Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. He had been a sickly child with asthma and rickets, and written off by doctors as an invalid. He decided at a young age that this wasn’t his to be his role in life and set about learning all he could about his body and how to improve it.
At the outbreak of the World War in 1914, he was living and working in the UK as a circus performer and a boxer – a testament in itself as to how well his method had worked on his own body. As a German national he was placed under forced internment. In the camps he taught fellow camp members the concepts and exercises he had developed over many years of his own study of disciplines such as yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman physical regimens and many others. It was there he began devising the system of original exercises known today as “matwork”, or exercises done on the floor working the body’s weight against gravity. He called his form of exercise “Contrology.” Later, when he was moved to another camp, he started to work as a nurse/caretaker to the many internees struck with wartime disease and physical injury. Here, he began devising equipment to rehabilitate his “patients,” taking springs from the beds and rigging them to create spring resistance and “movement” for the bedridden. This was where Pilates developed his many inventions including the Reformer, The Cadillac, WundaChair and Ladder and Barrel.
After the end of the War, Joe left for New York City, meeting his wife Clara on the journey. They founded a studio in New York City and over time, Joe & Clara’s work became well known and their business grew and continued into the 1960s. His method related to encouraging the use of the mind to control muscles. One of Pilates favourite quotes is “It’s the mind itself that builds the body”. The Pilates method focuses attention on core postural muscles that help keep the human body balanced and provide support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and of alignment of the spine, and strengthen the deep torso and abdominal muscles.
Joseph and Clara Pilates established a devout following in the local dance and the performing-arts community of New York. Well-known dancers, actors and athletes became devotees and regularly attended the Pilates studio for training and rehabilitation.
Joseph Pilates wrote several books, including “Return to Life through Contrology” and “Your Health” and was a prolific inventor with over 26 patents cited. Joe and Clara had a number of disciples who continued to teach variations of his method or in some cases focused exclusively on preserving the method and the instructor-training techniques they learned during their studies with Joe and Clara.
Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 87 in New York.
A link to a video of Joseph Pilates on YouTube can be found here and here.