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Stretching, strengthening, firming the Pilates Way by Dick Peterson Public Relations Lyn Swan said she was 4 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds before she began receiving Pilates instruction at the MUSC Wellness Center.  “That was four weeks ago, and now look!” she said with a twirl. Liz Socia, front, and Lyn Swan stretch to the limit to increase flexibility in their leg muscles. But what showed through that obvious hyperbole was real. It was Swan’s sense of humor, for sure. But it was also a confidence and body-awareness that Pilates instructor Lisa Huddleson said comes with the muscle stretching, strengthening and firming regimen she teaches. Reverting to a more realistic testimonial, Swan listed noticeable differences in her abdominal muscles, overall strength and balance and a generally more graceful feeling. Two other Huddleson clients there for their weekly sessions were as positive. “It got me in shape, increased my flexibility, rotation and posture,” said Jane Goodridge as she pulled on a handle, connected to a cord, strung through a pulley and attached to a spring. A kind of tension transfer—body tension into spring tension. It relaxes her, she said. Mind and body. For Liz Socia, it's kinks begone. Muscle aches, stiffness, decreased flexibility and any of those other harbingers of impending age need not show their ugly faces before their time. As far as she’s concerned, exercise innovator Joseph Pilates has pushed them so far into the future as to no longer be a concern of hers. She's been at it for eight or nine sessions now. Born in 1880 near Dusseldorf, Germany, Pilates developed his exercise techniques out of a determination to recover from a sickly childhood. Asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever were ailments of the past by the time he was 14 thanks to his study of both Eastern and Western forms of exercise, including yoga, zen and ancient Grecian and Roman regimens. World War I caught him in England where he was held for a year with other German nationals. It was in the internment camp that he, by then an accomplished boxer, taught physical fitness to his fellow internees and devised exercise machines using spring tension to help rehabilitate those with wartime disabilities. Those machines were the prototypes of the exercise equipment Swan, Socia and Goodridge use each time they visit the Wellness Center for a Pilates session. Pilates instructor Lisa Huddleson studies Jane Goodridge's form as she pulls slowly on spring tension of a Pilates-inspired exercise device. Huddleson reminds her clients to concentrate on every movement, to slowly and precisely execute each rotation. It’s a mind-body experience that creates body awareness, she says. No impact on the joints, no weight on the body, just spring resistance. Huddleson adjusts the resistance according to her client’s strength and ability. Pilates’ theory focuses on the belly as the center or core of the body. “From this powerhouse of the body, everything else gets strengthened and elongated,” she explained. The stretching, flexibility, and muscle strengthening appeals to runners, skaters and rehab patients, Huddleson said. And Pilates has a broad following among dancers who benefit from the flexibility and balance they gain from the mind-body emphasis. Huddleson, who began teaching Pilates exercise after being a client herself for about two years, is certified in the technique and is also a licensed massage therapist. She participated in Pilates workshops and training in Colorado, and has been teaching the Pilates exercises for nearly five years. Her Pilates sessions are conducted either as semi-private (two clients) for $20 per hour or private at $35 per hour. The sessions are open to anyone and do not require a Wellness Center membership. She also teaches a group mat class, which requires either a center membership or an aerobics pass. Huddleson can be reached at her studio in the Wellness Center at 792-9702.