Joseph Pilates was a fitness guru and inventor born in eighteen eighty-three

near the Northern German city of Dusseldorf.

his father was a prize winning gymnast of Greek ancestry.

His mother was a naturopath

who believed in stimulating the body to heal itself without drugs and surgery

His mother's healing philosophy

and father's physical achievements

were to greatly influence Pilates' ideas on therapeutic exercise.

Pilates was a sickly child

suffering from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever.

To make matters worse, the bigger children at school taunted him by making fun of his

name

He became determined to overcome his physical disadvantages,

and dedicated his life to improving his life to improving his health and strength.

He focused on breathing techniques to assist with his asthma,

and by exercising outside in his shorts, was able to cure his rickets

which is caused by a Vitamin D deficiency.

by the age of fourteen he was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts.

He loved skiing and being outdoors. He e studied bodybuilding, yoga, martial arts

and gymnastics.

You can recognize the influence of these activities in the Pilates technique.

For example the long stretch and up stretch on the reformer

are drawn from "downward-facing dog" and "plank" in yoga. He uses punching and

sidekick movement similar to martial arts and some exercises on the chair

are similar to gymnastic ring work.

the natural movements of animals also inspired him and this can be seen in

exercises such as the cat stretch on the Cadillac.

In 1912 Jospeph Pilates moved to England and earned a living as

a professional boxer, circus performer,

and self defense trainer at Scotland Yard

during world war one however

the British authorities interned him, along with other German citizens, in a

British Enemy Citizens' Camp on the Isle of Man.

the health conditions in these camps were poor

but Pilates insisted that everyone in his participate in daily exercise routines

which he had devised to help maintain their physical and mental well-being

Some of the injured German soldiers were too weak to get out of bed.

not content to leave his comrades lying idle, Pilates took springs from the beds

and attached them to the headboards and footboards of the iron bed frames,

turning them into equipment that provided a type of resistance exercise

for his bedridden "patients".

These mechanised beds

were the forerunners of the spring-based exercise machines,

such as the Cadillac and the Reformer,

for which the Pilates method is known today.

Pilates legend has it that during the great flu epidemic of 1918,

not a single soldier under his care died.

Remarkable considering the terrible living conditions of the internment camps.

After the war,

Joseph returned to Germany

and collaborated with experts in dance and physical exercise,

such as Rudolf Laban.

In Hamburg, he trained police officers.

He was also pressured to train members of the German army but left his native

Germany, disappointed with its political and social conditions,

and immigrated to the United States.

On route he met his future wife,

a young nurse named Clara

The couple founded a studio in New York City

and taught and supervised their students well into the 1960s.

His method, which he and Clara originally called "Contrology",

encouraged the mind to control muscles.

it focused attention on core postural muscles

that help keep the body balanced and provide support for the spine.

In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and of alignment of the

spine, and strengthen the deep torso and abdominal muscles.

Pilates came to believe that "modern" lifestyle, bad posture,

and inefficient breathing,

lay at the roots of poor health.

Joseph Pilates' New York gym

put him in close proximity to a number of dance studios, which led to his

"discovery" by prominent members

of the dance community, including George Balanchine and Martha Graham.

The Pilates repertoire itself has many references to classical ballet and also

the Graham technique,

for example: the ballet stretches on the Cadillac and Ladder Barrel, the round back

and straight back in the stomach massage series on the Reformer.

Many dancers, actors, and famous people

in New York depended on Pilates for the strength and grace it developed,

as well as for its rehabilitative effects.

Joseph Pilates wrote two books,

Your Health, and Return to Life through Contrology

and was also a prolific inventor.

He passed away in 1967 at the age of 83, in New York.

He had maintained a fit physique throughout his life,

and photographs show that he was in remarkable

physical condition in his older years

He is also said to have had a flamboyant personality.

He smoked cigars, liked to party,

nd wore his exercise briefs wherever he wanted - even on the streets of New York.

It is said that he was an intimidating, though deeply committed, instructor.

Although Joeseph and Clara had no children,

his legacy and exercise techniques were preserved and developed through the work

of his disciples.

these disciples

These disciples who started our as their apprentices are now called "The Elders".

Until exercise science caught up with the Pilates method in the 1980s,

it was chiefly dancers and elite athletes who utilized the Pilates technique.

Now,

Pilates has made it to the mainstream,ces made it to the mainstream

with its health benefits

and mental discipline widely recognized as being of great benefit to the health

and well-being of all types of people

no matter their shape, size, gender or age.

Today, Joseph Pilates teachings

are carried on by the Pilates Elders,

their progeny

and by a large group of contemporary teachers

all over the world