Joseph H. Pilates

The Pilates Method was developed in 1926 by Joseph Hubertus Pilates (pronounced Puh-LAH-tees). It combines the mental focus of Eastern disciplines such as Yoga and Tai Chi with Western emphasis on strength and stamina.

Born near Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1880, Joseph Pilates suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a child. Looking for a way to improve his health and condition, he studied various forms of exercise and developed a special regimen which allows practitioners to strengthen and elongate their muscles.

Joseph Pilates was a gymnast and pugilist who had creative, indeed brilliant, ideas about physical fitness and rehabilitation following physical injury. In a British internment camp in World War I, he rigged a hospital bed so that patients could begin their recovery while still flat on their backs. That idea evolved into the Trapeze Table (Cadillac), one of the main components of what was to become a whole method of exercise, which Mr. Pilates called "Contrology". He also invented, for this purpose, the Universal Reformer, which is equipped with straps and springs to provide resistance.

His method of exercise later became known as the "Pilates Method". For more than 70 years the Pilates Method has been utilized in studios and physical therapy centers around the world, becoming increasingly popular in the last 20 years. The primary focus of the Pilates Method is the process itself, experiencing movement from the inside out. It is a series of sequential and carefully performed core movements, each designed to stretch and strengthen the muscles involved. It increases tone, flexibility, postural alignment, coordination and endurance.

"...the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind." - Joseph H. Pilates (1881 - 1967)