Just came across this article and am curious to know what you guys think of this new "Pilates fusion" workout!

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/a-load-of-pilox-introducing-a-new-fitness-fad-1769699.html

I guess that would depend on your defintion of Pilates. Pilates means diferent things to different people. Most people base it on the exercises(which were around long before Joe Pilates was born).Really,the only difference between Joe's work and the rest of the fitness world was the invention of the Reformer.If you look at that way, Pilates can be defined by the equipment you are using.

Piloxing, along with the rest of the fusions, is just fancy packaging for something known simply as exercising.

Stacey with all due respect your making claims without any evidence. Until you officially publish your findings I would ask that you please refrain from posting that which discredits Joe. Many of us have found what you posted on Pilates Connections to be patchy at best.

As to your statement that these exercises were around before Joe was born is very hard to believe without evidence. According to Lynda Lyppin, Eve Gentry said Joe created the star on a day that a journalist wanted a good photo. Again unless you present evidence to the contrary please do not post such claims.

I do not need to remind you of the principle of posting things without evidence. Imagine if we all did that what a mess things would be.

Hang in there Howard, it's coming!!!!

Can you give us a idea? I.E next month or Jan 2010 etc?

I think for many of us who have been teaching awhile, we have to come to grips with all the various fusions involving some form of Pilates as they are here to stay.

The way I see it: There is a place for 'pure Pilates' and there is also a place for the fusion type exercises like Piloxing, Yogalates, Swim-alates, Cardio-a-lates etc etc.

At first, I admit, I was really upset with all the new forms of Pilates. After all, Pilates was just fine the way it was and it didn't a lot of jazzing up. However, very few things in our life stay status quo and since marketing is key and making money is crucial, once something becomes boring or old hat the powers to be feel the need to change it.

When I teach I tend to stick with what I call Pure Pilates. I love it just the way it is. People who take my classes and see me as an instructor like Pilates this way or else they wouldn't keep coming. If everyone stopped coming to me, I might feel the need to change. Hopefully that won't happen anytime soon.

Well since Stacey refuses to let everyone know when she will present her evidence against Joseph Pilates I shall return to the original topic.

I say if the fusion is safe and not hurting anyone then I do not see a reason why not. My issue is when people call anything 'Pilates' when in actual fact they resemble nothing of what was practiced in Joe's studio.

However Piloxing is definetly preferible to calling it Pilates. However Piloxing or Boxelates I mean where does it end?

Also had to chuckle at the quote from the Body Control instructor when she called herself 'a purist'. Anybody who has seen Body Controls beggining and Intermediate mat classes know they resemble almost nothing of what Joe taught.

Hi Howard, I think that there are many exercises that are taught in the classical repatoir that Joe Pilates did not teach. They have come into being from the 1st generation instructors who studied with Joe and then they added their own twist to the originals or added their own exercises when teaching their apprentices and so they have been handed down as original to the work but are not.. I recently took a workshop with Jay Grimes and he mentioned several exercises on the mat and reformer that Joe did not teach and yet are now considered an intergral part of the repetoir that is taught in most of the larger training programs. Also the fundamentals htat we all know, were actually made up by Eisen and Friedman when they wrote their book. Joe never taught them...at all.
So the Body Control purists are no less pure than any other instructor who is teaching what we undestand to be Joe's work as we learned it.

Hello LA, yes I'm certainly aware of the changes Romana has brought into the system. Series of 5 being the most obvious. The changing of the order of the reformer and other such exercises brought in. This is why I did not say that Classical people teach pure 100% original pilates.

However what Romana classical people teach is close to the original teachings of Joseph Pilates. I'm unsure if you know too much about Body Control but they deviate VERY far what was taught in Joes day. The majority of what they teach in matwork is easy Pilates based exercises whilst listening to silly distracting music. They also keep perfectly healthy people doing ridiculously simple movements for years.

I must therefore disagree with your statement that what Body Control teach is less pure then what other schools teach. However as Jay Grimes once said any Pilates is better then none at all.

sorry I meant to say that I disagree with your statement that what Body Control teach is No less pure then what other schools teach.

Hi Howard, what I was actually trying to say is that the Body Control instructor considers herself to be a purist because she is teaching what she learned and is using that as a yardstick to measure "her" idea of pure Pilates.
There are many schools out there that are teaching what they term pure Pilates and the students of those "schools" are just the victims of that hype.

BTW, Howard there is a discussion taking place on Pilates Connestions Discussion Forum you might find interesting about flat back or neutral spine, and you will see there's lots to talk about amoung trained instructors, purist of classical and contempory alike

When I say 'Pure' I mean nothing but the body, the mat and the exercises I learned in the mat repetoire (The Hundred, Roll-up, Roll over...etc). No Steps, no boxing gloves, no swimming pool, no chanting and no jump ropes.

I read the link and I noticed how all of a sudden these classes have become so popular From a small studio we progress to a bigger one, to an international program to a teacher training program. Trendiness is something I am always a tad leary of because trends come and go pretty quickly. Usually if there isn't a lot of substance, it doesnt stick around.

Pilates was 'trendy' for awhile, but some people really stuck with it. There was a time in 1999 when I would have 30 people in a class and now I might have 10, but that's okay because those 10 people are there because they love it.

I just think people get bored with stuff and they try something new, go crazy over it and then move on. I think this might be one of those trends.