Best 61 quotes of Joseph Pilates on MyQuotes

Above all, learn how to breathe correctly.

Above all, learn to breathe correctly.

A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.

A man is as old as his spine is flexible!

A man is as young as his spinal column.

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.

Because of poor posture, practically 95% of our population suffers from varying degrees of spinal curvature, not to mention more serious ailments. Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.

Before any real benefit can be derived from physical exercises, one must first learn how to breath properly. Our very life depends on it.

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.

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

By exercising your stomach muscles, you wring out the body, you don't catch colds, you don't get cancer, you don't get hernias. Do animals get hernias? Do animals go on diets?

Change happens through movement and movement heals.

Civilization impairs physical fitness.

Concentrate on the correct movement each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits. Correctly executed and mastered to the point of subconscious reaction, these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities.

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

Contrology is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit.

Contrology is not a fatiguing system of dull, boring, abhorred exercises repeated daily "ad-nauseam." Neither does it demand you joining a gymnasium nor the purchasing of expensive apparatus. You may derive all the benefits of Contrology in your own home.

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

Contrology is not a system of haphazard exercises designed to produce only bulging muscles. ... Nor does Contrology err either by over-developed a few muscles at the expense of all others with resulting loss of grace and suppleness, or a sacrifice of the heart or lungs. Rather, it was conceived to limber and stretch muscles and ligaments so that your body will be as supple as that of a cat and not muscular like that of the body of a brewery-truck horse, or the muscle-bound body of the professional weight lifter you so much admire at the circus.

Contrology (Pilates) is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. Through Contrology you first purposefully acquire complete control of your own body and then through proper repetition of its exercises you gradually and progressively acquire that natural rhythm and coordination associated with all your subconscious activities.

Daily, from sunrise to sunset, the radio, newspapers and magazines broadcast to the world how to maintain health, how to regain health... the conflicting information, expressive of the different opinions of these various health authorities, has proved to be nothing less than confusion.

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

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

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

I learned...every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young.

I must be right. Never an aspirin. Never injured a day in my life. The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises. They'd be happier.

In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 you'll see the difference, and in 30 you'll have a new body

It is better to be tired from physical exertion than to be fatigued by the 'poisons' generated by nervousness while lying awake.

It’s the mind itself which shapes the body.

Lazy breathing converts the lungs, literally and figuratively speaking, into a cemetery for the deposition of diseased, dying and dead germs as well as supplying an ideal haven for the multiplication of other harmful germs.

Man should bear in mind and ponder over the Greek admonition - Not Too Much, Not Too Little.

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.

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

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

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

Physical fitness can neither be acquired by wishful thinking nor by outright purchase.

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. In order to achieve happiness, it is imperative to gain mastery of your body. If at the age of 30 you are stiff and out of shape, you are old. If at 60 you are supple and strong then you are young.

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.

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.

Pilates is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control over your body.

Self-confidenc e, poise, consciousness of possessing the power to accomplish our desires, with renewed lively interest in life are the natural results of the practice of Contrology [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.

The acquirement and enjoyment of physical well-being, mental calm and spiritual peace are priceless to their possessors.

The lungs cannot be completely deflated at first without considerable effort. With perseverance, however, the desired results can be accomplished and with increasing power, gradually and progressively develop the lungs to their maximum capacity.

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

The mind, when housed within a healthful body, possesses a glorious sense of power.

The Pilates Method teaches you to be in control of your body and not at its mercy.

The Pilates Method of Body Conditioning is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body.

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.

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.