Q: Explain that: Movement heals. Pilates is known for developing core strength, so why that motto?

A: Pilates exercises build core strength, yes, but primarily Pilates improves the health of the spine. In those early years—even before I met Howard—I saw people’s health improve because of Pilates. When I was 23 I had a client with limited lung function who went to the doctor and, after Pilates, her lung function had increased 20 to 30 percent. Now I know why: The nerves that enervate the muscles and organ systems come out of your spine. Improve the health of the spine and every body system benefits. People breathe better and have improved digestion; their endocrine system and movement benefits. It’s just like Joseph Pilates said: We have the power to heal ourselves.

Q: Pilates is a trend that never goes away. Why is it so enduring?

A: People come in because Pilates will give them the flat abs, improved posture and increased flexibility that they want. But they keep coming because of the way Pilates makes them feel: I say 30 days of Pilates will change your life because it changes your spine and heals you from the inside out—from a cellular level. So people are happier because they feel better—they have more energy and are healthier. Feeling good will never go out of style!

Q: Pilates can be intimidating for some people. How can they get started?

A: Pilates is a new physical language that you have to learn. You’ll get results if you practice twice a week—just two hours a week. You can workout alone, but then there’s no one pushing you to the physical edge and that’s when change happens. To get started, just walk through the door! We greet everyone with a smile. In class, we create a collective rhythm and a sense of community. People sign up to change their body, but they make friends and receive energy from the community. Just two hours a week! It can change your life.

Q: How did you get started in Pilates?

A: I’d been dancing since I was nine or ten. When I was 18, I was dancing eight to ten hours a day at an arts conservatory at SUNY Purchase and noticed a studio with bizarre apparatus I went in and met instructor Romana Kryzanowska, who had trained with Joseph Pilates himself. I started taking Pilates classes from Romana—it was fun and challenging—I couldn’t do everything, but I felt really good. And my dancing got better; Pilates supported my dance.

Romana had a policy: If you passed a quiz about the parts of the apparatus and how to use it, you could get a key to the studio and use it anytime. So I began to use the apparatus on my own.

After leaving the conservatory, I danced professionally all over the world and also received my license as a massage therapist in 1990. After six months without Pilates I was feeling horrible so I picked up the phone, called information and asked for Pilates—and they gave me the number for Romana’s studio in the city! She needed teachers and she began to train me. For six months I followed Romana four hours a day and took notes; it was like a true apprenticeship. I was dancing, doing massage, taking and teaching Pilates. Pilates kept me healthy and happy: In my 10 years of dancing professionally I was never injured.

Q: How did Power Pilates start?

A: I had heard about Howard Sichel: a client told me that he was a chiropractor with Pilates apparatus in his office. Howard needed substitute teachers so I met him and started substitute teaching at his studio—I was like the wonder-sub, working whenever I wasn’t dancing.

I could see right away that Howard and I were like-minded: We both work from the heart, we care, and we have a direct way of relating to our students. His studio felt like home. Howard and I found that the more people did Pilates, the less they needed chiropractic services. Everyone had different pain, but our way of teaching was exactly the same for each: Pilates. That’s how we came up with the philosophy of Power Pilates: Movement heals. The demand grew—people would say, “This guy heals you and you’re going to get in kick-ass shape!” That’s when we started training other teachers.

There’s something new in the Power Pilates studio on 23rd Street—perhaps you’ve seen people in the elevator looking flush with endorphins. Believe it or not, they’ve been in our 10th floor studio, racing in a very unusual team competition. In the process, they’re burning loads of calories, strengthening their legs, backs, core, arms and shoulders, getting a superb cardiovascular workout and sharpening their mental focus: They’ve been taking Indo-Row®, Power Pilates’ unique take on indoor rowing.

Rowing is one of the best routes to total fitness—not only is it an extraordinary cardiovascular workout, but it is a true total-body workout, activating your legs, core, back, shoulders and arms. With so much muscle mass recruited for each stroke, rowing is a huge calorie burner—up to 700 calories an hour. But because you’re seated, there’s no pounding stress on joints. And you can row easily or all-out—you decide how much effort to put into each stroke.
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By Kristen Matthews

I made the decision to become a Pilates instructor because I wanted to help people. I fell in love with Pilates the moment I was introduced to it, and felt like I’d found the most ideal job when I made the decision to teach. I never could picture myself sitting behind a desk at a corporate job. With movement-based activities being a big part of my childhood, Pilates seemed to fit perfectly into my life. I truly felt that I had found my calling. What I didn’t expect were the thoughts that surfaced one day of “I’m only just a Pilates instructor.”

After eight years of teaching I found myself wanting more. I kept thinking to myself, “Am I doing enough?” “Am I making a difference?” After 20 sessions with a client who still was not able to set up for footwork, I would wonder, “Am I getting through?” “Are they learning anything from me?”

I took time to speak with instructors whom I respect to pick their brains on what it means to them to be a Pilates instructor. The talks helped momentarily, but in the end I still had the same feelings. I even toyed around with going back to school to get a master’s degree, but decided that I wouldn’t be going back for the right reasons.
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Rye resident Patti Whalen is successful in many ways: She’s raised two kids, works at a job she loves, is active in the community, and has a happy marriage. But until recently, she’d forgotten one thing: Fitness. “I had not done any exercise since the birth of my daughter, who is now 19,” Patti says.

Patti had made some attempts to deal with the 30 pounds she’d put on over 20 years. “I tried Jenny Craig and lost weight but gained it all back,” she says. She went on Weight Watchers, joined the Y and started walking. “Nothing worked,” she says. Weight became more of a struggle when Patti was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer 10 years ago: She retained a lot of fluid due to the chemo.

Then in late 2009, Patti’s cousin, Dr. Howard Sichel, made a comment. “He told me, ‘Movement heals,’” she says, “and that rang the bell.” The statement made sense for Patti: It was motivating without being punitive, and it was about the process, not a pie-in-the-sky end result. Howard told her about APOGEE and suggested she start private Pilates sessions with Dorothy Polanowska.
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