Joseph Pilates - A brief history...

Joseph H. Pilates was born in Mönchengladbach in Germany, in 1880. He was a sickly child who suffered from a range of health problems including asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. As a result, he dedicated his entire life to improving his physical strength. He began studying body-building, yoga and gymnastics, and by the age of 14 was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts.

He came to believe that the "modern" life-style, bad posture, and inefficient breathing lay at the roots of poor health. His research inspired him to devise a series of exercises and training-techniques.

In 1912 Pilates moved to England, getting by as a boxer, circus-performer and self-defense trainer. During the World War 1 the British authorities interned him with other German citizens in a camp in the Isle of Man, where he trained other inmates in fitness and exercises. Here the beginnings of the Pilates Method began to take shape.

He went on to emigrate to America, where he opened a studio in New York. He taught and supervised his students until shortly before his death in 1967 at the age of 87.