HISTORY OF PILATES
Joseph Pilates, born in Germany in 1883, was a sickly child and grew to become enamored with the ideal of man in the classical Greek view as living in a manner of balanced mind, body, and spirit. He began developing a method of exercise to strengthen himself and grew into a physically strong gymnast, skier and boxer. When World War I began and Joe was interned as a German national, he began using his methods to train other internees, even attaching springs to their infirmary beds to help rehabilitate them with resistance exercises. Joe left Germany for good when he was asked to use his method to train the Germany army and made his way to eventually settle in New York in 1926.
His method, then called “Contrology” began to grow from that point on from his New York studio, through the teachings of himself and his wife Clara, and eventually his students that carried on the tradition called the “Elders”. Today there are several internationally recognized methods of Pilates that not only carry on his visionary work, but update it with contemporary knowledge of the body. It is estimated that 10 million Americans now practice Pilates and it is growing everywhere in the world due to its’ beauty, pleasurable feel and numerous health benefits.