 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
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