Joseph Pilates

Born near Düsseldorf, Germany in 1880, Joseph Hubertus Pilates had a lifelong interest in body conditioning. Small and sickly as a child, he was afflicted with asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. His father was a prize-winning gymnast and his mother a naturopath who believed in the principle of stimulating the body to heal itself without artificial drugs. Influenced by his mother's healing philosophy and his father's physical achievements, Pilates quickly became determined to overcome his physical disadvantages.

Dedicated to becoming stronger, young Pilates began to self-educate in anatomy, bodybuilding, wrestling, yoga, gymnastics, and martial arts. He soon achieved an almost Adonis-like anatomical ideal to the extent that at the age of 14 he was posing as a model for anatomy charts. As a circus entertainer, Pilates performed a "living Greek statue" act. He was so enamored with the classical Greek ideal of a man, balanced equally in body, mind, and spirit that he came to believe our modern lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing was the roots of poor health.

Pilates answer to these problems was to design a unique series of vigorous physical exercises to help correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength, and flexibility, as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function. He also invented a variety of machines based on spring-resistance that could be used to perform these exercises.

Pilates had a unique inspiration for his new apparatuses. While working in England as a self-defense instructor for detectives at Scotland Yard, Pilates was interned at the outbreak of World War I as an "enemy alien" with other German nationals. During his stay at the internment camps, Pilates insisted that everyone in his cell block participate in daily exercise routines to help maintain both their physical and mental well-being, even though the health conditions in the camps were not great. However, some of the injured German soldiers were too weak to get out of bed. Not content to leave them lying idle, Pilates took springs from the beds, attached them to the headboards and footboards of the iron bed frames and created equipment that provided a type of resistance exercise for his bedridden comrades. This system formed the foundation for his style of body conditioning and specialized exercise apparatus, which he brought to New York City when he opened the first New York Pilates Studio® in 1926. For the rest of his life, Pilates continued to develop his exercise system and create new pieces of equipment.

Today, the Pilates Method is used internationally by individuals at all levels of fitness as well as by dance companies, Broadway shows, students at performing arts schools and universities, sports teams, spa clients, and fitness enthusiasts at private health clubs and gyms. Joseph Pilates' work lives on with many famous athletes, dancers, models, and actors - as well as business professionals, housewives, and retirees - who have joined the ranks of practitioners everywhere improving their lives with Pilates.