Pilates purity watered down by a tidal wave of popularity

The Saturday morning Piloga class began in a way that would please most traditional yogis -- with meditative breathing. But as the cross-legged students exhaled deeply, the experience morphed into pilates.

"Drop your abs towards your spine," instructed Randi Whitman, owner of Chicago's Frog Temple Pilates studio. "Pull your rib cage away from your pelvis."

For the next hour, the Piloga students flowed between the distinct disciplines of pilates and yoga, two of the fastest growing "soft" exercises in the fitness industry.

For Whitman, blending the two mind-body practices has become more than a treasured creative outlet. Yoga and pilates -- a routine of exercises using mats or equipment that strengthens the muscles surrounding and supporting the body's core -- are necessary complements.

But to Chicago's Juanita Lopez, one of the first pilates teachers in the Midwest, the mere concept of "Piloga," which can also be called Yogalates or Yogilates, is a dreadful adaptation of the real thing.

"You can't mix and match," she declared. "One can benefit the other, and they're both classic systems, but if you mix, you don't get the benefit of either one."

More than ever, Americans are trying to get centered through pilates, a body conditioning system developed by Joseph Pilates and his wife, Clara, in the early 20th Century. But the explosive growth of pilates in the last several years -- participation has increased 176 percent between 2000 and 2002 -- and its popularity in health clubs have raised major concerns among pilates purists.

Some fear that the updated, modern adaptations are watering down what Joseph Pilates, a native of Germany, crafted while interned in a London camp during World War I. Meanwhile, as demand has increased, so has the need for new teachers.

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