Joseph Pilates Quotes

The mind, when housed within a healthful body, possesses a glorious sense of power.

In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 you'll see the difference, and in 30 you'll have a new body

If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old. IF it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.

Change happens through movement and movement heals.

Every moment of our life can be the beginning of great things.

The Pilates Method teaches you to be in control of your body and not at its mercy.

Pilates is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control over your body.

You are only as young as your spine is flexible.

A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion.

Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.

Contrology is designed to give you suppleness, natural grace, and skill that will be unmistakably reflected in the way you walk, in the way you play, and in the way you work.

Everyone is the architect of their own happiness

It’s the mind itself which shapes the body.

You will feel better in ten sessions, look better in twenty sessions, and have a completely new body in thirty sessions.

Physical fitness can neither be acquired by wishful thinking nor by outright purchase.

Not only is health a normal condition, but it is our duty not only to attain it but to maintain it.

Contrology develops the body uniformly, corrects wrong postures, restores physical vitality, invigorates the mind, and elevates the spirit.

Never slouch as doing so compresses the lungs, overcrowds other vital organs, rounds the back, and throws you off balance.

Concentrate on the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value.

The acquirement and enjoyment of physical well-being, mental calm and spiritual peace are priceless to their possessors.

Above all, learn to breathe correctly.

By all means never fail to get all the sunshine and fresh air you can.

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.

I must be right. Never an aspirin. Never injured a day in my life. The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises. They'd be happier.

Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.

Through the Pilates Method of Body Conditioning this unique trinity of a balanced body, mind and spirit can ever be attained. Self-confidence follows.

When all your muscles are properly developed, you will, as a matter of course, perform your work with minimum effort and maximum pleasure.

True flexibility can be achieved only when all muscles are uniformly developed

Contrology is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit.

Before any real benefit can be derived from physical exercises, one must first learn how to breath properly. Our very life depends on it.

It is the mind that shapes the body

Self-confidenc e, poise, consciousness of possessing the power to accomplish our desires, with renewed lively interest in life are the natural results of the practice of Contrology [Pilates].

The Pilates Method of Body Conditioning is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body.

It is better to be tired from physical exertion than to be fatigued by the 'poisons' generated by nervousness while lying awake.

As a heavy rainstorm freshens the water of a sluggish or stagnant stream and whips it into immediate action, so does the Pilates Methods purify the bloodstream.

Man should develop his physical condition simultaneously with that of his mind.

By exercising your stomach muscles, you wring out the body, you don't catch colds, you don't get cancer, you don't get hernias. Do animals get hernias? Do animals go on diets?

We retire too early and we die too young, our prime of life should be in the 70's and old age should not come until we are almost 100.

You must squeeze every atom of impure air from lungs until they are almost as free of air as a vacuum.

It is the mind itself which builds the body.

A man is as young as his spinal column.

Time and progress are synonymous terms--nothing can stop either. Truth will prevail and that is why I know that my teachings will reach the masses and finally be adopted as universal.

You're only as old as your spine.

Ideally, our muscles should obey our will. Reasonably, our will should not be dominated by the reflex actions of our muscles.

Breathing is the first act of life, and the last.

With body, mind, and spirit functioning perfectly as a coordinated whole, what else could reasonably be expected other than an active, alert, disciplined person?

I learned...every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young.

Above all, learn how to breathe correctly.

Man should bear in mind and ponder over the Greek admonition - Not Too Much, Not Too Little.

Normal muscles should function naturally in much the same manner as do the muscles of animals.