Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates (and Pilates-related) news from around the web. Enjoy!

• LifePower in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business JournalIt looks like some of those 2010 fitness trends are spot on; here’s a major corporation trying on the “yoga gym” idea. Life Time Fitness is testing a new club concept called LifePower, a smaller, “boutique-style” gym that focuses primarily on yoga and Pilates. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reports on the opening of the second-ever location of the LifePower brand, and catches up with Life Time’s CEO, who calls it “a higher-end, futuristic, functional training that top-end personal trainers can deliver.”

• While we’re on the topic of the gym biz, here’s one we missed in the last edition of Newsfeed. It’s Survival of the Fittest for Small Gyms, from the Los Angeles Times, takes a look at how the little guys are faring in this rough economy, with some encouraging numbers.

• Pilates continues to enter the Smartphone app market. Here’s veteran instructor Lynda Lippin’s review of FitDeck Mobile’s new Pilates app for BlackBerry.

• The Indianapolis Star gave us this quick, concise upper back extension series, courtesy of instructor Beth Lohman from Zionsville, Indiana’s Pilates Wellness Studio, as well as this fun nugget about Indianapolis Colts linebacker Gary Brackett’s Pilates regimen.

• A pricing structure worth noting as we ride out the recession: any-price classes. Read about how a new Brooklyn yoga studio, Dharma Yoga Brooklyn, is hedging its bets on a 100% donation-based model.

• The New York Times ran a couple of articles of interest to Pilates practitioners lately. Even More Reasons to Get a Move On shows that regular exercise promotes healthier aging and longer life—not exactly a shocker, but it breaks down the details. Evidence That Little Touches Do Mean So Much points to studies that illuminate the power of touch, including one that correlates pro basketball teams’ performance with their proclivity to touch one another—worth considering when you’re cueing your next client.

Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates news from around the web. Enjoy!

• Marchioli and Swieczkowski in The Dallas Morning NewsA Dallas-area multiple sclerosis patient is walking down stairs, standing up straight and even wearing heels again, thanks to the Pilates work she’s been doing. At first, Rebecca Swieczkowski at Get ReFormed Pilates in Frisco, TX, had to move Sharon Marchioli’s legs and support her body. Because Marchioli tired quickly, the two would chat during breaks between exercises and became fast friends. “I am just like a liberated woman right now, totally liberated,” Marchioli told The Dallas Morning News. Click here to read their story.

• The U.K.’s Daily Telegraph introduced us to Poolates (created by American Pilates instructor Rebecca Pfeiffer) which features interesting adaptations of Pilates concepts for exercises in the pool. 

• While we’re on the subject of “-ates” hybrids, the latest thing in the land down under is Burlates, according to Australia’s Daily Telegraph. Burlesque star Rachel St. James has dropped Pilates concepts into movement with a burlesque flair and is leading the Aussie charge in the realm of “boudoir fitness.”

• Pilates and osteoporosis expert Rebekah Rotstein breaks down myths and shares do’s and don’ts for living with osteoporosis in this CNN video clip.

• About.com’s Marguerite Ogle brought us this lengthy interview with BASI Pilates founder Rael Isacowitz.

• Australia’s Daily Telegraph also ran this interesting piece about an Aussie world champion swimmer using Pilates to replicate the performance-enhancing qualities of high-tech “super” swimsuits, which constrict swimmers’ bodies so they don’t drop their hips when fatigued. “It’s not like I’m trying to build muscle there. It’s more trying to teach those smaller muscles to work properly when they need to,” butterfly champ Marieke Guehrer told the newspaper.

Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates (and Pilates-related) news from around the web. Enjoy!

• Kevin BowenPeak Pilates announced earlier this month that Kevin Bowen, Co-Founder and former President and Executive Director of the PMA, signed on as Peak’s new Director of Education. Bowen has held positions with Equinox, David Barton Gyms and Pinnacle Health Clubs. Just before joining Peak, Bowen was President/Director of Pilates Miami and the Pilates Education Group, a provider of continuing education and Pilates instructor training programs to studios and clubs. (No link here, we received the information in a press release.)

• One Reformer session a week may reduce the risk of falling in older adults, blogs Sherri Betz, per the results of a pilot study from the Core Conditioning PTs.

• Another fitness trends roundup, this time from Chicago blogger Maya Henderson, with more of a “mind-body” focus. We like her observations about digital fitness, yoga gyms, and “Pilates specialty classes.” Also worth mentioning: her tip of the hat to Pilates-Pro.com. Thanks, Maya!

• About.com’s Marguerite Ogle rounded up the top five Pilates news stories of 2009, a handy recap of last year’s most newsworthy moments for the Pilates industry.

• FitSugar offered useful advice for Pilates newbies in this How to Start: Your First Pilates Mat Class post.

• The Denver Post took a long look at two new barre studios in the area, Pure Barre and Bar Method. Looks like barre work should have landed on one of those fitness trends lists!

Cirque School L.A.

Our semiregular rundown of Pilates news from around the Web. Enjoy!

• Been searching for a place where you can do Pilates and fly with the greatest of ease? Look no further than Cirque School L.A., which blends Pilates with the circus arts, and grew from founder Aloysia Gavre’s desire “to give anybody with any body the opportunity to ‘hang by their knees,’ even if it’s just once, and create a hybrid of fitness programming.” Read Digital City’s interview with Gavre.

• More 2010 fitness trend forecasting, this time from the American Council on Exercise. No direct mention of Pilates, but functional fitness and credentialing both get a nod.

• The hottest new Pilates prop: a baby! If you’ve ever wondered how mommy and baby Pilates classes work, check out this video news clip, aptly headlined “NBA star’s wife uses baby to exercise,”  from MSNBC’s The Grio. 

• Longtime fitness instructor Andrea Metcalf introduced Live-alates, simple Pilates-inspired moves for better living, on Oprah.com.

• Pilates trainer Meleah Rubio, a former cheerleader, works with University of Texas football players two to three times her size, and says they’ve really warmed up to Pilates. “It’s made them more aware of their body and their breathing. And injury prevention has been huge,” she tells News 8 Austin in this segment. Hook ‘em, Horns!

• Real Pilates maven Alycea Ungaro discussed tailoring workouts to body types with local cable network New York One.

• Soap opera star Susan Lucci has partnered with Fila to launch a Pilates apparel line for the Home Shopping Network. Lucci launched her Malibu Pilates System on the channel last year.

• Karena Lineback and her studio Pilates Teck got props for their homemade contribution to the Santa Clarita, California, holiday Festival of Trees, and raised cash for the local Boys and Girls Club to boot. Kudos!

Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates (and Pilates-related) news from around the Web. Enjoy!

At PHIT in the Hartford Courant

• Here’s a feel-good story for a pre-holiday weekend. In Sharing Their Own Special Space, from the Hartford Courant, Pilates instructor Susannah Israel goes every day to the place she got married: her Pilates studio, PHIT. “This building is part of our romance,” Susannah told the Courant. “I’m literally in the room [where] we took our vows. It has such a good karma.”

• The New York Times ran a few pieces of interest for Pilates and fitness professionals recently: The Best Exercises for Healthy Bones, on exercise and bone density, Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious, and this piece on a burgeoning competitive yoga movement, Is the Spirit of Competition in the Soul of Yoga? Yikes!

• Pilates: A Thinking Way of Moving, is an examination of Joe’s original principles, from exercise physiologist Angie Ferguson in The Fort Myers, Fla., News-Press.

• Metro International newspapers featured Viveca Jensen’s Piloxing, including three exercises with photos.

• Researchers confirmed Texting Can Be a Pain in the Neck and Shoulders, WebMD reports.

• Yahoo’s Shine recommended a 15-minute a.m. round of Pilates in Why Exercising in the Morning Will Change Your Life, with six suggested moves to start the day.

• And for a little pre-Thanksgiving fun, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got an inside look at how the Radio City Rockettes stay fit during their high-kicking holiday season.