History of Pilates

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in Monchengladbach Germany in 1883. As a child, Joe had asthma and other ailments. He turned to exercise and athletics to battle these ailments and was always studying various exercise regimes to expand his knowledge base. He became enamored by the classical Greek ideal of a man balanced in body, mind, and spirit, and he began to develop his own exercise system based on this concept. 

Growing into adulthood, Joe was no longer the sickly child he had once been as he became an avid skier, diver, gymnast, and boxer. 

In 1912 Joe went to England, where he worked as a self-defense instructor for detectives at Scotland Yard. At the outbreak of World War I, Joe was interned as an “enemy alien” with other German nationals. During his internment, Joe refined his ideas and trained other internees in his system of exercise. He rigged springs to hospital beds, enabling bedridden patients to exercise against resistance, an innovation that led to his later equipment designs. 

After his release, Joe returned to Germany. His exercise method gained favour in the dance community.

In 1926, Joe emigrated to the United States. During the voyage he met Clara Zeuner. Joe and Clara opened a ‘body conditioning studio’ in New York, sharing an address with the New York City Ballet. The studio featured the apparatus he designed to enhance his rehabilitation work. It became very popular with dancers, to improve their technique or recover from injuries. 

In 1934 Pilates published a booklet entitled “Your Health” and in 1945 “Return to Contrology”. Through these writings and his students, his method of exercise known as “Contrology” was passed on after his death in 1967 at the age of 83. Joseph trained several teachers as apprentices known as the “elders”. 

In the late 1960’s Alan Herdman, a teacher and dancer from the UK was invited to New York to learn about the Joseph Pilates Method. There, he worked intensively with Carola Trier and Bob Fitzgerald, two instructors who had been trained by Pilates himself. Although well regarded amongst New York’s dance fraternity, Pilates was unknown in the UK at that time and Alan returned in 1970 to set up Britain’s first ever Pilates studio, ‘The Place’ – The London School of Contemporary Dance. Many of Alan’s students were responsible for developing Pilates training in the UK and Australia. They went on to be founding members of organisations such as the Pilates Foundation, Body Control and the Pilates Institute. 

The popularity of the Pilates Method only began to spread in the late 80's and 90's when the media took notice of the Method (and the celebrities who practiced it) and books and videos helped to reach out to a growing public following.  While the Method has evolved and integrated current biomechanical thinking, the roots of the technique are steeped in the philosophy and movement patterns designed by Joseph Pilates over 80 years ago. 

Pilates is now practiced and benefited from by millions every day, in many countries.