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SIX decades of Pilates have helped keep women young into their 80s. And it has many other benefits.
The fitness method helped Joan Breibart recover better after giving birth. Even the doctors in the maternity ward were shocked by her recovery.
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Breibart, 83, considers herself the woman who popularized Pilates in the 1990s.
In 1991, she opened the Institute for the Pilates Method, the world’s first Pilates certification organization.
Within ten years, thousands of Pilates teachers trained at the institution, learning methods developed by Joseph Pilates himself.
Today she still owns and operates the same Pilates Institute, which now goes by the name PhysicalMind.
She also educates people about health and well-being after age 50 in her Body Conversations Podcast.
“Pilates is not difficult. I say this as a client for the past 60 years,” she told The US Sun.
Breibart always considered himself a ‘genetically strong’ person and soon turned to Pilates in the 1960s.
She weighs 57 kilos and is 1.78 meters tall.
Before reformers and machines, there were basic movements and exercises that targeted the muscles.
The same exercises helped her get through the period after the birth of her first son, Peter, in 1977 and recover quickly.
Because she was 36 at the time, medical staff wrote in her file that she had a geriatric pregnancy, a term used for women over 35.
HER SNAP-BACK UTERUS SECRET
They wanted Breibart to perform a caesarean section, but she told them to go away and opted for a natural birth.
He says, ‘Everybody look at this thing. Her uterus has completely regressed.’
Joan Breibart
When an intern came to check on her, she said he had a strange look on his face when he looked at her uterus.
“He comes back with an assistant, and the assistant watches. Pretty soon there’s a crowd. Then they bring in my doctor, Dr. Silverman, who was kind of a big shot on Park Avenue,” she explained.
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“He says, ‘Everybody look at this thing. Her uterus has completely regressed.'”
NoralBreibart said, the uterus is pushed up to your belly button and it takes at least seven to 10 days to descend — but the next day her uterus was back to normal.
They were all curious as to why it happened.
“I said, ‘Oh, that’s just Pilates.’ And in 1997, nobody knew what I was talking about,” she added.
BE YOUR OWN BOSS
After founding her institute in 1991, Breibart created the first group reform class, which she described as “a complete failure.”
“But now of course it’s a great success,” she added.
The key to getting the most out of it, she said, is to know that you—the one doing Pilates—are in charge.
“They need to understand that they are the boss, not the teacher, not the influencer,” she said.
“They must be able to take control of their bodies.”
BUSY BACKGROUND
Breibart is 83 years old and says she is “always learning,” and that is exactly what has kept her mentally and physically young.
She is actively involved in Argentine tango dancing, tennis and golf and still regularly does pilates.
“The brain-body connection is really important,” she said.
“I have what tennis pros call good hands. So when I’m at the net, I can switch hands. How did that happen? Maybe it happened through Pilates.”
Your personal best performance is what you feel at that moment, what works for you at that moment.
Joan Breibart
Breibart said she tries to have a “serious” class every week where she “works on things” with an instructor.
There is no music playing and she concentrates on her breathing while the instructor works her ‘everywhere’ with his hands.
“Performing your personal best is what you feel at that moment, what works for you at that moment,” she said.
One of the top Pilates teachers she has worked with for over 30 years does not have the typical Pilates body.
“She’s small. She’s big. She doesn’t look like she does Pilates or has a Pilates body. But remember, she’s got a lot more things,” she added.
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FIGHTING BODY STANDARDS
“Your body is different every day,” says the founder.
“In 1968 I had my moment of truth. I was in the Pilates studio at the Bengals.
“There were all these mirrors, and there were two reformers. I was standing right next to a woman I had met,” she explained.
I think people need to understand that you do a lot of things with your body and your face. You need to think about why you’re doing it.”
Joan Breibart
“She and I were exactly the same height, the same waist, the same size, and everything was very similar. You’d think we’d be two peas in a pod, right?”
“I looked at her hips and I looked at mine and thought, ‘I’ll never have that line.’
“I will never, ever have what she has and I wanted it. I still want it, but I won’t have it. And I knew it.”
Joan had an important message about positive body image. She told you to focus on the reason why you want to live a fit lifestyle.
“I think people need to understand that a lot of the things you do with your body and your face, you have to think about why you’re doing it,” she said.
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