HISTORY OF PILATES

Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. Because he suffered from physical ailments such as rickets, he became fascinated with fitness and healing, and studied different exercise forms, anatomy, and biomechanics to overcome his own limitations until he was in exemplary shape.

While interned as a German national in England during WWI, Pilates began teaching fitness and rehabilitation to inmates at the camp. Instead of using his own strength to heal patients, he manipulated hospital bed-springs to do it for him, and these experiments ultimately became the foundation for the equipment used today. He claims that, thanks to his fitness regiment, no one died in his camp during the Great Influenza of 1918.

In 1925, Pilates left Germany and headed for the U.S. where he opened up a studio in NYC with his wife, Clara. The Method of Contrology, as it was originally named, was the “it” studio for fitness and rehabilitation, and many legendary dancers, such as Martha Graham, actors such as Sir Laurence Olivier, and celebrities such as Mrs. Jean Vanderbilt all went to Joe.

< This piece of equipment was originally designed by Jospeh H. Pilates