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For years, dancers have benefited from the Pilates program, toning their muscles and building strength while at the same time increasing flexibility. After seven decades, it emerged from the ballet studio and has been hailed as the exercise of the light-and-lean '90s. Younger people kicked off the trend, but middle-aged and older men and women are discovering its distinct advantages. Connecting breathing to movement, stretching the spine and lengthening ligaments and muscles improve balance and correct posture, giving a better sense of well-being and reducing the risk of falls and future injury. "You feel more energized, but your body is more relaxed," says Mari Winsor, who has just opened her second Pilates studio in Los Angeles.
Glover is among Winsor's many celebrity clients, as is Arnold Rifkin, 50, president of the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills. The flare-up of an old back injury nearly incapacitated the Hollywood power broker two years ago, and he started doing Pilates. "I felt energy moving through my body in a way I'd never experienced before," he says. Now free of pain, he signs up for twice-weekly sessions and has Pilates equipment at home. Says Rifkin: "I'm probably in the best physical shape I've ever been. My stamina is so much greater because my body is rested and toned."
Since the Pilates program is low impact and does not put undue strain on weight-bearing joints, it is a boon for people over 50. As developed by Joseph Pilates, a German physical therapist and athlete who immigrated to the U.S., the exercises were done on a spring contraption he designed. Modern studios use machines with spring mechanisms adapted from his original apparatus. The classes can be expensive; one-on-one sessions are in the $50-to-$60-an-hour range. A less costly technique based on Pilates' methods can be done on the floor using a mat. The multitude of exercise variations focuses on controlling breathing, joining it to movement and developing the power center: the abdomen and lower torso.
Gentle exercises that reprogram muscles are essential as people grow older and lose elasticity. Brent Anderson, who teaches the technique in the Miami studio he co-owns, is working on his doctorate in physical therapy and plans to write his thesis on the effects of Pilates on the spine. His aging boomer clients who grunted their way through the no-pain-no-gain workouts of the '80s are turning to the regimen as welcome therapy. Anderson has observed, for example, that knee muscles out of whack because of a trauma experienced years earlier "can be retrained and the process of degeneration significantly decreased."
Most experts agree that it is never too late to start exercising. Advises Dr. Edward Schneider, dean of the University of Southern California's School of Gerontology: "Not only can exercise add at least two years to your life, it will enrich the quality of those later decades by lowering the risk of heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, hip fractures and arthritis." For older people who have done little exercise, Pilates is an excellent way to begin. More than 500 centers have opened around the country, and health clubs and gyms are adding classes in the technique for people who are eager to slow the clock--or even turn it back.
THE SPLASH OF LIFE