What is Pilates?（什么是普拉提？） - 康复治疗师网

Pilates is an exercises system developed by Joseph Pilates over 80 years ago. Exercises are performed on a mat or on specially designed Pilates equipment including the Reformer, the Trapeze Table or Cadillac, the Wunda chair, the Magic Circle and the Barrels. The Pilates system includes exercises for every part of the body and applications for every kind of activity. When Pilates was first created, it was so far ahead of its time that it did not begin to achieve popular recognition until the first few years of the 21st century. Over 10 million people are now practicing Pilates in the United States and the numbers are growing every year.

（普拉提这项运动体系是由Joseph Pilates先生在80多年前创立的。这项运动在垫子上完成，同时也借助一些特殊的普拉提器械，包括Reformer, Trapeze Table/Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Magic Circle和Barrel。普拉提运动体系包括了针对身体各个部分的练习，同时也包括了针对人体所有的运动表现能力的练习。普拉提运动项目的创立，是划时代的，但是直到21世纪初期，才普遍被人们所认知。目前在美国有超过千万的人在练习普拉提，这个数量还是不断的增加。）

A Brief History of Joseph H. Pilates and the Development of Contrology（Joseph H. Pilates先生的简介和控制学的发展）Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in Germany around 1880. He had rheumatic fever, asthma and rickets as a child and was plagued by a weak respiratory system. In order to improve his own health he began exploring ways to strengthen his body and his mind. Early on, Joe became intrigued by the classical notion of the ideal man who combined a well trained body with an equally well trained intellect. In pursuit of this goal he participated in boxing, fencing, wrestling and gymnastics, as well as exploring yoga and zen meditation. Germany was a fertile ground breaking leaders in movement science, dance and psychology working there.

（Joseph Hubertus Pilates生于1880年的德国。他幼年时患有风湿热，哮喘和佝偻病，被虚弱的呼吸系统所困扰。为了改善他的健康状况，他开始寻求增强其身心的方式。在早期，Joe被经典的理想观点——好的身体训练同样是好的智力训练，所着迷。在追求这一目标时，他参与拳击，击剑，摔跤和体操的项目，同时探究了瑜伽和禅宗冥想。德国在运动科学，舞蹈和心理学上有很多具有开创性的领军人。）

Joe was in England touring with a boxer when World War 1 broke out. He was held as a resident alien in an internment camp near Lancaster for the duration of the war. While in the camp he took it upon himself to lead his fellow detainees in a daily exercise program. According to Joe, when the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 broke out, none of the inmates who followed his regimen got sick.（第一次世界大战时，Joe与一位拳击运动员去英国游玩。在战争期间，他作为外来人被拘留在Lancaster附近的收容所里。在营中，他自己组织带领一同关押的人们进行日常训练。根据Joe所说，在1918-1919期间，爆发了一次流行性感冒，那些跟从Joe训练的人都没有生病。）

Joe’s success with his group of inmates brought him to the attention of the camp leaders and he was given the job of an orderly at a hospital on the Isle of Man. He was put in charge of 30 patients and worked with them every day to exercise whatever they could move. This was in the days when western medicine was in its infancy and there were few treatments to offer patients other than surgery and morphine. Nursing during this time usually meant extended bed rest which lead to muscular atrophy, loss of aerobic capacity and a weakened immune system. Joe’s exercises helped his patients to get better faster and helped them to fend off the secondary infections that killed so many people in similar circumstances.

（Joe的这次成功的事例让收容所的负责人注意到了，并给了他一份在马恩岛医院做护理员的工作。在医院，他被任命负责30个病人，每天的工作就是带他们做任何他们能做的练习。在那个阶段，西方的医学水平还很初级，除了手术和吗啡外，几乎没有其他医疗手段提供给病人。休养护理通就是卧床休息，这会导致肌肉萎缩，有氧能力丧失和免疫功能下降。Joe的训练方法让他的病人恢复的更快，并且帮助他们避免后续感染——很多人死于手术后的后续感染。）

Working as an orderly also led to the development of Joe’s first piece of exercise equipment. Manually working out 30 patients every day was exhausting so Joe came up with the idea of attaching springs to the patient’s bed frames and thus the first Cadillac was born! Now the patients could exercise themselves after Joe was released from the camps and returned to Germany, he was approached by the “brown shirts” (who were to become the Nazi party) to train their police force. Joe didn’t want to have anything to do with them, so he left Germany on a boat for America and met his soon-to-be-wife Clara on the passage over. Clara was a nurse who became a true partner for Joe, working beside him in the studio everyday and taking care of any clients Joe didn’t want to work with.

（做护理员的工作同样使Joe创造了他的第一个训练器材。每天手把手的训练30个病人是很疲惫的，所以Joe想出在病床架上附加弹簧的点子，这样第一个Cadillac诞生了。病人可以用这个器材自我练习。在Joe回德国后，“brown shirts”（日后的纳粹党）接触他，为他们的警察部队训练。Joe不想跟他们有任何瓜葛，所以离开了德国，在去美国的船上的，遇见了他未来的妻子Clara.做护士的Clara同时成为Joe名至实归的伙伴，每天都跟他一起再工作室工作，并照顾那些Joe不愿意为其工作的那些客人们。）

When Joe and Clare arrived in New York in 1926, they rented a small studio in the same building as the New York City Ballet on 8th Ave. and started teaching what Joe named “Contrology.” Joe worked with clients from all walks of life but he made an especially strong impression on the dance community working with Ted Shawn, Ruth St. Denis, George Balanchine and many others who sent their injured dancers to Joe’s for rehabilitation following injuries.

（1926年，Joe和Clara来到纽约，在第8大道，纽约市芭蕾舞团所在的大楼里租了一间小工作室，并开始教授Joe命名的“控制学”。他的客人来自各行各业，但他为Ted Shawn, Ruth St. Denis, George Balanchine和许多其他受伤的舞者做康复训练，使他在舞蹈界有了非常大的影响。）

Joe was an inventor who was always working on developing new exercise equipment. He designed the Universal Reformer, the Wunda Chair, the Cadillac, the Ladder Barrel, the Spine Corrector and many other wonderful inventions during his lifetime. He made many of the machines himself and often designed them to fit a particular client. Many of Joe’s original machines are still working today.

（Joe总是致力于开发新的训练器材。在他有生之年，设计了Universal Reformer, Wunda Chair, Cadillac, Ladder Barrel, Spine Corrector和其他非常棒的发明。他自己做了许多器械，而且经常对特定的客户设计。直到今天仍然有很多Joe当年设计的器材。）

Joe had a dream of introducing his vision of mind-body fitness into every aspect of life, from elementary schools to military training, and , had he not been so far ahead of his time, it might have happened. Instead, he taught a small group of devoted teachers and students, a few of whom went on to continue the work his revolutionary thinking. Joe spent many years talking to anyone who would listen about his work, but did not receive much recognition during his lifetime.

（Joe有一个梦想，就是将他身心健身的观念融入生活的各个方面，从小学到军队训练，如果他没有超越他的时代那么多，这个也许会实现。作为替代，他教了一小群忠实的老师和学生，他们中的一些为了他革命性的观点继续努力着。Joe在花了很多时间给愿意了解他工作的人谈论他的工作，但是在他有生之年没有得到太多的承认。）

Joe’s studio was destroyed by fire in 1967 and he died soon after that from complications of smoke inhalation. His wife Clare carried on the work until her death in 1977.

（1967年，Joe的工作室因遭遇火灾而毁，同时因吸入烟雾导致并发症，不久死去。他的妻子Clara继续他的工作直到1977年。）

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