The Complete Book of Pilates For Men by Daniel Lyon Jr

Anybody just recently discover the Pilates fitness program could easily get the idea that it’s for women.

Most of the books are by women and contain pictures of women performing the various exercises. Countless articles on Pilates have appeared in the women’s magazines. It emphasizes precision, flow and grace. The movements don’t appear strenuous. Infomercials pictures studios full of women.

Even the book on Pilates for outdoor athletes was written by a woman — though since the cover pictures her scaling a cliff that few of us men could hope to tackle, she’s obviously got guts.

It’s easy to forget that the first student of Joseph Pilates was Joseph Pilates himself. He went on to become a gymnast, acrobat, diver and successful middleweight boxer. While interned on the Isle of Man during the First World War, he further developed his system with male interns and wounded British soldiers. When he returned to Germany at the end of the war, he trained the military police.

According to this author — who’s studied with Pilates’ oldest surviving student — Pilates came to America to train boxer Max Schmelling. He then opened his own studio in Manhattan.

I’ve noticed that female Pilates author write as though this studio did nothing until the dancing world, including George Ballanchine and Martha Graham, discovered how successful he was at rehabilitating injured dancers.

Lyon, however, claims that before discovered by dancers, Pilates’ clients were boxers, wrestlers and skiers.

The author gives his own testimony. He injured his lower back power lifting during college and it caused him pain for over ten years. He practiced jiu jitsu for eight years, giving him a right AC joint sprain, a migration of the left shoulder’s clavicle and scapulae, plus many sprains and strains. His sedentary day job as a trader kept him bent over a computer screen, bending his upper back and neck forward.

Thanks to his Pilates practice, he has corrected all these issues.

He starts out with traditional mat exercises: the Beginner level, the Intermediate level and at the Advanced level — 40 in all.

If that’s not enough for you, he then includes a Reformer on the Mat curriculum which also has a Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels — 66 total.

The Reformer on the Mat exercises are generally more difficult than the traditional mat movements, so this is really six separate levels. When you’re so advanced you can do all the Advanced Reformer on the Mat exercises with great precision and control, you should be in terrific shape.

I suspect that most of us could take years to get that far, making this book the only one you really need for a long time.

The Complete Book of Pilates For Men by Daniel Lyon Jr