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The kinder, gentler exercise

For people weary of aerobics, Pilates classes offer a new style of muscle conditioning.

It has been trendy for the past couple of years, but now the exercise method known as Pilates seems to be spreading even more widely. In part, it's due to a court decision last fall making it easier to advertise the total-body workout method of the late Joseph Pilates without infringing on a trademark.

"I have noticed a lot of [Pilates] studios popping up lately," says Kim Clements, director of group exercise at the Mt. Auburn Athletic Club in Watertown. The club has been offering Pilates (pronounced puh-LAH-teez) mat exercises for a couple of years, and interest remains high. Clements says the classes are attracting people who have burned out on the standard muscle building and toning regimens that isolate body parts and feel ready for a new way to approach overall fitness. Others, especially baby boomers, are looking for a more integrated, gentler way to maintain conditioning as they grow older but also one that challenges them mentally.

"We've all thrown our bodies around in gyms for the last 20 years," says Clements, "and are now reassessing how we're using them."

Joseph Pilates was a German fitness fanatic who conceived and developed his individualistic form of exercise in the early 1900s. Originally designed as part physical therapy, part exercise program for bedridden soldiers, the Pilates method has had a largely cultish following among dancers and athletes for most of its existence.

In the past few years, though, the system's philosophy has attracted a larger audience, including celebrities such as Madonna, Sharon Stone, Jodie Foster, and a number of pro football players.

Many people are aware of Pilates chiefly through its chichi reputation and the peculiarly named pieces of equipment that Pilates used and that are still integral to the system - the Reformer, the Cadillac, the Ped-i-Pull, and the Barrel, for example.

Pilates is designed to build strength and flexibility but not bulk, to align the body, correct posture, and improve balance, breathing control, and coordination through exercises carried out precisely and slowly, says Kathy Van Patten, an experienced and certified Pilates instructor who teaches it at her Boston BodyWorks Studio on Beacon Hill.

Even more than most exercises, Pilates movements are meant to be done as perfectly as possible, says Van Patten. "It's not about doing 200 repetitions but doing a few repetitions [with excellent form] that flow" from one to the next, she says.

"It's a method of body conditioning that uses springs for resistance to lengthen and strengthen muscles," especially the deeper muscles in the lower and middle back, abdomen, inner thighs, and gluteals, says Van Patten.

The focus of the movements is the middle of the body's trunk, which Pilates calls "the Powerhouse": The movements are generated from those muscles but spread to involve all parts of the body.

There are some 500 different movements designed to be performed on a floor mat or with the five pieces of apparatus that provide resistance. While the exercises demand concentration and work the muscles, they are said to leave the individual refreshed and with a feeling of well-being. "I don't have any trouble going to sleep" after Pilates sessions, says a client working out at Boston BodyWorks.

A skillful instructor is able to adapt the movements for people with injuries or disabilities or who lack flexibility.

Because the movements are so complex and must be done just so, most Pilates students get one-on-one instruction once a week or more often, although Van Patten's studio and many others also offer classes for two or three people. With individual classes priced at $60, this is a costly regimen over a long period of time. Students can also practice at home two or three times a week following a Pilates videotape, but Van Patten says it's no substitute for instructor-led sessions.

One thing Pilates is not is aerobic, so you need to fill that need in another way.

The New York-based Pilates Studio claims to teach the Pilates Method as the inventor himself practiced it and says that only the instructors it certifies - after many hundreds of hours of training - can deliver the real thing.

But other disciples of the method teach their own version of Pilates, often adding movements from other disciplines such as yoga. Some of these instructors also certify new teachers. Last fall, a judge ruled in a lawsuit that the Pilates Studio in New York could not prevent others from using the name Pilates in advertisements, saying that it was not a trademark but a descriptive term, like yoga or karate.

At the Mt. Auburn Athletic Club, Clements says, the teachers are certified for teaching exercises on the mat but haven't had the training required for certification on the Pilates apparatus. Van Patten says that's fine as long as people with only mat-exercise qualification don't try to work with clients on the machines.

What's beyond Pilates, if anything?

According to Van Patten, the new new thing is Gyrotonics, which uses even stranger apparatus than Pilates and demands a high level of coordination and skill. It's based on circular movements that increase range of motion and flexibility. "I think Boston is ready to hear about Gyrotonics," she says.

Meanwhile, it appears that Pilates has staying power. Not everyone continues the demanding regimen in the long term, but at least one of Van Patten's clients says, "I'm going to do it until I drop dead."