Episode 125. The Art of Pilates with Samantha Wood

Pilates is a form of low-impact exercise that aims to strengthen muscles while improving postural alignment and flexibility. It can be practised with or without equipment and the movements reinforce slow precise actions and breath control. The exercises strengthen and stabilise the core which is the body's foundation allowing one to move efficiently while improving posture flexibility and mobility.

This method of exercise is based on the rehabilitation work of Joseph Pilates, born in Dusseldorf in 1883. Joseph Pilates believed that injuries were caused by imbalances in the body and by habitual patterns of imperfect movement and hypothesised that an overcompensation or overdevelopment of another area occurred when a person had a weakness or misaligned area in order to achieve the functional movements desired.

He felt it was critical to correct the misalignment and to re-educate the body to prevent recurrence. His studio in New York allowed him to develop over 600 exercises over his career and he invented various pieces of apparatus to assist with the execution of these in particular his so-called reformer and cadillac with pulleys and springs allowing his method initially called Contrology to be practised with precision and exact repetition.

Joseph Pilates died in 1967 before his method now called Pilates became well known and widely accepted. Today, decades later his approach has gained significant popularity with over 3000 studios in Australia and some 380,000 Australians practising Pilates either regularly or occasionally. His method has been widely adopted by physiotherapists in Australia, North America and Europe with increasing popularity is a testament to its amazing benefits.

Recently I had the pleasure of being introduced to Samantha Wood whilst she was blitzing it at a surfing location in Fiji with her tall athletic partner Jeff. They were both limber, flexible and in the moment and she was immediately recognised as the author of Pilates for Rehabilitation which has become a bible of Pilates based exercises and a comprehensive guide for therapists offering rehabilitation from orthopaedic injuries.

Samantha began her career as a physiotherapist and after a serendipitous meeting with Pilates guru Rael Isacowitz she developed a passion for Pilates and is now world renown in her field lecturing internationally, conducting workshops and convening body and mind retreats as well as running a busy Pilates and PT clinic at The Cypress Center in Pacific Palisades Los Angeles California.

I was very grateful that she was available for this interview to discuss Pilates further, as I believe we should all be familiar with the method and recognise the outstanding benefits it offers our patients.

Please welcome Samantha to the podcast.

References:

Samantha Wood-Cypress Center-Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. www.samanthawoodphysio.com

Pilates for Rehabilitation -Samantha Wood. Human Kinetics

www.HumanKinetics.com

To be a guest on the show or provide some feedback, I’d love to hear from you: manager@gihealth.com.au. Dr Luke Crantock MBBS, FRACP, is a gastroenterologist in practice for over 25 years. He is the founder of The Centre for GI Health, based in Melbourne, Australia, and is passionate about educating General Practitioners and patients on disease prevention and how to manage and improve their digestive health.