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About the Book

This book features:

• Pre-Pilates Exercises
• Wake-Up Exercises
• Basic Matwork with a Towel
• Joe’s Archival Routine
• Romana’s Standing Exercises

Pre-Pilates and Beyond will broaden your understanding of Pilates as a complete Method. From wiggling the tip of your nose, to cartwheeling across the room, this book has something for everyone. Since the exercises in Pre-Pilates and Beyond are the lesser-known exercises of the Pilates Method, each exercise is accompanied with photos and a detailed description.

With the help of your certified Pilates teacher, you can choose the exercises that best suit your needs. Use this book together with Pilates: An Interactive Workbook to create a well-rounded home-based routine that will improve your sense of autonomy and inspire you to assemble creative workouts tailored to your individual needs.

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About the Book

With the help of your certified Pilates teacher, you can choose the exercises that best suit your needs and customize this workbook with your current modifications, helpful cue words, and useful imagery. For manageability, the Wunda Chair exercises are divided into the following groups:

• Introductory Exercises
• Deeper Practice Exercises
• Challenge Exercises
• Less Common Exercises
• Expert Exercises
• Archival Exercises

Reviews

Christina Maria Gadar has done a fabulous job with this Wunda Chair manual. This manual contains more Wunda Chair exercises than any other Wunda Chair manual I own. Christina Maria Gadar does not only show the most common exercises but also advanced variations and archival exercises which you will not find anywhere else. Every exercise is well described without being too lengthy. A difficult balance which Gadar manages perfectly. The pictures – although only black and white (I prefer color) – are very clear and big enough to show you most of the details you are looking for. Again this is unfortunately not the case with all the different training manuals I own. What I love about this manual is the introductory section which offers so many different orders: Joe’s Wunda Chair Order, Classical Wunda Chair Order (the order many classically trained Pilates teachers teach), Minimal Motion Between Exercises with One Spring in the Middle Setting, Never Stepping Off the Pedal with Two Springs on Your Ideal Setting. As a Pilates teacher and author of training manuals (yes I have also written an introductory Wunda Chair manual – it was my first one, so don’t judge) I have to applaud Christina Maria Gadar for this incredible work. Just perfect. If you were looking for a Wunda Chair manual, get this one.”
-Reiner Grootenhuis, Pilates teacher and author

About the Book

In his book Your Health, Joe Pilates made it very clear that he wanted children to learn his system of body-mind-spirit development. In fact, there are many Pilates teachers who are making his dream a reality, and yet there is still very limited information on how to maintain the integrity of the Pilates Method while adapting the exercises for young students.

Pilates for Children is an unprecedented Pilates book for teaching Pilates to elementary school age children. Additionally, teachers will discover that the information provided here can be applied to students far beyond the 6-11 age range. It is more than a comprehensive text for certified Pilates teachers interested in expanding their teaching skills. It is a beautiful and inspiring look at what children are capable of doing when given the opportunity to rise to the occasion.

Reviews

“I’m loving Christina Maria Gadar’s writing. So many gems in here! Her attention to detail is impressive. Her examples are clear and I get an incredible sense of Christina as a person as well as a teacher. Also…what a gift this book is to her children!!! They will be able to look back on this with such affection.”
-Brooke Siler, Pilates teacher and best-selling Pilates author

“The best Pilates book for educating children. This is an excellent book. It is a great reference guide to working with kids and helping them understand Pilates. It’s also great for adults because it allows us to instruct with creativity. Joseph Pilates wanted children to learn his Method in schools, this book is a great way to help fulfill one of his goals.”
-Amanda Westphal, Romana’s Pilates teacher trainer

“Excellent and brilliant book! A wonderful educational tool for teaching children physical fitness. This is the book if you are looking to understand how to teach good postural habits to kids.”
-Fidel Garcia, Romana’s Pilates teacher trainer

About the Book

• The most creative and imaginative book about Pilates.
• An educational book about Joe Pilates and the history of his equipment.
• A Pilates gift book that will inform and inspire readers of ALL ages.
• Illustrated by a talented, eight-year-old Pilates student.
• A percentage of the royalties from this book go to help The Benjamin Gilkey Fund For Innovative Pediatric Cancer Research.

Enter a world where push-up devices become damselflies and mats become flying carpets. Learn about an imaginative man who turned wheelchairs and beer barrels into exercise equipment. Discovering Joe Pilates introduces readers to the amazing inventor behind the Pilates Method and displays the whimsical side of Pilates’ inventions as seen through the eyes of children. Readers will be delighted by the whimsical illustrations, captivated by the history of Joe’s inventions, and might even get a chuckle from the silly poems. This not-so-typical children’s book blends the genius of Joe Pilates and the imagination of children into a book sure to please readers of all ages.

Reviews

Reviewed by: Rebekah Le Magny (founder of the Pilates Book Review and Discussion Club)

I ordered this book as soon as it came out and I love it!

Discovering Joe Pilates features Christina’s two beautiful children, both of whom practice Pilates regularly. Marcelo is ten years old and Taís Haydée is eight years old. Taís is not only one of the models, she is also the illustrator of the book and her illustrations are truly delightful (they have been made into greeting cards – note to self – try to find them). The book features a photograph and description of each of the major Pilates apparatus (apparatus by Gratz), together with an illustration of the apparatus as seen through the eyes of a child. A reformer becomes a skateboard, the Cadillac becomes a monkey playground, the spine corrector a whale. How wonderful to rediscover Pilates through a child’s eyes. Christina describes her book as being “for kids and the young at heart.” I’m not sure when it happens, but at some point, sadly we lose our child eyes! Let’s try to get them back! Too often we become absorbed at “fixing” our students and forget that Pilates should be fun. In keeping with the fun, creative spirit of the book, each photo and illustration is also accompanied by a limerick!

“This barrel will stretch out your spine
And hopefully not make you whine.
Resembling a whale
That swims with its tail
The barrel is simply divine.”

The book also contains a short section on Joe Pilate’s life (illustrated with Joe in the snow wearing nothing but his famous briefs) as well as another part devoted to Joe’s successor and Christina’s mentor, Romana Kryzanowska.

As a mother of four (including an eight-year-old daughter who also loves to draw), I was particularly touched that the book was the collaborative effort of Christina and her children. Pilates is a gift to be shared, particularly with our children.

I was also deeply moved by Christina’s acknowledgment of “the special person who helped me see rainbows again”, whom Christina credits as having “inspired her into bringing Pilates into the lives of young children” and in whose memory the book is dedicated. A portion of the royalties from the book will be donated to the Benjamin Gilkey Fund for Innovative Pediatric Cancer Research.

I just sat down with my daughter and went over the book with her. She loved it and we made a date to go play on the equipment tomorrow! Discovering Joe Pilates is a wonderful book to share with your children and for your students to share with their children. It will also make a great gift to give to your favorite students themselves, those that are “young at heart”.

About the Book

• The most playful book about Pilates.
• Written for children and their parents.
• Illustrated by a talented, nine-year-old Pilates student.
• All thirty exercises from the Pilates Animals Workout® are demonstrated by children.
• Fun animal facts and artistic animal patterns.

Joe Pilates began observing the natural movement of animals from a very young age and his Method of body-mind-spirit development was greatly influenced by those observations. Christina Maria Gadar has combined her passion for Joe’s Method with her love of children and animals to create the Pilates Animals Workout®, or P.A.W. for short. The Pilates Animals Workout® presents Joe’s original work in a creative way that captures the imagination of children. Joe hoped that his Method would be part of the lives of young children, and the Pilates Animals Workout® is one way to make his vision a reality.

Pilates is both physical and mental conditioning, and with this book, parents and children can work together to sharpen those skills. With The Pilates Animals Workout as their guide, parents can help their children learn to move like animals. And children can help their parents rediscover how much fun it is to use their imagination. It’s never too early, or too late, to feel as fit as an animal!

“This book is beautifully done! Thank you for creating a joyful way for me to share Pilates with my daughter.”
-
Lilia Browning Cohen, Pilates Instructor

Book Trailer