Ron Fletcher's body contrology
- Mar 31, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 19, 2024
VOGUE magazine 1975 APRIL
"Exercising" the breath is all part of exercising the body at Ron Fletcher's body contrology classes in Beverly Hills, California, where a variety of specially designed equipment is used for shaping up. Ron believes that without correct breathing to oxygenate the blood stream and stimulate the circulation no exercise can be totally beneficial.
(1) Ron Fletcher (May 29, 1921 – December 6, 2011) was an American Pilates Master Teacher, an author and a Martha Graham dancer. He was also a Broadway stage, network television, cabaret and International Ice Capades choreographer.
He is identified as a “Pilates Elder”—a “first-generation teacher” who studied directly under Joseph and Clara Pilates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Fletcher
Vogue Magazine APRIL 1975.
The Pelvic Stretch, left, works on every part of the body, through a natural kinetic move ment. Paula kneels on the "Reformer," hands on metal bar, bare feet on upholstered sup- ports. She pushes back with feet, tightening buttocks as Ron massages her spine, one vertebra at a time to increase blood circulation. The Standing Stomach Pull stretches ten- dons correctly to the buttocks and back.
Paula raises one leg high, balancing with hands on bar, keeping head up, lowers leg to bend as low as possible without touching "Reformer," arches back, then repeats with other leg-raise, bend. The Mat Exercises involve a barrel, too, with handles that Paula grips as she stretches back over the barrel, head resting on mat. With one leg bent, she swings the other back and forth, inhaling to a count of three, exhaling, repeating with the other leg. Next, still holding the handles, she "cycles" in the air-all to firm leg muscles, especially the inner thigh.
The Pelvic Press needs, but also increases, strength. Paula places feet apart on metal bar, lying flat on back. With head, shoulders, arms flat, she raises buttocks, pushing pelvis toward ceiling, holds, relaxes, repeals. The High Back Arch With the Long Reach uses another piece of special equipment, a large blue box which, placed on the "Reformer," Paula sits on, holding a bar in her hands, her feet slipped into straps.
She arches forward to bring bar to toes, keeping legs and arms straight, then swings back until her body is almost horizontal, holding the position to a count of five, before sitting up to relax, then repeat-all to make spine more articulate, providing an additional blood flow there. The Long Spine Stretch is literally carried out with the help of long straps that hold Paula's legs as she moves them forward, then as high as she can with legs apart, stretching all vertebrae and discs up spine, through the neck.
The Climbing Tree uses the blue box again. Paula leans back on it, lifting her left leg, "climbing" up it with both hands until one reaches the foot which she stretches toe by toe. She repeats the movement with the right leg before arching back, one foot in straps for balance, the other lifted high, pointing toward ceiling, shoulders, arms off the ground, Note: Before starting these, or any other exercises, check them with your doctor.
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THE DOCTOR'S COMMENT
from Dr. Allan J. Ryan, professor of rehabilitation medicine, and physical education, University of Wisconsin Dr. Ryan knows muscle tone. Surgery-trained, he made physical education his life work as a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His thorough new book Sports Medicine (Academic Press) tells how physical education is applied to preventing disease, restoring the sick and injured, maintaining the strong.
"When you put a muscle at rest, lying down, holding still, immobilized by a splint or cast, it immediately begins to lose its tone," Dr. Ryan told Vogue, "but resuming muscular activity will bring it back. If you stay in bed with a cold for only one day, you feel somewhat weak when you get up. If you have surgery and stay in bed for weeks, you may need help to get on your feet. You've lost your muscle tone.
This is why today surgeons are likely to order patients up and moving on the first day or even the same day as surgery- and that includes heart-attack patients. Dr. Ryan's suggestions to keep muscles in tone: Keep jangling around loosely; continuous movement, not jumps, jerks, or twitches, is marvelous for muscle tone. Never stand still or sit at a cocktail party; move about, seeing everybody-standing still slows the leg circulation, and tires you quickly.
Dance and go in for developing muscular strength through sports. As muscle strength increases, so does body flexibility. As demonstrated by scientific studies at the University of California, women can greatly increase their muscular strength without increasing muscle bulk. in men, it's the male hormone that causes the bulking of muscles.
With increased strength, concludes Dr. Ryan, come balance, grace, and spring!-MELVA WEBER
Ron Fletcher (May 29, 1921 – December 6, 2011) was an American Pilates Master Teacher,[1] an author [2] and a Martha Graham dancer.[3] He was also a Broadway stage, network television, cabaret and International Ice Capades choreographer.[3] He is identified as a “Pilates Elder”—a “first-generation teacher” who studied directly under Joseph and Clara Pilates.[1]
Originally referred to Joseph Pilates by fellow dancer for treatment of a chronic knee injury,[4] Fletcher was schooled in the principles of Body Contrology (the name Pilates gave to his fitness and conditioning method) [5] by Joseph and Clara Pilates, with whom he studied in their New York City studio at 939 8th Avenue,[6] on and off from 1948 until one year after Joseph Pilates’ death in 1967.[3]
Ron Fletcher, a former dancer and choreographer who helped popularize the Pilates exercise system when he opened the first West Coast studio in 1972, died Tuesday at his home in Stonewall, Texas. He was 90.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said Kyria Sabin, director of Fletcher Pilates, which trains instructors in the exercise methods Fletcher developed based on the teachings of Joseph and Clara Pilates.
Forty years ago, few people outside of New York, where the Pilates method was first taught, had heard of the unusual fitness regimen, which involved strange-looking machines and movements similar to yoga and calisthenics. Today it is practiced by millions of people around the world, a popularity due in part to the celebrity buzz that surrounded Fletcher's Beverly Hills studio
Located above an exclusive salon at Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, it attracted a who's who of Hollywood in the 1970s, including Candice Bergen, Ali MacGraw, Dyan Cannon, Katharine Ross, Barbra Streisand, Raquel Welch and Cher.
Even Nancy Reagan, then California's first lady, dropped in for raucous gabfests with Fletcher, whom she had known since her acting days in the 1940s.
"I saw every actor and actress you ever heard of in there... all the time," MacGraw recalled in an interview last week. "It was fun. You'd crawl in and say, 'Oh God, I'm going to have to really work for this hour' ... but you laughed all the way through it because Ron ... was hysterical."
In the Pilates world, he was seen as a pioneer who took the fitness program in new, sometimes controver sial directions, expanding it to include standing exercis es, floor work derived from his early studies with dance icon Martha Graham and upper-body work done with the aid of a rolled towel. (Tallahassee Democrat Mon, Dec 12, 2011)
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