Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in 1880 in Düsseldorf, Germany to parents of Greek and German descent. A childhood fraught with various illnesses motivated him to strengthen his body through exercise which included gymnastics, yoga, and ancient Greek and Roman physical regimens. By the age of fourteen, he was posing for anatomical charts. In 1912 he migrated to England where he worked as a boxer, a circus performer and a self-defense trainer until his forced internment along with other German nationals in 1918 in a work camp in Lancaster at the onset of World War 1. It was here that he began developing and teaching his system of matwork exercises to other camp internees, calling it ‘Contrology’. Later on in the war after being transferred to another camp on the Isle of Man, he worked as a nurse/caretaker of very sick and bedridden internees and it was here that he devised his remarkable method of exercises using bedsprings rigged to patients’ limbs to provide resistance for the exercises he created. The impact of his efforts was dramatic and resulted in non- ambulatory patients returning more quickly to mobility and health.

At the end of the war he migrated to the United States, meeting his future wife Clara on the same ship and in 1926 they opened the first Pilates Studio* in New York City. He continued to develop and refine other types of complimentary and integrative apparatus to impart his method of exercise and over the course of his long life he established a devout following amongst the performing arts community, particularly dancers. Established luminaries George Balanchine and Martha Graham sent their dancers to him on a regular basis for training and rehabilitation.

‘Pilates’, as his work is popularly known nowadays, has proven itself for over eighty years as an incredibly effective way of conditioning the mind and body for the maintenance of physical health and wellness. Joseph Pilates died in 1967 but he left an incredible legacy that has enhanced the lives of many more people than in his own lifetime.