LUNGE: Lincoln instructor Monica Dawson stretches as sister Chi Penner, an Omaha instructor, serves as spotter. Dawson's shoulders are relaxed, her back straight. (Photo: Rich Janda/The World-Herald)

The Power of Pilates
by Doug Thomas
World-Herald Staff Writer

The growing interest in pilates proves that people don't have to know how to describe or pronounce a workout to try it.

"I have people call up and say, 'What's pilots? I want to try it,'" said Dian Nissen-Ramirez, a San Diego fitness instructor and pilates video star.

It's pronounced puh-LAH-tees, and it's a stretching, strengthening and balancing regimen that was developed nearly a century ago by German-born Joseph H. Pilates and used by dancers for decades.

Nissen-Ramirez said she has yet to come up with a good one-sentence description for pilates. It's somewhat like yoga, only with m ore movement and without the meditation. The focus is on training the body's core muscles: the abdomen, lower back and hips.

IDEA, a national health and fitness association, named pilates the nation's third most popular fitness trend behind yoga and group strength training.

It's most popular on the coasts, with celebrity adherents such as Madonna, Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone. But it's catching on in the Midlands, too.

Lincoln pilates instructor Monica Dawson, who opened a studio last fall called Pilates Method, said she sees 40 to 45 clients a week. Her sister, Omaha fitness instructor Chi Penner, is opening Pilates Fitness today in Rockbrook Village near 108th Street and West Center Road.

Dawson and Penner teach pilates on a machine invented by Joseph Pilates called the Reformer. It has a low-slung 9-foot frame with pulleys, tension springs and a platform that slides forward and back. Exercisers can lie down, sit, stand or bridge up on their feet and hands or shoulder blades.

Some instructors teach pilates on a mat instead of a machine. Omaha clubs offering mat pilates include Prairie Life, the Westroads Club and the Healthy Living Institute, a new studio at 108th Street and West Maple Road.

Pilates class offerings have mushroomed since a U.S. District Court ruling last fall that pilates is a generic term and not a trademark. That allows clubs to use the name without investing several thousand dollars in instructor certification.

Before the court ruling, the Prairie Life Center a 132nd Street and West Center Road offered a pilates-based class under a different name, Program Coordinator Kathleen Solem said. When the name changed to pilates, she said, enrollment quadrupled.

Pilates began as a rehabilitation tool. Joseph Pilates, a sickly child who became a boxer and gymnast, created the regiment in a British prisoner of war camp in World War I. He rigged springs on hospital beds so patients could begin recovery before walking.

It's still good for physical therapy, said Ron Hruska, director of Lincoln's Hruska Clinic. He has a machine like a Reformer and has prescribed pilates for back and hip patients. Midwest Physical Therapy will incorporate pilates at a clinic opening this fall in south Lincoln, therapist Karen Stille said. Stille, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, said pilates is useful not only for rehabilitating injuries but for preventing them. Many athletes, especially teen-agers, have weak core muscles, she said, and that sets them up for injuries in the groin and lower back.

CEILING WALK: This maneuver tests for trunk stability. Dawson pulls her right leg straight down without arching her back or tilting her hips. (Photo: Rich Janda/The World-Herald)

It's still good for physical therapy, said Ron Hruska, director of Lincoln's Hruska Clinic. He has a machine like a Reformer and has prescribed pilates for back and hip patients.

Midwest Physical Therapy will incorporate pilates at a clinic opening this fall in south Lincoln, therapist Karen Stille said.

Stille, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, said pilates is useful not only for rehabilitating injuries but for preventing them. Many athletes, especially teen-agers, have weak core muscles, she said, and that sets them up for injuries in the groin and lower back.

"A lot of athletes are pumping iron, working their arms and legs, but really neglecting core strength," Stille said. "You've got to have good control of the spine and pelvis. If you don't, you're going to put abnormal stresses on other parts of the body."

Many of us put abnormal stresses on the body - hunching in front of a computer all day, for instance, or walking with a heavy bag slung over one shoulder.

Nissen-Ramirez, the San Diego instructor, said pilates can help correct alignment by strengthening muscles and improving balance.

Rich Chapin can attest to that. The 46-year-old head brewer at Lazlo's in Lincoln said he had chronic hamstring pain from poor posture until he started pilates late last year. It's gone now.

"I once thought pilates was dancer-specific. It isn't," he said. "It's rehabilitative. It's strengthening.

"I guarantee you: Just like Spinning, pilates will definitely become a thing in every health club."

People can do some 500 exercises on a Reformer, Dawson said, and that allows trainers to tailor workouts to fit clients needs.

Susan Minier, a 59-year-old co-owner of two Lincoln bowling alleys, has had osteoporosis since her 40s. She also has osteoarthritis and other problems caused by a difference in leg lengths.

Like Chapin, Minier has done pilates twice a week with Dawson since last year. She has lost 32 pounds and gained flexibility. "It has made me a totally different person."

While some pilates converts do shed pounds, it's not a true weight-loss regimen, Nissen-Ramirez said. It's unlikely to build enough muscle mass to rev up metabolism.

But most women don't want a lot more muscle mass, which is why they find pilates especially appealing, said Penner, the Omaha pilates instructor.

Penner and Dawson are natives of Vietnam and longtime Midlands fitness instructors - Dawson at Prairie Life and Penner at Omaha's South/Southwest YMCA.

Dawson, 38, was inspired to learn pilates two years ago after seeing its effects on sister-in-law Roxann Dawson, who played Lt. B'Elanna Torres on the "Star Trek Voyager" television series.

Roxann Dawson took up pilates after giving birth by Cesarean section. "She knocked off the weight," Monica Dawson said. "Those Star Trek outfits are very clingy. When I saw her transformation, I though, 'Oh, my goodness!'"

Nissen-Ramirez, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was an internationally ranked trampolinist as a teen-ager. She, too, learned pilates after a C-section. She said she might be more flexible at 40 than as a teen-ager.

"I like to tell women they can still get their bodies into shape when they're getting into perimenopause or menopause," she said. "They think their body has to just glop out, turn into goo. It doesn't."

Although women outnumber men in pilates, the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals have their own pilates trainers.

Male and female exercisers approaching middle age find that pilates can help alleviate the stiffness and soreness caused by joint-jarring sports such as running.

It's not substitute for running, though. Nissen-Ramirez said pilates converts should still do some form of cardiovascular exercise.

But she said pilates can replace weightlifting for people who prefer toning down to bulking up.

"If you do pilates on a regular basis, you start to see your body change," she said. "And as you start to see your body change, there's a snowball effect."