| PILATES: His/story |
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Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. He was a sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever, and it was these illnesses that inspired Pilates to dedicate his life to becoming physically stronger. In his youth, Pilates studied and became proficient at bodybuilding, diving, skiing, and gymnastics, and by the age of 14, Pilates was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts.
In 1912, Pilates moved to England and worked as a boxer, circus performer, and self defence trainer of English detectives. During World War I, he was interned as a prisoner in Lancaster Castle. Whilst there, he worked as a nurse and trained other interns in physical fitness. He set up pulley systems above patients’ beds to enable them to exercise and later developed the Cadillac, Reformer and other equipment of which modern versions can be seen in the latest Pilates studios. After the war Pilates continued his fitness programme in Hamburg working with the local Police.
By 1926 Pilates left Germany to live in America. Whilst on the ship to New York he met his future wife Clara. Once in New York, Pilates set up an exercise studio and by 1940 he had achieved notoriety in the dance community. A dance magazine in 1956 reported ‘virtually every dancer in New York between 1939 and 1951 has meekly submitted to the spirited instruction of Joe Pilates’.
During his lifetime only two of Pilates’ students opened up their own studios. When, in 1967 Pilates passed away, he had left no will and no succession for the Pilates work to carry on. Over the subsequent years many more Pilates studios were opened and more Pilates training courses were developed. Instructors brought innovations and advancements to the Pilates’ work, and it is still advancing and developing throughout the world to this day.
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| Joseph Pilates 1880-1967 |