Joseph Pilates

I absolutely love my clients’ intrigues about Pilates so I thought I’d write a very brief (as there is so much more to cover) sum up of the creator Joseph Pilates.

Joseph Pilates was born on 9th December 1883 In Monchengladbach, Germany. Growing up he suffered from Asthma, Rickets and Rheumatic fever, consequently he dedicated his entire life to improving his physical strength. He was introduced by his gymnast enthusiast father to gymnastics and to martial arts. His early jobs involved working in a circus, in boxing and as a self defense trainer. His experience led him to realize the effect modern life style had on people’s lives and went on to devise a series of exercises and training techniques, alongside the all the amazing Pilates apparatus to teach his method.

During World War I he intensely developed and perfected his method which he used for seriously injured veterans originally. He called this method Contrology. It was later on that it was named Pilates to honor him and his pure genius.

Pilates moved to the US and met his future wife Clara. They established a very devoted following for the method and had become extremely well known for its benefits in the dancing community.

Pilates died in New York City in 1967 at the age of 83.

This is a very brief sum-up of Joseph Pilates and how Pilates was created just to answer common questions I get. There is so much more detail to him and how this method came to life. I love when clients ask. I’m always happy to go into much more depth.