Pilates Benefits & History

The Pilates method was developed by Joseph Hubertus Pilates during World War I. Joseph H. Pilates was born in Germany in 1880 as a frail child who overcame his limitations through exercise and sport. He developed his own exercise regimen and participated in fencing, gymnastics, and boxing.

The first reformer was born when Joseph, while working as an orderly in a hospital in England, created a system of rigging the hospital beds with springs, to rehab wounded soldiers.

Joseph left Europe and headed across the sea to New York in 1923, with Clara his wife, who was also a nurse. The couple rented a small place in the same building as the New York City Ballet and soon after Joseph was teaching his method to dancers. Joseph called his mind-body exercise Contrology because of the emphasis on engaging the mind to control the movements of the body.

“I must be right.  never an aspirin.  Never injured a day in my life.  The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises.  they’d be happier”  Joseph Pilates, age 86

Today Pilates is one of the most popular forms of overall body exercise for health and rehabilitation.