Reiner Grootenhuis

My background is in Chinese martial arts which I trained from the age of 16, starting with Tai Chi. During my psychology studies I learnt the Chinese martial arts Weng Chun developed by the martial monks of the Southern Shaolin Temple, to protect themselves from attacks by pirates and robber. After finishing my master's degree in psychology I founded a martial arts school in my hometown in Germany, which still exists today, run by its second owner now. Due to my workload as a top executive at one of Germany's largest utilities, my activities as a university lecturer for Marketing as well as my MBA part-time executive studies, Kung Fu and other sports were taking a back seat. To bring my body back to life, I started doing Pilates. In parallel to my day job I did the BASI Comprehensive Teacher Training with Miriam Friedrich Honório. During my Pilates education 2010 - 2011, I founded the internet forum pilates-contrology-forum.com and some months later, following a wish of Lolita San Miguel, the pilates-contrology-forum group on Facebook, which today counts over 6500 Pilates teachers. Today the forum has additional groups like an events group, a research group and a marketplace to sell Pilates equipment. In March 2012 I quit my former job and opened my own Pilates studio in Toenisvorst, only 25 km away from Joseph Pilates birthplace Moenchengladbach. Since 2015 I am a board member of the Heritage Congress which was founded by Lolita San Miguel and is now run by Kathy Corey.