Amy Taylor Alpers Rachel Taylor Segel - The Everything® Pilates Book: The ultimate guide to making your body stronger, leaner, and healthier

We dedicate this book to all the students and teachers of the Pilates methodpast, present, and future.

We would never have been able to write this book without the help of many important people. We want to thank all of the following:

Our super models: Debora Kolwey, Lisa Csillan McAleavy, Bryan Meeks, and Jonathan Oldham, as well as Jennifer Czech Bergen, Mary Bischof, Frederica Robin Kolwey, and Kim Haroche.

Our photographers, Steve Collector and Kate Black; our artist, Len Segel; and our equipment supplier, Peak Body Systems.

Thanks also to the following people: Amy Lange, a gifted Pilates teacher, who read our drafts and gave us invaluable advice; our agent, Kathy Welton; Kevin Bowen, and The Pilates Method Alliance; Tom Gordon, Mark Spenard, and David Schwartz; and all the patient and supportive staff, clients, and trainees of The Pilates Center, Boulder, Colorado.

We also want to thank Joe and Clara Pilates and the students they inspiredwho in turn inspired usespecially Romana Kryzanowska, who first instilled the love for Pilates in us, and Kathy Grant, who offered her time and memories.

And most important of all, we want to thank our wonderful families, whose patience, generosity, constant support, and love were essential: Len, Olivia, and Eleanor Segel; and Richard, Nathanael, and Lily Alpers!

As president of the Pilates Method Alliance, I was asked to recommend an author for this project. I did not take this task lightly. Immediately, two people came to my mind. Amy Taylor Alpers and Rachel Taylor Segel are sisters, partners, friends, and, above all, Pilates professionals with the highest integrity. They are the owners of the nationally renowned studio and teacher-training facilityThe Pilates Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Amy and Rachel have been quietly and diligently carrying on the Pilates work with the highest integrity for well over ten years. I knew that their enthusiasm, knowledge, and attention to detail would help to create a remarkable, high-quality Pilates book that our entire community would be proud to see in print.

The EverythingPilates Book was created with love by these two remarkable individuals. Enjoy their insights, knowledge, and expertiseand may Joe and Clara Pilates be with you as you explore this remarkable system of movement.

In health,

Kevin A. Bowen
President, Pilates Method Alliance

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was an extraordinary, outspoken, vibrant personarguably a geniuswho was truly driven to help people be healthy. During his sixty-some years of pioneering work in the fitness industry, Joseph Pilates helped thousands of people be healthy, be alive, and his exceptional and powerful fitness technique is more popular today than ever.

Never in history, Joseph Pilates wrote in his book, Your Health, have more time and money been expended to attain normal physical perfection than in the present era! He was writing in 1934! Though times have changed dramatically since then, the fitness problems he saw around him havent changed much at all. People still suffer from too much stress, tend to lead sedentary lives, and too often try to buy a fast fitness fix or cram their entire fitness program into a few muscle-wrenching workouts a week.