Return to Life Through Contrology

I am quite excited to be able to locate Joseph Pilates' book published in 1945, Return to Life Through Contrology, in the Orchard library.

When I read the book, I felt like as if I was talking to Joseph himself. Like what my mentor always jokes about, he did talk like an old school German.

There are lots of photos in the book that show Pilates demonstrating all the original exercises. Man, he was really super fit to be able to do all those almost acrobatic exercises. I am glad that I chose to be certified by Polestar Education, which advocates "evolved-Pilates" instead of the classical ones. There are many classical or original exercises which are contraindicated or unsafe to practice under modern understanding and knowledge of physical movements.

Though times have changed dramatically from the time he wrote this book , the fitness problem Pilates saw around him haven't changed much at all. People still suffer from too much stress from the fast living pace, tend to lead sedentary lives, and too often try to "buy" a fast fitness fix or cram their entire fitness program into a few muscle wrenching workouts a week.

Pilates realised, "I am fifty years ahead of my time." I think that was a very modest claim, as he was definitely more than fifty years ahead of his time to give such accurate prediction of modern lifestyle.