Sports Medicine was always the end goal for me. Once being treated for a high school football injury, I told the physician working on my shoulder: “I’m going to establish my career here one day.” He looked at me as if I had more than a shoulder injury, and I looked at him as if to say, “You’ll see.” I was 16.
I knew from an early age that I wanted to work in Sports Medicine in some capacity. I wanted to help people achieve their rehabilitative goals and help them to design sustaining, gaining, and preventative exercise routines. However, first I wanted to serve my country in the Armed Forces. After several successful years and a few tours with the Marine Corps, it was time to come home. While going through my end of active service exit training, I was approached by my C.O. (Commanding Officer), who said, “Are you sure you want to do this? Your record book is impeccable, and you’ve achieved a lot, with rank”. I assured him that I knew it was time to go, feeling that if I didn’t at that time, my plan would be disrupted and possibly not come to fruition.
After completing my studies at the university, I wound up working at the Sports Medicine Clinic, where I was treated years earlier as a teen for my shoulder. While working there, two of my colleagues went to be certified in Pilates to use it to assist patients with their rehabilitation. When they introduced it to the staff, I said to myself, “THIS is it!” I felt as if it had everything, the strength, the stretch, the control. It was mindfully preventative, holistically therapeutic, and flat-out quality exercise. I became my colleagues’ test body as they continued their training. A few years later, I went through my Pilates certification training.
Meanwhile, I had become the proud Papa of beautiful twin daughters enrolled in a Spanish immersion school. I had been studying the language for a few years and was consuming everything in Spanish, so why not Pilates?
One day, I came across a DVD with the phrase “Pilates Y Mas” on it. I called the number on the DVD (which rang in Puerto Rico), and who answered? None other than Pilates Elder Lolita San Miguel, and as they say in show business, the rest is history. I completed Lolita’s Master Mentor program and then studied with many other Pilates greats, which I continue to do to this day.
I teach Pilates because I believe in the method. I believe in the benefits of this work which Joseph Pilates called Contrology. I have experienced the benefits in my own body and witnessed it in many others. The human body and its many complexities have always fascinated me. I have always gravitated towards a more holistic approach to treating an ailment, gaining the winning edge, or just exercising in a mindful manner. I don’t necessarily do Pilates just for the sake of doing Pilates. I do it to enhance my life, as it provides the strength, flexibility, coordination, and clarity of mind needed to do all of the other things I wish to do. I firmly believe that we are all housed in the greatest vehicle that we will ever own, and that is the human body. And I feel that the practice of Pilates is a great way to keep it up and running, as Joseph Pilates said, with “spontaneous zest and pleasure”.
Robert Edison-Turner is a Marine Corps Veteran that discovered Pilates while working in Sports Physical Therapy after his University Studies in Sports Medicine Exercise Science.
Robert initially certified with Stott Pilates, then completed Lolita San Miguel’s Master Mentor program, and later Graduate study with Lori Coleman- Brown at Atlas Pilates in Seattle.
Robert continues to travel throughout the year learning, teaching, and training with various teachers in the Pilates community.
