History of Joseph H Pilates

Pilates was enamored with the classical Greek ideal of a man who is balanced equally in body, mind, and spirit. His experiences taught him to believe that the 1950’s life-style, with bad posture and inefficient breathing, was the root of poor health.  His answer to these problems was to design a unique series of life enhancing physical exercises that help to correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength and flexibility; as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function. 

Joseph's father has been described as a prize-winning gymnast and ran a family gym.  His mother, a resourceful and caring mother of nine, studied and applied the naturopathic skills as best she could. Naturopaths believe in stimulating the body to heal itself, and it is likely that his mother's healing philosophy colored his own approach to therapeutic exercises.  Born in Mönchengladbach (small town near Düsseldorf, Germany), on December 9th 1883, Pilates was said to be a skinny, sickly child. He suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. The older bullies taunted him with "Pontius Pilate, killer of Christ". He was too sickly to fight back or get away, and it was this situation that caused him to begin his life journey to fitness and health, and a desire to help people in similar need.

A family physician gave him a discarded anatomy book: "I learned every page, every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young." He studied both Eastern and Western forms of exercise including yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman regimens. By the time he was 14 he had developed his body to the point that he was modeling for anatomy charts!

In 1912 he went to England for further training as a boxer. He found employment there as a circus performer. In 1914 after WWI broke out he was interned along with other German nationals in a "camp" for enemy aliens in Lancaster. It was here that he began refining and teaching his minimal equipment system of mat exercises that later became "Contrology".

His caring disposition led him to request that he help the patients in the infirmary with exercise. Bed rest was the norm in those days, so he was told, "you can do anything you like with them, as long as they stay in bed". So Joseph took the springs from the beds and rigged them up to the bedposts as exercise apparatus for the bedridden! Thus was born the Trapezium table ("Trap Table"). Joseph was both inventive and resourceful in solving the health and exercise needs of his friends and neighbors!

When the 1918 'flu epidemic swept the world, (it killed millions, and an internment camp is an ideal breeding ground for such epidemics to hit hard), none of Joe's followers succumbed!

After the war Joe returned to Germany and began training the Hamburg Military Police in self-defense and physical training as well as taking on personal clients.  The urgings of his American based relatives - his uncle (an influential catholic priest), his brother Frederick, and his sister Helen, would have played a part in his decision to move. The Last Half of the "Life of Pilates Bio" was spent in America...

On the urging of boxing expert Nat Fleischer and with the aid of Max Schmelling, Pilates did move to the U.S. It was en route to America that Joe met Clara who was to become his wife. She was a kindergarten teacher who was suffering from arthritic pain and Joe worked with her on the boat to heal her and give her a new lease of life.

Upon arriving in New York City he and Clara took over a boxing gym at 939 Eighth Ave, in the same building as several dance studios and rehearsal spaces. It was this proximity that made "Controlology" such an intrinsic part of the life, rehab and training of many dancers: They were sent to Joe to be "fixed".

In spite of being a health guru, he was renowned for liking cigars, whiskey (or was that vodka?), and women. He was the life of many parties, and was to be seen running on Manhattan streets, in the dead of winter, in his habitual "bikini bottom" training attire! - He believed in fitness, supporting life's rich goals.

In 1967, at age 83, Pilates' powerful body died from advanced emphysema from smoking cigars for too many years, leaving the world the cherished remains of the creations of his mind: his method, apparatus, writings, and the teachers he'd trained, some of whom still live and work today.