Here is what Joe’s book says regarding principles:
“GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF CONTROLOGY
Contrology is not a fatiguing system of dull, boring, abhorred exercises repeated daily "ad- nauseam." Neither does it demand your joining a gymnasium nor the purchasing of expensive apparatus. You may derive all the benefits of Contrology in your own home. The only unchanging rules you must conscientiously obey are that you must always faithfully and without deviation follow the instructions accompanying the exercises and always keep your mind wholly concentrated on the purpose of the exercises as you perform them. This is vitally important in order for you to gain the results sought, otherwise, there would be no valid reason for your interest in Contrology. Moreover, you must accept all collateral advice with equal fidelity. Remember that you are teaching yourself--right! The benefits of Contrology depend solely upon your performing the exercises exactly according to instructions--and not otherwise.
Remember, too, that "Rome was not built in a day," and that PATIENCE and PERSISTENCE are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor. Practice your exercises diligently with the fixed and unalterable determination that you will permit nothing else to sway you from keeping faith with yourself. At times you may feel tempted to "take a night off." Don't succumb to this momentary weakness of indecision, or rather, wrong decision. Decide to remain true to yourself. Think of what would happen if the stokers firing the boilers of a giant ocean liner were to decide to "take a night off." You know the answer. If they were to repeat this action, you know the result. The human body, fortunately, can withstand more neglect, successfully, than can the complicated machinery of a modern steamship. However, that is no good reason why we should unnecessarily and unreasonably tax our bodies beyond bounds of endurance, especially since doing so results only in hurting ourselves. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, said: "To neglect one's body for any other advantage in life is the greatest of follies."
Make up your mind that you will perform your Contrology exercise ten minutes without fail. Amazingly enough, once you travel on this Contrology "Road to Health" you will subconsciously lengthen your trips on it from ten to twenty or more minutes before you even realize it. Why? The answer is simple: The exercises have stirred your sluggish circulation into action and to performing its duty more effectively in the matter of discharging through the bloodstream the accumulation of fatigue-products created by muscular and mental activities. Your brain clears and your will power functions.”
Return to Life through Contrology 1945 by Joseph Pilates and William John Miller Sounds to me like principles being talked about are:
Obedience (follow instructions)
Concentration Patience Persistence Discipline “Unlike most exercise programs, the Pilates Method follows carefully laid-out principles based upon a well-constructed philosophical and theoretical foundation (one without mysticism or appeals to unseen forces, divine or otherwise).”
“…the method relies on CONCENTRATION.”
“The other watchwords are:
CONTROL
CENTERING PRECISION FLOWING MOVEMENT BREATHING The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning 1980 Friedman and Eisen It was the Friedman and Eisen book so closely mirrored by Lyon that most discussion of principles is based upon. I’m here to tell you that if it is a method at all the first principle has to be CONTROL because that is the name of the method: Contrology. The object is control, the definition of control is “the complete coordination of body, mind and spirit.” The second principle has to be CONCENTRATION given Joe’s own words above.
Then CENTER, (coming out from the center)
with PRECISION (to get uniform development) in FLOW (you have to press the flow to find the fusion of body mind and spirit) that rides within the BREATH. CONTROL So, if you are going to talk about Pilates in terms of these principles I suggest you at least place them in an appropriate order. When you don’t understand Pilates as anything more than principles that is all you can represent it as.
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