Pilates

History of Pilates

Pilates (pronounced pi-lah-tees) originates from exercises developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century. He worked with dancers, who although very flexible, were prone to injury through a lack of core stability. The principles of his exercises remain today and been developed along the way.

Joseph H. Pilates was born in Mönchengladbach Germany, in 1880, to parents of Greek and German ancestry. His father was a prize-winning gymnast of Greek origin and his mother a naturopath of German origin. His name was originally spelled by its Greek derivation "Pilatu" but was changed to Pilates. A sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever, he dedicated his entire life to becoming physically stronger. Joe began studying body building and gymnastics and by the age of 14 was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts. He came to believe that our modern life-style, bad posture, and inefficient breathing were the roots of poor health and ultimately devised a series of exercises, training techniques and engineered all the equipment, specifications and tuning required to teach them properly. In 1912 he moved to England earning a living as a boxer, circus performer and self-defence trainer. During World War I he was interned with other German citizens in a camp in Lancaster where he trained other inmates in fitness and exercises. It was here that the beginnings of the true Pilates Method began to take shape.

After the War, Pilates emigrated to the United States. On the ship to America he met his future wife Clara. The couple founded a studio in New York City and directly taught and supervised their students well into the 1960’s. Pilates and his method, which he and Clara originally called "Contrology", refers to the way his method encourages the use of the mind to control the muscles. This method focuses on the core postural muscles that help keep the body balanced and are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and strengthen the deep torso muscles, which are important to help alleviate and prevent back pain. Together they soon established a devout following in the local dance and the performing arts community. Well known dancers such as George Balanchine and Martha Graham became devotees and regularly sent their students to them for training and rehabilitation. Pilates practiced what he preached and lived a long healthy life.

He died in 1967 at the age of 87. He also wrote several books including "Return to Life through Contrology" and "Your Health". Joe and Clara had a number of disciples who continued to teach variations of his method or in some cases focused exclusively on preserving the method and instructor training techniques they learned during their studies with Joe and Clara. The unique training regimen Joe and Clara devised has now proven itself for more than 80 years as an effective and safe method of exercise, when taught and applied by a qualified instructor who understands how to develop and tailor a "Contrology" workout specific to your body and capabilities.

Extract from "Joseph Pilates." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Jun 2007, 14:56 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 Jul 2007