be expected other than an active, alert, disciplined person?

Joseph Pilates
Concentrate on the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value.

Joseph Pilates
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.

Joseph Pilates
Contrology develops the body uniformly, corrects wrong postures, restores physical vitality, invigorates the mind, and elevates the spirit.

Joseph Pilates
Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.

Joseph Pilates
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.

Joseph Pilates