Karen Frischmann
I discovered Pilates 22 years ago in an article in a women’s magazine. The equipment was really cool looking and it promised that Pilates would develop long lean dancer-like muscles – I mean, who wouldn’t want that? So I set off to find a studio in Los Angeles to check it out. It took me a month of research, but I found a studio in my neighborhood and started taking classes with Mari Winsor.
Pilates made me feel amazing and my interest and fascination with the method began to border on obsession. I could not get enough. In addition to making me stronger and improving my posture it helped me handle the stress of my job as an assistant director in film.
In 1996 I decided to leave the stress of production and the studio where I was training was offering their first certification program. I figured it would be a low stress flexible job and I could figure out where I wanted to go from there.
That flexible job became a 20-year career, which I credit in large part to Jay Grimes.
“WE HAVE ONE EXERCISE AND 500 VARIATIONS. – DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT ONE EXERCISE IS? THE DOUBLE LEG PULL. IT HAS EVERYTHING AND YOU CAN FIND IT IN EVERYTHING.”
Jay made that statement at the end of my very first lesson in 2000. That one statement flipped my understanding of Pilates on end. I went back to the studio I was working at (VERY sore and shaky) and worked through the ENTIRE repertoire.
He was right. That one statement sent me on a mission to understand all I could about Pilates and how it worked as a complete method. On his urging I expanded my education with Romana Kryzanowska and Shari Meija Santo at Drago’s Gym in New York. They added even more richness and depth to my understanding of the work.
