Pilates History
Joseph Pilates was born near Düsseldorf, Germany in 1880. Not a great deal is known about his childhood, but it would appear he was a frail and not very strong child, suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever.
 His drive and determination to overcome these ailments led him to become a competent gymnast, diver and boxer.
In 1912 Pilates moved to England to further his boxing career and started work as a circus performer. With the outbreak of World War I he was interned along with other German nationals. Whilst interned he taught self-defence and further developed his techniques of physical fitness which were designed to work in an enclosed space. It was during this time he devised "Contrology" which emphasized the importance of muscle control or, more specifically "using the mind to master the muscles."
During the latter part of the war, he served as an orderly in a hospital on the Isle of Man where he began working with patients who were unable to walk. It was here that the inspiration for his famous piece of equipment, the "Cadillac" was born, as he attached springs to the hospital beds to help support the patients' limbs while working with them.
After the war, he returned to Germany, where he trained the police in Hamburg and worked with others such as Rudolph von Laban, the innovative modern dance pioneer.
Pilates immigrated to the USA in the early 1920's aged 45 and opened a 'body-conditioning studio' with his wife Clara in New York City in 1926. The studio featured the apparatus that he designed to enhance his rehabilitation work. It soon became very popular with the dance community, offering dancers a chance to improve their technique or rehabilitate following injury.
In 1932 he published a booklet entitled "Your Health" and in 1945 "Return to Controllogy".
Joseph Pilates died in 1967 aged 87 from advanced emphysema - caused by smoking cigars for many years!
Since Joseph Pilates died, his original proteges Kathy Grant, Romana Kyranowska, Ron Fletcher, Eve Gentry, Mary Bowen, Bruce King and Carol Trier branched out and formed their own Pilates studios. They started to change the original method based on the needs of their clients and their own preferences. For the last 5 decades Pilates has been passed down from one generation to another and has been transformed along the way. Many individuals have sought to change the original Pilates exercises to make them more easily accessible (and do-able) to the general public.
In the 1980's the media started to get interested in Pilates and since then many celebrities have taken to Pilates, catapulting it to the success we see today. The following are some of the Hollywood stars who practice Pilates.
- Jennifer Aniston
- Catherine Bell
- Pat Cash
- Kim Catrall
- Kim Coles
- Joan Collins
- Courtney Cox
- Cindy Crawford
- Michael Crawford
- Jamie Lee Curtis
- Susan Dey
- Daisy Fuentes
- Danny Glover
- Hugh Grant
- Shalom Harlow
- Cleveland Indians
- Jessica Lange
- Lucy Lawless
- Madonna
- Martina Navratalova
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- Sarah Jessica Parker
- Stefanie Powers
- San Francisco 49ers
- Martha Stewart
- Rod Stewart
- Sharon Stone
- Patrick Swayze
- Uma Therman
- Charlize Theron
- Tina Turner
- Vanessa Williams
- Kristi Yamaguchi
"In 10 sessions you will feel the difference,
in 20 you will see the difference,
in 30 you'll have a whole new body"
Joseph Pilates
Carol J Bartram
(Pilates Instructor)
Pilates History
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