Fourth Annual Pilates Method Alliance(R) Pilates Day Features Legendary Teachers, Emphasizes Accessibility

MIAMI, March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Julian Littleford, the Pilates trainer for the San Diego Padres baseball team, and Lolita San Miguel, previously trained by Joseph H. Pilates and the former director of the Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, will be hosting classes at the fourth annual Pilates Day event, Camp Pilates 2007.

Mounted by the Pilates Method Alliance (PMA), this event will take place on Saturday May 5 at Shake-A-Leg Miami in Coconut Grove, Florida (see http://www.pilatesday.com/).

"We feel strongly that everyone should experience what the Pilates method is really about, not just what the media portrays with fabulous celebrities, who don't even look like real people, doing Pilates," said Kevin Bowen, executive director of the PMA based in Miami.

The PMA (http://www.pilatesmethodalliance.org/) has established the only nationwide certification exam for instructors, and is dedicated to continuing education standards for Pilates professionals and the dissemination of information about the benefits of the Pilates method.

The Shake-A-Leg Miami event is the national event for the PMA, though other celebrations of Pilates will take place that day in cities across the country. The PMA is the international, not for profit, professional association dedicated to the teachings of Joseph H. and Clara Pilates and mounts Pilates Day each year to raise public awareness about the benefits of the Pilates method of exercise and to underscore its accessibility to all ages and abilities.

The national event will offer Pilates instruction for beginners as well as enthusiasts and will include information booths and vendors from the Pilates industry in addition to catamaran cruises and other activities.

Widely embraced by dancers for years, the Pilates method involves specific systematic exercises coupled with focused breathing patterns, and has proven itself invaluable not only as a fitness endeavor itself, but also as an important adjunct to professional sports training and physical rehabilitation of all kinds.

"Anyone can do Pilates," said Bowen. "It is unique and 'user friendly' because first it is about a philosophy and a concept -- the exercises are an end to the method -- but they really are not what it is all about." Pilates emphasizes "whole body health" and the connections between mind and body, said Bowen.

Pilates Day will also serve to introduce the public to the PMA's newest initiative, Pilates-in-the-Schools, an effort to help America's children develop healthy habits for life by integrating Pilates instruction into physical education programs across the country. The PMA hopes to launch the prototype of this program in September of 2007.