The perfect place for Pilates

There isn't a Bowflex machine. There isn't a treadmill. There isn't even a set of barbells. However, there is plenty inside The Pilates Place to strengthen your entire body.

Lori Korock, who has been helping Lodians strengthen their backs for seven years, recently converted her space at 402 W. Pine Street into a Pilates Studio to focus on strengthening clients' entire bodies.

Whereas the back rehabilitation Korock taught dealt with strengthening a person's back posture, Pilates helps a person to find an overall postural strength. The method of exercise, which was developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 1900s, emphasizes the balanced development of a person's body through core strength, flexibility and self-awareness.

For over 20 years, Korock has been involved in personal training and has always had a profound love of finding out how to strengthen people.

"I have a passion for working with regular people to learn a graceful form of strength training," Korock said. She said one of the common misconceptions about Pilates is that people associate it with a form of dance, however, that's only one avenue of the exercise. Pilates focuses on building a body's core muscles — the deep internal muscles of the abdomen and back.

Pilates, the form that Korock teaches, involves isotonic training, which uses the body's own internal resistance in order to tone and build muscle. Isotonic training strengthens the body as much as possible without hurting it, according to Korock.

"You can kick your butt without picking up iron," Korock said. Jeremy Kulp, her trainer who oversees some of the Pilates classes, has reportedly become more chiseled doing Pilates than by his regular regimen of weight training.

Korock offers both group workshops and private sessions. The group workshops focus on proper form, allow clients to learn how to best use the various positions of Pilates to benefit their bodies. Private workshops offer Korock a chance to help clients in a one-on-one environment, honing their Pilates workouts.

Several levels of training are available through The Pilates Place, ranging from beginning and mixed level classes to a back class, personal training and nutrition counseling.

You need to upgrade your Flash Player This movie requires Flash Player 8 or greater.

Korock considers her training a last resort in some cases before people resort to surgery for things like weight loss and chronic back pain.

"I teach what it takes to attain goals, and usually clients say, 'I can do that,'" Korock said. She believe exercise, like hygiene, should be a part of a person's daily routine. "A person shouldn't go through the day without exercise."

Many times, when people are beginning a diet or exercise routine, they will do one without the other, making failure inevitable, Korock points out. That's why she offers nutrition classes for those who need a change for the better in their eating habits.

"When people do nutrition with me, they're very successful," Korock said. And, like Pilates, proper nutrition requires balance. "If you have all the components, you can enjoy food."

Though Korock has taken on 35 new clients since starting Pilates classes, there are always new classes starting up. Beginning workshops last five weeks and cost $75, with a Pilates mat included in the price. More information on classes can be obtained by calling Korock at 663-7161.

"With Pilates, we turn all the muscles on," Korock said.

Joseph Pilates at a glance

Joseph Hubertus Pilates (1880-1967), traveled to England from his homeland of Germany in 1912. He took a job as a self-defense instructor for detectives at Scotland Yard. In 1914, World War I broke out, and Pilates was interned as an enemy of England.

While interned, Pilates refined methods of exercise he had been developing throughout his life, and he began teaching other internees how to use the system. He also helped bed-ridden POWs to strengthen themselves by attaching springs to their hospital beds; it was a form of resistance training not used before.

A flu epidemic swept the country in 1918, killing thousands. None of the internees that had been using Pilates system died from the potentially deadly virus.

After the war had ended and Pilates was released, he returned to Germany. A popular dance instructor named Hanya Holm integrated many of Pilates' methods into her teachings, and the "Holm Technique" is still used in many modern dance classes.

Pilates was approached by German officials and asked to teach his method to soldiers in the German army. He refused. In 1926, Pilates left Germany and settled in the United States.

On his trip to the U.S., Pilates met his future wife, Clara. The two eventually opened a fitness center in New York, sharing space with a ballet company. Many of the dancers became clients of the system Pilates called "Contrology."

The exercise continued to grow in popularity. Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 87. Today, many styles of Pilates exist, such as a combination of yoga and Pilates called Yogalates, Nude Pilates and even Pilates for Pooches.

— News-Sentinel staff

Contact Business Editor Marc Lutz at marcl@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Comments on this story are now closed.

Archives

Story Tools

Indexes