Joan Breibart is Standing Tall

By Jeanne M. Cummings

It’s 2010 and the earth has been shifting, the weather is changing, the financial market is crunching, and people are disoriented. It is enough to live in a troubled economy, let alone sift through more confusion surrounding Pilates and all of it’s competitive information and changing exercises. But there is one thing you can count on – Joan Breibart to set you straight. Founder and President of PhysicalMind Institute, inventor, and author of four books, Joan was before it all and she is ahead of it all. If you study Pilates, you better know her work.

YesPilates.com: Some people in Pilates might describe you as fiery and passionate, while others might say, driven. What would you like people to know about you? What drives you?

Joan Breibart: In 1998, a well-known Bay Area Pilates/Yoga teacher gave a Workshop at the PhysicalMind Institute. She stayed in my guesthouse for five days. Upon leaving, she told me that much to her astonishment I lived the “perfect ayurvedic” lifestyle. Fiery? Perhaps, compared to passive people. Passionate? Definitely. I think Pilates is the best exercise… but it is just exercise. Global warming and over-population are issues that excite passion. As for driven… let’s just say I’ve always had great work ethic.

YP: You’ve had a hand in other, now well known, Pilates teachers becoming successful. What would you like your legacy in Pilates and/or life to be?

JB: That in 1991 I opened the Institute for the Pilates Method, which took this unknown exercise method and put it on the fitness map.

YP: Taking a snapshot of where Pilates is “today”, what do you approve of and what do you not approve of?

JB: Pilates teachers are spending too much time comparing and impressing each other and not enough time finding new clients.

YP: Not only are you a Master Teacher, responsible for putting out “conscious” teachers and helping to open up studios world wide, you are an inventor. Let’s talk about the Tye4 Invention. Did you see there was a demand for it, or did you see that people needed it and you wanted to create the demand?

JB: Let’s start with Master Teacher. First, I am not one in my accepted sense of this label. My definition of Master Teacher is different: a teacher who has forty billable hours every week. Therefore, I don’t qualify as Master Teacher since I don’t teach clients. Second, Tye4 started as a way to get Standing Pilates®, which I invented and launched in 2003, to be more popular. Seven years later, Pilates Style this month runs a six page article on Standing Pilates® referencing my book which has been replaced by our DVD and which should now be updated with the new Tye4. Everything takes forever. People don’t know what they need or even want until it is marketed to them.

YP: You’ve recently improved the design of Tye4, and Standing Pilates® is finally becoming known. In fact, didn’t Lululemon offer it for their community classes in Dallas/ Ft. Worth last month?

JB: Lululemon chose Dancescape as the featured Pilates Studio and owner Zoe Stein Pierce taught our new PhysicalMind workout, which is a mix of traditional matwork; Standing Pilates® and Circular Pilates™. We believe this is the routine that people need today. All participants in the Lululemon class wore the new Tye4.

YP: How did it help them with their Pilates?

JB: Essentially, Tye4 takes these exercises, which are no longer novel, and gives them a new breath. Take Supine Leg Circles. There are at least three leg and three arm bungee variations that assist, add resistance or help stabilize. Do the numbers and you will see that this simple, rather tired exercise can now be experienced in many ways. There are sixteen bungee variations with the Tye4 so there is a lot to play with. Teachers use rollers, balls, free weights, the Magic Circle, Theraband, yoga blocks, etc. to vary these exercises. But Tye4 is easier; it doesn’t stop the flow of movement and since you are wearing it on your body you actually burn more calories and tone faster.

YP: A newer invention of yours is the “Head Floater”, a 21st Century expression of Joe Pilates’ Head Harness. When did you have the “a-ha” moment that this is an important piece of equipment to help with Forward Head Syndrome?

JB: Ninety per cent of the population has some form of this problem, myself included. For every inch that the head is forward, ten pounds of weight is “added” to the head. It’s no wonder why so many people have neck/shoulder discomfort since we are constantly adding weight to our head when looking down at our computers and such. So I have always felt we needed to address this problem more completely, and until I perfected Tye4 the Head Floater had to wait. Wearing Tye4 with the Head Floater helps the client feel the correct head/neck relationship.

YP: Are you working on any new inventions?

JB: Yes. I am working on an IPhone/IPad app that every Pilates teacher and client will find useful. It will be offered in a few weeks. More information will be available both at dietdirectives.com and themethodpilates.com.

YP:You’ve put together the “Evolution of Teaching” description. It is an obvious aid in helping teachers understand the evolution of Pilates that has taken place. What is your main objective with it? How do you want people to use it?

JB: I would like teachers to read it and think about it. Just think. We tend to forget that it is “the mind that moves the body.” That was Joe’s favorite quote.

Tags: Diet Directives, Joan Breibart, PhysicalMind Institute, pilates, Tye4