The creator of Pilates, Joseph Pilates, was born in 1883 near Düsseldorf, Germany. His father had been a gymnast and his mother a naturopath.

 

As a child Joseph was bullied for being a sickly child, he had rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever, but became determined to overcome his ailments and self educated himself in human anatomy, gymnastics, bodybuilding, yoga and martial arts. His physique was such that he was posing as a model at 14 for anatomy charts.

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Joseph believed our modern lifestyle, bad posture and inefficient breathing were the roots of ill health. His answer to these problems was to design a unique series of vigorous physical exercises that helped correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength, and flexibility, as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function.

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Joseph left Germany before World War I and toured England as a circus performer and professional boxer, even teaching self-defence to Scotland Yard police force. Unfortunately when war broke out, he was interned in England as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man.

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The health conditions in the internment camps were not great, but Pilates insisted that everyone in his cell block participate in daily exercise routines to help maintain their physical and mental well-being. 

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However, some injured German soldiers were too weak to get out of bed. Not content to leave his comrades lying idle, Pilates took springs from the beds and attached them to the headboards and footboards of the iron bed frames, turning them into equipment that provided a type of resistance exercise for his bedridden “patients”.

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Pilates returned to Germany after the war, and his achievements with the German soldiers in the prison camp did not go unnoticed. In 1926, the Kaiser invited him to begin training the German secret police.

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However, Pilates decided instead to emigrate to the United States. He met his dedicated teaching partner, Clara, on the boat to New York City. Together they opened the first Body Contrology Studio on Eighth Avenue at 56th Street in Manhattan, in the same building as a number of dance studios. It was this proximity that made ‘Controlology’ such an intrinsic part of the life, rehab and training of many dancers – they were sent to Joe to be “fixed”.

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Pilates fought for his technique to gain medical acceptance and although consistently ‘fixing’ dancers and movie stars this recognition eluded him. 

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He wrote two books, the second in 1945 ‘Return to Life through Contrology’ explained how his disciplined approach to health and wellness would in fact impact the world so positively it would eliminate world suffering. He was an exceptional visionary with passionate beliefs, and felt quite sure he was born before his ‘time’.

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Several early students of Joseph and Clara became exceptional teachers in their own right. These first-generation Pilates teachers have played a profound role in the evolution of Pilates although it has been a journey of many twists and turns. Including an historic law-suit in 2000 to own ‘Pilates’ as a trademark, which was denied making the word Pilates a broader system of exercise available to all. This opened the doors to its international expansion into the studios, clubs, gyms and homes via the web as we know it today.