History of Pilates in the Illawarra - Part One
As a Pilates teacher in the Illawarra for nearly 30 years, I was intrigued when I overheard a conversation at the local supermarket recently. One person said, "Well, it looks like our town is getting yet another Pilates studio. Just what we all needed - another place to contort our bodies into impossible positions and overpay for the privilege." As a practitioner who has devoted most of my adult life to this modality, how could I reconcile this statement? There was so much to unpack.
When I opened the first dedicated Pilates studio in the Illawarra (the old Bulli Post Office) in 1995, Pilates was not well known. It was often mispronounced (think Pie-lates) and some even wondered if it was connected to a religious cult or the historical figure Pontius Pilates. Many people were unaware of the eccentric German American physical trainer, Joseph Pilates, who developed the Pilates system, or of his wife Clara, who played a key role in the growth and success of the first Pilates studio in New York City. The opportunities to explore his work were few and far between with the nearest studios in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs to the north and Nowra to the south.
Now, there are more Pilates studios in the Illawarra than McDonalds!
Why has Pilates become so popular, you ask? Well, back in the 80's and 90's, it was almost like a secret weapon used by dancers and athletes, who found the strengthening and stretching on the various medieval looking pieces of torture equipment beneficial in injury prevention, rehab, and performance enhancement. It wasn’t long before it started appearing in magazines and late-night infomercials. Insomniacs may remember the wonderful Mari Windsor Pilates broadcasts at 2am. But these same benefits were starting to get some well-deserved recognition among the general population. And lurking on the sidelines, other stakeholders were quietly watching the evolution of this somewhat mysterious exercise regime.
In the 1980's, opportunities to learn how to teach Pilates in Australia were limited, and most first-generation Australian teachers had to travel to the US or UK for a year or more to work under an apprenticeship system. It wasn't until the 1990's that comprehensive education programs that met the highest standards arrived in Australia. These programs required rigorous study in both practical and theoretical movement sciences, as well as hundreds of hours of teaching under the guidance of an experienced practitioner, before final examinations were taken and the teacher was deemed safe to work with clients.
The rigorous standards applied to all Pilates teachers in Australia helped the Pilates Method gain recognition with Private Health Funds (PHF), which acknowledged its usefulness within a medical model for treating musculoskeletal and other lifestyle conditions. Physiotherapists and exercise physiologists looking to add to their skill-set often found that adding selected Pilates-like exercises to traditional treatment techniques improved outcomes for their clients.
Most recently, the fitness industry looking for a slice of the action have started offering mat classes in gyms, but as the appeal of the Pilates Method has grown, they have begun offering Reformer classes using one of the unique pieces of Pilates equipment. The growth of group fitness Pilates classes in Australia has likely had both positive and negative effects on the quality of service in the industry. On the one hand, group fitness classes can be a convenient and cost-effective way for people to access Pilates instruction and may have helped increase its popularity even further.
However, there are also potential drawbacks to group fitness Pilates classes. With larger class sizes, instructors may have less time to give individual attention to each participant, which could negatively impact the quality of instruction. Additionally, group fitness classes may not be suitable for everyone, particularly those with injuries or specific physical needs that require more personalized attention.
The rapid growth in Pilates in all its forms has driven the need to engage, train and develop a large number of Pilates teachers quickly. This in turn has led to cutting of corners and the dilution of teacher training from years to weeks in some cases. Some gyms and studios are so desperate that they will employ those without any training by teaching them a few exercises and setting them on their way.
This has most recently drawn the attention of the Federal Government now struggling to differentiate between the styles and their relevance in the therapeutic field. In a bid to keep Private Health Funds affordable, Pilates has been declared ineligible for rebate as a Natural Therapy. Obviously, this has made the modality harder to access for those seeking the therapeutic value of comprehensively trained Pilates specialists.
The profession is fighting back. A Natural Therapies review board is currently working on having the modality reinstated by practitioners with qualifications required to administer the modality for therapeutic purposes.
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