History of Pilates

Joseph Hubertus Pilates

The right to stay healthy

Pilates is named after its creator, Joseph Hubertus Pilates. Born in 1883, in Mönchengladbach in Germany, Joseph grew up fighting against many illnesses that struck him: asthma, rheumatism and rickets. Against the will of his doctors, Joseph stood-up and began exploring the potential and extraordinary ability of the body, regardless of his disease. He left Germany in 1912 and began his career as a gymnast, boxer, circus artist and quickly became an accomplished athlete with an impeccable body control and a perfectly shaped body.

His philosophy: Every human being is born with a universal law ... the right to stay healthy with a healthy body. From this idea and experience of body control, he developed an innovative training method, which he called "Contrology", now called "Pilates". A comprehensive repertoire of over 500 specific moves to help strengthen and relax the spine and joints of any person, regardless of their current state.

This method, Joseph Pilates taught for the first time during the First World War in 1914 in Britain.

When Britain entered World War I, his German citizenship led to his imprisonment along with other German nationals as “enemy aliens.” This is where Joseph Pilates taught his method for the first time calling it “CONTROLOGY”. He then also worked as a self-defense teacher and physical trainer for the police and the British army. Later he got transfered to a hospital as an assistant nurse, in which he also dealt with injured and immobilized soldiers. Joseph Pilates made practice exercises for those soldiers using springs attached to their beds. Thus, he later developed his first fitness machine (now traditional Pilates machines) on the basis of hospital beds and mattress springs.

After the war, in the 20's, he returned to Germany, his native country and applied his new method of training with some of the most famous dancers of the time and with the German army for their physical preparatory exams (see video sequence). He will also redefine the design of machines based on his experience as a nurse.

In 1926, Joseph Pilates was called into the German army but he decided to escape to the United States. On the boeat he met his future wife Clara, who became à major believer in his teaching and in his potential. Arriving in New York he opened his first training studio, opposite a dance school, where his method became very famous among dancers, actors, athletes and ladies of high society.

Until his death in 1967 at the age of 84, Joseph Pilates practiced his method as an athlete and left behind him an ingenious technique, a way of life and tradition.

Following his death, his wife, Clara Pilates made sure that the methodology of her husband continues to exist through many Pilates trained students, some of the most famous being Romana Kryzanowska, Lolita San Miguel, Ron Fletscher and Kathy Grant (all instructors of first-generation). They opened their own Pilates studios and schools in the 90s, so that the method continues to grow. The new generation of Pilatesinstructors developed, such as Iva Mazzoleni (Instructor of third generation) with her Pilates Institute Switzerland & Pilates Institute Alliance.

Physical preparation and training of self-defense developed during the First World War.