The Story of Joseph Pilates
Born in Dusseldorf Germany in 1880, Joseph Hubertus Pilates dedicated his life to the understanding of the body. As a child, Joseph suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. Because of this, he was determined to dedicate his life to becoming physically stronger. He studied anatomy, took on various physical regimens and developed himself as a body builder, wrestler, gymnast, boxer, martial artist, skier and diver.
He became an expert in all these disciplines and completed his researches with a strong approach to many kinds of self-improvement systems inspired by Eastern practices such as yoga and Zen Buddhism, as well as the ancient Greek ideal of man perfected in development of body, mind and spirit. As a result, “Self awareness of the body’s natural alignment, through movement” became the basis of his method originally called Contrology.
On his way to developing his work, Joseph Pilates had to face the break out of World War I while working as a self-defense trainer of detectives at Scotland yard in London. Considered then as an “enemy alien”, he was first interned with other Germans at a camp in Lancaster and later on at the Isle of Man where he assisted at the camp’s hospital using his knowledge in physical fitness to help patients regain strength and muscle control. Joseph adapted hospital beds with springs, straps and pulleys in order for the patients to work through a physical fitness regimen using variable resistance without overstressing the body. He was widely credited when none of the internees succumbed to the virulent flu that swept the world in 1918.
After the war Joseph returned to his native Germany and while training the Hamburg military police he continued to develop his method as a “movement innovator”.
By 1925, struggling between a government offer to train the new army and the freedom of following his own path with his work, he decided to immigrate to America.On the ship to New York he meet his future wife Clara, a nurse. Upon arrival, as a perfect team in love, they established the first Pilates studio, which is still operating today.
From 1926, along with Clara, he improved and developed his method and shared his knowledge with who ever was happy to practice and be healthy. He worked very closely with the dance community that depended on the Pilates training for the strength and grace it developed in the practitioner, as well as for its rehabilitative effects. When Joseph Pilates passed away in 1967 at the age of 87, Clara continued to operate the studio until she retired in 1971. From that date, she left the studio in the trustable hands of Joseph’s protégée Romana Kryzanovska. Romana has continued to this day to faithfully uphold the Pilates method and maintain its original, fundamental integrity.
He became an expert in all these disciplines and completed his researches with a strong approach to many kinds of self-improvement systems inspired by Eastern practices such as yoga and Zen Buddhism, as well as the ancient Greek ideal of man perfected in development of body, mind and spirit. As a result, “Self awareness of the body’s natural alignment, through movement” became the basis of his method originally called Contrology.
On his way to developing his work, Joseph Pilates had to face the break out of World War I while working as a self-defense trainer of detectives at Scotland yard in London. Considered then as an “enemy alien”, he was first interned with other Germans at a camp in Lancaster and later on at the Isle of Man where he assisted at the camp’s hospital using his knowledge in physical fitness to help patients regain strength and muscle control. Joseph adapted hospital beds with springs, straps and pulleys in order for the patients to work through a physical fitness regimen using variable resistance without overstressing the body. He was widely credited when none of the internees succumbed to the virulent flu that swept the world in 1918.
After the war Joseph returned to his native Germany and while training the Hamburg military police he continued to develop his method as a “movement innovator”.
By 1925, struggling between a government offer to train the new army and the freedom of following his own path with his work, he decided to immigrate to America.On the ship to New York he meet his future wife Clara, a nurse. Upon arrival, as a perfect team in love, they established the first Pilates studio, which is still operating today.
From 1926, along with Clara, he improved and developed his method and shared his knowledge with who ever was happy to practice and be healthy. He worked very closely with the dance community that depended on the Pilates training for the strength and grace it developed in the practitioner, as well as for its rehabilitative effects. When Joseph Pilates passed away in 1967 at the age of 87, Clara continued to operate the studio until she retired in 1971. From that date, she left the studio in the trustable hands of Joseph’s protégée Romana Kryzanovska. Romana has continued to this day to faithfully uphold the Pilates method and maintain its original, fundamental integrity.