November 29, 2017
Is Pilates a spiritual path? – Part 2
by Reiner Grootenhuis
Last week, we began to examine Joseph Pilates’ claims about the Pilates method being a “complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit” but we stopped short of any final conclusion as to it being a spiritual path or not.
How breathing stops the mind’s chatter
When I started my practice of Zen meditation, I was asked to count my breaths until 10. At the beginning, I was told to inhale and count 1 while breathing in, and then exhale with 2, inhale with 3…. After I mastered this step, I had to exhale with 1, inhale stillness, exhale with 2, etc. I will spare you the next steps of this process.
It sounds easy but when you try it, you will find out quickly that it isn’t, since your mind starts wandering around. What do we do in Pilates? Let’s say we start on the Reformer. Many of us inhale while we press out in the first foot-work position and exhale while we come back. And while we do this we count for ourselves 1, and so on. Sounds very similar.
As I tried to learn more about Zen meditation, I also found that breathing and concentration were strongly related. Katsuki Sekida describes in his book Zen Training that “… we could control thoughts occurring in the brain by dint of holding our breath. That control and inhibition of thought came from this opposed tension in the abdominal muscles and diaphragm.” (Second edition 1975, p. 56)
Now this sounds quite a bit like Joseph Pilates, doesn’t it? In Your Health, he wrote this about breathing:
The first lesson is that of correct breathing … They must be properly instructed how to draw the abdomen in and out at the same time holding their breath for a short time. Then they should also learn how properly to fully deflate the lungs in exhaling.
What I find intriguing is that the way we breathe and the awareness of breathing during Pilates is so helpful for clearing the mind, much as we do in the Zen method. Breathing has a well-known and proven influence on the regulation of our heartbeat and thereby on the ability of our brain to process information. So if I want to train in Pilates in a concentrated and attentive way, it is good to have a regular breathing rhythm.
In Pilates, the breath often follows the movement patterns, so that the length of the inhalation and the exhalation is not the same. As Dr. Alan Watkins, honorary senior lecturer in neuroscience and psychological medicine at Imperial College, London points out in a TEDx talk entitled “Being Brilliant Every Single Day”, it is not essential how long the inhalation and the exhalation are, but it is important that the breathing stays soft. Or as Benjamin Degenhardt said during a workshop, “try not to lose your breath.”
Choosing how you want to be
A very famous quote, which is often attributed to Viktor E. Frankl, came to my mind when writing this article:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Spiritual ways like Buddhism use meditation as a tool to be able to get more space between stimulus and response. The ZEN master Harry Mi Sho Teske wrote:
So the wheel of ignorance, will power, awareness, name and form, six senses, contact, feeling, desire, attachment, becoming, birth and finally aging and death turns continuously until the moment we reach enlightenment and we understand that we only have the possibility to interfere, namely at the joint between the seventh and the eight chain part, the feeling and the desire. If there is no desire following a feeling, we are freed from this cycle and the whole matter finally finds an end. (translated from German by the author)
Pilates offers us a constant flow of exercises which we either like, dislike or have a certain ambiguity towards, which are exactly the “feelings” Teske referred to. Doing these exercises, our body sometimes feels great and sometimes not so great. Nothing is wrong with either feeling. We hopefully just do them without trying to do more of the ones we like or do fewer of those we dislike. With this “feeling” of dislike, our body is showing us that we may have a weakness to investigate or that we haven’t so far understood the exercise. If we do not directly react to these “feelings”, this in itself is a spiritual practice which will over time create more space between stimulus and response. Pilates offers constant possibilities to learn not to react directly to our thoughts or feelings.
In my teaching practice, I found that no matter how perfect a body seems to be, everyone has a zone which is stiff or neglected. And trying to “communicate” with this zone can be felt as a frustration. The right mindset makes all the difference here. Can you face it in a calm and focused way or do you getting upset? So, when we learn to not directly react towards these feelings of frustration, we can also take this element of inner peace to other things in our life.
If you ever tried meditation, you know that most people have two major challenges to overcome: a) your thoughts take over and before you know it, your mind is doing something on its own and b) instead of being fully awake, you operate in a half-awake/half-asleep mindset which is not meditation at all.
Through the repetitions in Pilates, we have the chance with each repetition to fully engage and become completely aware of everything that is going on. Even if our mind drifts away, the change from one exercise to the next exercise allows us to re-focus and stop our endless stream of thoughts.
Conclusion
So, Pilates can be a mental and even spiritual practice, if you put the effort of awareness in it and choose to use it in this way.
When people start Pilates, most do not naturally expect that Pilates could have this element. And it might not have it if we do not create a room for it. Let’s not forget that in Joseph Pilates’ studio, you were supposed to work out on your own and, as many clients of this time remember, you were not supposed to talk or make noise. There was an element of self-control, finding your own rhythm, stillness and listening to yourself – all of which are not easy to find in today’s Pilates group classes or even private sessions. Jay Grimes constantly reminds the Pilates teachers in his workshops to reduce our talking. And right he is.
We as teachers can only teach what we understand and experience. So only if our self-practice leads us to this inner peace and serenity will we be able to convey this to our clients.
In my own experience, Pilates can give the mind a comfortable and well-functioning home. It can ground the mind and open it for stillness and clarity. I look forward to it every day.
End of part 2
Besides obtaining a diploma in psychology and an MBA, Reiner Grootenhuis has studied the healing and martial arts of the Southern Shaolin Monastery Weng Chun. He completed the training as a Pilates instructor for Pilates mat and equipment at the Pilates educational academy BASI® (Body Arts & Science International). He is the founder and operator of the largest Pilates forum worldwide, pilates-contrology-forum on Facebook, which includes 8000 Pilates instructors. At the beginning of 2012, he opened the pilates-powers Studio in Tönisvorst. Since 2014, he has been offering his own Pilates education program. In the same year, Kathy Corey appointed him a member of the Board of Directors of the Pilates Heritage Congress, which takes place every two years in the hometown of Joseph Pilates. Since January 2016, he has been studying the finesse of the method within the Kathy Corey mentor program which he successfully completed in July 2017.
In 2015, he published the first publicly available German training manual on the Wunda Chair and in 2016 the first book about the Arm Chair. He has been an author for the only German Pilates magazine, for the Pilates Style magazine and also the new international Pilates print magazine Pilates4you.
November 29, 2017
Is Pilates a spiritual path? – Part 2
by Reiner Grootenhuis
Last week, we began to examine Joseph Pilates’ claims about the Pilates method being a “complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit” but we stopped short of any final conclusion as to it being a spiritual path or not.
How breathing stops the mind’s chatter
When I started my practice of Zen meditation, I was asked to count my breaths until 10. At the beginning, I was told to inhale and count 1 while breathing in, and then exhale with 2, inhale with 3…. After I mastered this step, I had to exhale with 1, inhale stillness, exhale with 2, etc. I will spare you the next steps of this process.
It sounds easy but when you try it, you will find out quickly that it isn’t, since your mind starts wandering around. What do we do in Pilates? Let’s say we start on the Reformer. Many of us inhale while we press out in the first foot-work position and exhale while we come back. And while we do this we count for ourselves 1, and so on. Sounds very similar.
As I tried to learn more about Zen meditation, I also found that breathing and concentration were strongly related. Katsuki Sekida describes in his book Zen Training that “… we could control thoughts occurring in the brain by dint of holding our breath. That control and inhibition of thought came from this opposed tension in the abdominal muscles and diaphragm.” (Second edition 1975, p. 56)
Now this sounds quite a bit like Joseph Pilates, doesn’t it? In Your Health, he wrote this about breathing:
The first lesson is that of correct breathing … They must be properly instructed how to draw the abdomen in and out at the same time holding their breath for a short time. Then they should also learn how properly to fully deflate the lungs in exhaling.
What I find intriguing is that the way we breathe and the awareness of breathing during Pilates is so helpful for clearing the mind, much as we do in the Zen method. Breathing has a well-known and proven influence on the regulation of our heartbeat and thereby on the ability of our brain to process information. So if I want to train in Pilates in a concentrated and attentive way, it is good to have a regular breathing rhythm.
In Pilates, the breath often follows the movement patterns, so that the length of the inhalation and the exhalation is not the same. As Dr. Alan Watkins, honorary senior lecturer in neuroscience and psychological medicine at Imperial College, London points out in a TEDx talk entitled “Being Brilliant Every Single Day”, it is not essential how long the inhalation and the exhalation are, but it is important that the breathing stays soft. Or as Benjamin Degenhardt said during a workshop, “try not to lose your breath.”
Choosing how you want to be
A very famous quote, which is often attributed to Viktor E. Frankl, came to my mind when writing this article:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Spiritual ways like Buddhism use meditation as a tool to be able to get more space between stimulus and response. The ZEN master Harry Mi Sho Teske wrote:
So the wheel of ignorance, will power, awareness, name and form, six senses, contact, feeling, desire, attachment, becoming, birth and finally aging and death turns continuously until the moment we reach enlightenment and we understand that we only have the possibility to interfere, namely at the joint between the seventh and the eight chain part, the feeling and the desire. If there is no desire following a feeling, we are freed from this cycle and the whole matter finally finds an end. (translated from German by the author)
Pilates offers us a constant flow of exercises which we either like, dislike or have a certain ambiguity towards, which are exactly the “feelings” Teske referred to. Doing these exercises, our body sometimes feels great and sometimes not so great. Nothing is wrong with either feeling. We hopefully just do them without trying to do more of the ones we like or do fewer of those we dislike. With this “feeling” of dislike, our body is showing us that we may have a weakness to investigate or that we haven’t so far understood the exercise. If we do not directly react to these “feelings”, this in itself is a spiritual practice which will over time create more space between stimulus and response. Pilates offers constant possibilities to learn not to react directly to our thoughts or feelings.
In my teaching practice, I found that no matter how perfect a body seems to be, everyone has a zone which is stiff or neglected. And trying to “communicate” with this zone can be felt as a frustration. The right mindset makes all the difference here. Can you face it in a calm and focused way or do you getting upset? So, when we learn to not directly react towards these feelings of frustration, we can also take this element of inner peace to other things in our life.
If you ever tried meditation, you know that most people have two major challenges to overcome: a) your thoughts take over and before you know it, your mind is doing something on its own and b) instead of being fully awake, you operate in a half-awake/half-asleep mindset which is not meditation at all.
Through the repetitions in Pilates, we have the chance with each repetition to fully engage and become completely aware of everything that is going on. Even if our mind drifts away, the change from one exercise to the next exercise allows us to re-focus and stop our endless stream of thoughts.
Conclusion
So, Pilates can be a mental and even spiritual practice, if you put the effort of awareness in it and choose to use it in this way.
When people start Pilates, most do not naturally expect that Pilates could have this element. And it might not have it if we do not create a room for it. Let’s not forget that in Joseph Pilates’ studio, you were supposed to work out on your own and, as many clients of this time remember, you were not supposed to talk or make noise. There was an element of self-control, finding your own rhythm, stillness and listening to yourself – all of which are not easy to find in today’s Pilates group classes or even private sessions. Jay Grimes constantly reminds the Pilates teachers in his workshops to reduce our talking. And right he is.
We as teachers can only teach what we understand and experience. So only if our self-practice leads us to this inner peace and serenity will we be able to convey this to our clients.
In my own experience, Pilates can give the mind a comfortable and well-functioning home. It can ground the mind and open it for stillness and clarity. I look forward to it every day.
End of part 2
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Reiner Grootenhuis
Besides obtaining a diploma in psychology and an MBA, Reiner Grootenhuis has studied the healing and martial arts of the Southern Shaolin Monastery Weng Chun. He completed the training as a Pilates instructor for Pilates mat and equipment at the Pilates educational academy BASI® (Body Arts & Science International). He is the founder and operator of the largest Pilates forum worldwide, pilates-contrology-forum on Facebook, which includes 8000 Pilates instructors. At the beginning of 2012, he opened the pilates-powers Studio in Tönisvorst. Since 2014, he has been offering his own Pilates education program. In the same year, Kathy Corey appointed him a member of the Board of Directors of the Pilates Heritage Congress, which takes place every two years in the hometown of Joseph Pilates. Since January 2016, he has been studying the finesse of the method within the Kathy Corey mentor program which he successfully completed in July 2017.
In 2015, he published the first publicly available German training manual on the Wunda Chair and in 2016 the first book about the Arm Chair. He has been an author for the only German Pilates magazine, for the Pilates Style magazine and also the new international Pilates print magazine Pilates4you.
November 29, 2017
Is Pilates a spiritual path? – Part 2
by Reiner Grootenhuis
Last week, we began to examine Joseph Pilates’ claims about the Pilates method being a “complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit” but we stopped short of any final conclusion as to it being a spiritual path or not.
How breathing stops the mind’s chatter
When I started my practice of Zen meditation, I was asked to count my breaths until 10. At the beginning, I was told to inhale and count 1 while breathing in, and then exhale with 2, inhale with 3…. After I mastered this step, I had to exhale with 1, inhale stillness, exhale with 2, etc. I will spare you the next steps of this process.
It sounds easy but when you try it, you will find out quickly that it isn’t, since your mind starts wandering around. What do we do in Pilates? Let’s say we start on the Reformer. Many of us inhale while we press out in the first foot-work position and exhale while we come back. And while we do this we count for ourselves 1, and so on. Sounds very similar.
As I tried to learn more about Zen meditation, I also found that breathing and concentration were strongly related. Katsuki Sekida describes in his book Zen Training that “… we could control thoughts occurring in the brain by dint of holding our breath. That control and inhibition of thought came from this opposed tension in the abdominal muscles and diaphragm.” (Second edition 1975, p. 56)
Now this sounds quite a bit like Joseph Pilates, doesn’t it? In Your Health, he wrote this about breathing:
The first lesson is that of correct breathing … They must be properly instructed how to draw the abdomen in and out at the same time holding their breath for a short time. Then they should also learn how properly to fully deflate the lungs in exhaling.
What I find intriguing is that the way we breathe and the awareness of breathing during Pilates is so helpful for clearing the mind, much as we do in the Zen method. Breathing has a well-known and proven influence on the regulation of our heartbeat and thereby on the ability of our brain to process information. So if I want to train in Pilates in a concentrated and attentive way, it is good to have a regular breathing rhythm.
In Pilates, the breath often follows the movement patterns, so that the length of the inhalation and the exhalation is not the same. As Dr. Alan Watkins, honorary senior lecturer in neuroscience and psychological medicine at Imperial College, London points out in a TEDx talk entitled “Being Brilliant Every Single Day”, it is not essential how long the inhalation and the exhalation are, but it is important that the breathing stays soft. Or as Benjamin Degenhardt said during a workshop, “try not to lose your breath.”
Choosing how you want to be
A very famous quote, which is often attributed to Viktor E. Frankl, came to my mind when writing this article:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Spiritual ways like Buddhism use meditation as a tool to be able to get more space between stimulus and response. The ZEN master Harry Mi Sho Teske wrote:
So the wheel of ignorance, will power, awareness, name and form, six senses, contact, feeling, desire, attachment, becoming, birth and finally aging and death turns continuously until the moment we reach enlightenment and we understand that we only have the possibility to interfere, namely at the joint between the seventh and the eight chain part, the feeling and the desire. If there is no desire following a feeling, we are freed from this cycle and the whole matter finally finds an end. (translated from German by the author)
Pilates offers us a constant flow of exercises which we either like, dislike or have a certain ambiguity towards, which are exactly the “feelings” Teske referred to. Doing these exercises, our body sometimes feels great and sometimes not so great. Nothing is wrong with either feeling. We hopefully just do them without trying to do more of the ones we like or do fewer of those we dislike. With this “feeling” of dislike, our body is showing us that we may have a weakness to investigate or that we haven’t so far understood the exercise. If we do not directly react to these “feelings”, this in itself is a spiritual practice which will over time create more space between stimulus and response. Pilates offers constant possibilities to learn not to react directly to our thoughts or feelings.
In my teaching practice, I found that no matter how perfect a body seems to be, everyone has a zone which is stiff or neglected. And trying to “communicate” with this zone can be felt as a frustration. The right mindset makes all the difference here. Can you face it in a calm and focused way or do you getting upset? So, when we learn to not directly react towards these feelings of frustration, we can also take this element of inner peace to other things in our life.
If you ever tried meditation, you know that most people have two major challenges to overcome: a) your thoughts take over and before you know it, your mind is doing something on its own and b) instead of being fully awake, you operate in a half-awake/half-asleep mindset which is not meditation at all.
Through the repetitions in Pilates, we have the chance with each repetition to fully engage and become completely aware of everything that is going on. Even if our mind drifts away, the change from one exercise to the next exercise allows us to re-focus and stop our endless stream of thoughts.
Conclusion
So, Pilates can be a mental and even spiritual practice, if you put the effort of awareness in it and choose to use it in this way.
When people start Pilates, most do not naturally expect that Pilates could have this element. And it might not have it if we do not create a room for it. Let’s not forget that in Joseph Pilates’ studio, you were supposed to work out on your own and, as many clients of this time remember, you were not supposed to talk or make noise. There was an element of self-control, finding your own rhythm, stillness and listening to yourself – all of which are not easy to find in today’s Pilates group classes or even private sessions. Jay Grimes constantly reminds the Pilates teachers in his workshops to reduce our talking. And right he is.
We as teachers can only teach what we understand and experience. So only if our self-practice leads us to this inner peace and serenity will we be able to convey this to our clients.
In my own experience, Pilates can give the mind a comfortable and well-functioning home. It can ground the mind and open it for stillness and clarity. I look forward to it every day.
End of part 2
Besides obtaining a diploma in psychology and an MBA, Reiner Grootenhuis has studied the healing and martial arts of the Southern Shaolin Monastery Weng Chun. He completed the training as a Pilates instructor for Pilates mat and equipment at the Pilates educational academy BASI® (Body Arts & Science International). He is the founder and operator of the largest Pilates forum worldwide, pilates-contrology-forum on Facebook, which includes 8000 Pilates instructors. At the beginning of 2012, he opened the pilates-powers Studio in Tönisvorst. Since 2014, he has been offering his own Pilates education program. In the same year, Kathy Corey appointed him a member of the Board of Directors of the Pilates Heritage Congress, which takes place every two years in the hometown of Joseph Pilates. Since January 2016, he has been studying the finesse of the method within the Kathy Corey mentor program which he successfully completed in July 2017.
In 2015, he published the first publicly available German training manual on the Wunda Chair and in 2016 the first book about the Arm Chair. He has been an author for the only German Pilates magazine, for the Pilates Style magazine and also the new international Pilates print magazine Pilates4you.
November 29, 2017
Is Pilates a spiritual path? – Part 2
by Reiner Grootenhuis
Last week, we began to examine Joseph Pilates’ claims about the Pilates method being a “complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit” but we stopped short of any final conclusion as to it being a spiritual path or not.
How breathing stops the mind’s chatter
When I started my practice of Zen meditation, I was asked to count my breaths until 10. At the beginning, I was told to inhale and count 1 while breathing in, and then exhale with 2, inhale with 3…. After I mastered this step, I had to exhale with 1, inhale stillness, exhale with 2, etc. I will spare you the next steps of this process.
It sounds easy but when you try it, you will find out quickly that it isn’t, since your mind starts wandering around. What do we do in Pilates? Let’s say we start on the Reformer. Many of us inhale while we press out in the first foot-work position and exhale while we come back. And while we do this we count for ourselves 1, and so on. Sounds very similar.
As I tried to learn more about Zen meditation, I also found that breathing and concentration were strongly related. Katsuki Sekida describes in his book Zen Training that “… we could control thoughts occurring in the brain by dint of holding our breath. That control and inhibition of thought came from this opposed tension in the abdominal muscles and diaphragm.” (Second edition 1975, p. 56)
Now this sounds quite a bit like Joseph Pilates, doesn’t it? In Your Health, he wrote this about breathing:
The first lesson is that of correct breathing … They must be properly instructed how to draw the abdomen in and out at the same time holding their breath for a short time. Then they should also learn how properly to fully deflate the lungs in exhaling.
What I find intriguing is that the way we breathe and the awareness of breathing during Pilates is so helpful for clearing the mind, much as we do in the Zen method. Breathing has a well-known and proven influence on the regulation of our heartbeat and thereby on the ability of our brain to process information. So if I want to train in Pilates in a concentrated and attentive way, it is good to have a regular breathing rhythm.
In Pilates, the breath often follows the movement patterns, so that the length of the inhalation and the exhalation is not the same. As Dr. Alan Watkins, honorary senior lecturer in neuroscience and psychological medicine at Imperial College, London points out in a TEDx talk entitled “Being Brilliant Every Single Day”, it is not essential how long the inhalation and the exhalation are, but it is important that the breathing stays soft. Or as Benjamin Degenhardt said during a workshop, “try not to lose your breath.”
Choosing how you want to be
A very famous quote, which is often attributed to Viktor E. Frankl, came to my mind when writing this article:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Spiritual ways like Buddhism use meditation as a tool to be able to get more space between stimulus and response. The ZEN master Harry Mi Sho Teske wrote:
So the wheel of ignorance, will power, awareness, name and form, six senses, contact, feeling, desire, attachment, becoming, birth and finally aging and death turns continuously until the moment we reach enlightenment and we understand that we only have the possibility to interfere, namely at the joint between the seventh and the eight chain part, the feeling and the desire. If there is no desire following a feeling, we are freed from this cycle and the whole matter finally finds an end. (translated from German by the author)
Pilates offers us a constant flow of exercises which we either like, dislike or have a certain ambiguity towards, which are exactly the “feelings” Teske referred to. Doing these exercises, our body sometimes feels great and sometimes not so great. Nothing is wrong with either feeling. We hopefully just do them without trying to do more of the ones we like or do fewer of those we dislike. With this “feeling” of dislike, our body is showing us that we may have a weakness to investigate or that we haven’t so far understood the exercise. If we do not directly react to these “feelings”, this in itself is a spiritual practice which will over time create more space between stimulus and response. Pilates offers constant possibilities to learn not to react directly to our thoughts or feelings.
In my teaching practice, I found that no matter how perfect a body seems to be, everyone has a zone which is stiff or neglected. And trying to “communicate” with this zone can be felt as a frustration. The right mindset makes all the difference here. Can you face it in a calm and focused way or do you getting upset? So, when we learn to not directly react towards these feelings of frustration, we can also take this element of inner peace to other things in our life.
If you ever tried meditation, you know that most people have two major challenges to overcome: a) your thoughts take over and before you know it, your mind is doing something on its own and b) instead of being fully awake, you operate in a half-awake/half-asleep mindset which is not meditation at all.
Through the repetitions in Pilates, we have the chance with each repetition to fully engage and become completely aware of everything that is going on. Even if our mind drifts away, the change from one exercise to the next exercise allows us to re-focus and stop our endless stream of thoughts.
Conclusion
So, Pilates can be a mental and even spiritual practice, if you put the effort of awareness in it and choose to use it in this way.
When people start Pilates, most do not naturally expect that Pilates could have this element. And it might not have it if we do not create a room for it. Let’s not forget that in Joseph Pilates’ studio, you were supposed to work out on your own and, as many clients of this time remember, you were not supposed to talk or make noise. There was an element of self-control, finding your own rhythm, stillness and listening to yourself – all of which are not easy to find in today’s Pilates group classes or even private sessions. Jay Grimes constantly reminds the Pilates teachers in his workshops to reduce our talking. And right he is.
We as teachers can only teach what we understand and experience. So only if our self-practice leads us to this inner peace and serenity will we be able to convey this to our clients.
In my own experience, Pilates can give the mind a comfortable and well-functioning home. It can ground the mind and open it for stillness and clarity. I look forward to it every day.
End of part 2
Reiner Grootenhuis
Besides obtaining a diploma in psychology and an MBA, Reiner Grootenhuis has studied the healing and martial arts of the Southern Shaolin Monastery Weng Chun. He completed the training as a Pilates instructor for Pilates mat and equipment at the Pilates educational academy BASI® (Body Arts & Science International). He is the founder and operator of the largest Pilates forum worldwide, pilates-contrology-forum on Facebook, which includes 8000 Pilates instructors. At the beginning of 2012, he opened the pilates-powers Studio in Tönisvorst. Since 2014, he has been offering his own Pilates education program. In the same year, Kathy Corey appointed him a member of the Board of Directors of the Pilates Heritage Congress, which takes place every two years in the hometown of Joseph Pilates. Since January 2016, he has been studying the finesse of the method within the Kathy Corey mentor program which he successfully completed in July 2017.
In 2015, he published the first publicly available German training manual on the Wunda Chair and in 2016 the first book about the Arm Chair. He has been an author for the only German Pilates magazine, for the Pilates Style magazine and also the new international Pilates print magazine Pilates4you.