WELCOME TO RENEE RICCA'S PILATES CENTER, THE CLASSICAL METHOD PURE AND SIMPLE.
Born in Germany in 1880, Joseph H. Pilates had a lifelong interest in body conditioning. As a frail child dedicated to becoming stronger, he later grew to become an accomplished skier, diver, gymnast, and boxer. While interned in England during World War I for his German citizenship, Joseph became a nurse. During this time, he designed exercise apparatus for immobilized patients by attaching springs to hospital beds. This system formed the foundation for his style of body conditioning and specialized exercise apparatus, which he brought to New York City when he opened the first New York Pilates Studio® in 1926.
When Joseph Pilates began to devise his method of conditioning, he was interested in movements that could be done unassisted, without apparatus. It was from this early work that he developed the exercises which were refined and amplified into the program. After Pilates was established in New York, he discovered that some of his students wanted (and could profit from ) exercises with a mechanical component. He turned his mind to springs and moving platforms to provide varying amounts of resistance and motion, inventing a variety of devices that could be used for exercises adapted from the mat work.
Currently, the Pilates Method is used internationally by individuals at all levels of fitness as well as by dance companies, Broadway shows, students at performing arts schools and universities, sports teams, spa clients, and fitness enthusiasts at private health clubs and gyms.
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