Joseph Pilates: The Mastermind Behind a Fitness Revolution
I believe understanding the history of the man behind Pilates is essential to stay true to its origins while practicing the method.
Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born on December 9, 1883, in Mönchengladbach, Germany. His father was a prize-winning gymnast, and his mother was a naturopath who believed in the body’s ability to heal itself without artificial drugs. Both had a significant influence on Pilates’ life and work.
As a child, he was frail and sickly, suffering from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. Determined to overcome his ailments, he self-educated himself in anatomy, bodybuilding, wrestling, yoga, gymnastics, and martial arts. He became an accomplished boxer, skier, and diver, ultimately achieving an Adonis-like physique. At 14, his body was so well-developed (“anatomical ideal”) that he posed as a model for anatomy charts.
Joseph Pilates believed that modern lifestyles, poor posture, and inadequate breathing were the primary causes of poor health. He devised a unique series of vigorous physical exercises to correct muscular imbalances, improve posture, coordination, balance, strength, and flexibility, and enhance breathing capacity and organ function.
He also invented various machines (apparatus) to perform these exercises, primarily based on spring resistance. The Reformer is one of the most common apparatuses used today.
One story about the inspiration for his apparatus comes from his time in England before World War I. While touring as a circus performer and professional boxer (even teaching self-defense to the Scotland Yard police force), he was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man when war broke out. The camp’s health conditions were dire, but Pilates led daily exercise routines for his fellow internees. For injured German soldiers too weak to participate, he rigged springs to the beds, creating rudimentary versions of his apparatus, similar to today’s Cadillac.
After the war, Pilates returned to Germany, training police officers and collaborating with dancers and physical exercise experts. Around 1925, he emigrated to the United States and met his wife (and teaching partner) Clara on the boat to New York City. They opened their first studio (Body Contrology Studio) in Manhattan near several dance studios and continued developing his exercise system and creating new equipment throughout his life.
Joseph Pilates passed away on October 9, 1967, in New York City at the age of 83.
According to Romana Kryzanowska, a close student of Joseph Pilates who became the director of the Body Contrology Studio after his death, “You can say what Pilates is in three words: Stretch with Strength and Control. And the control part is the most important because that makes you use your mind.”