For more than forty-five years, I have been devoted to the method Joseph and

Clara Pilates shared with their students, originally called Contrology. I have spent

my life studying not only the exercises themselves, but the thread that connects

and runs through every exercise in this method.

This book contains the lesser-known Reformer exercises and variations I was

taught over my decades of direct study and teaching of these exercises. Work that

was only shared with a few students.

Many of these exercises have been seen in photographs or videos and copied

without clear understanding or instruction. Exercises such as Stretch Pull, Jackknife

Preparation, Coordination Head Down, Short Spinal Control, and Scorpion are

presented here with clarity, context, and purpose.

This book offers clear photographs and detailed instruction for the Reformer

work, these lesser known exercises, as I teach it, along with notes on how my

teachers taught these exercises and how Mr. Pilates' students were taught-both

in their studios and in their teacher training programs. It includes insights drawn

from historical photographs and from what Mr. Pilates passed on verbally to his

students: Lolita San Miguel, Kathy Stanford Grant (through the eyes of Sarita

Allen), Romana Kryzanowska, and John Steel.

This book honors that thread, the extraordinary teachers who carried it forward,

and the legacy Joseph Pilates entrusted to us. It is my hope that this work

deepens understanding, preserves lineage, and enriches the journey through the Pilates Method.