— about pilates —

The health benefits of Pilates include:

• Improve strength and flexibility

• Strengthen core (abs, back, hips and glutes)

• Balance strength by addressing imbalances in the body

• Improve physical coordination and better balance

• Injury prevention and quicker recovery after injury

• Improve sports performance

• Increase concentration and awareness

• Develop a strong mind/body connection 

• Stress management and relaxation.

We do Pilates not to do Pilates better, but to live better. Pilates is for everyone from beginner to advanced--it can be adapted to many fitness levels and needs.

— The History of Pilates —

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born on December 9, 1883 in Mönchengladbach, Germany.  He was an unhealthy child, suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. This sickly state was the catalyst to develop Contrology (his method of exercise later called Pilates after his death) and work toward improving his own physical health. 

Due to political upheaval in 1912, Joseph left Germany to find sanctuary in England. While in his mid-twenties, Joseph lived in England working in a variety of physical professions--circus performance, boxer and self-defense instructor. During World War I in 1914, he was interned for four years in detainment camps. First at Lancaster Castle, then he was later transferred to another internment camp at Knockaloe on the Isle of Man. During his internment, he taught his fellow internees fitness practices including wrestling and self-defense. He worked as an orderly in a hospital at the Isle of Man where he helped patients overcome their injuries. Joseph must have exercised frequently while captive to keep occupied, which is typical of many people imprisoned. During this time in confinement, he may have started to develop the Contrology mat repertoire. He taught floor exercises that later became known as his mat work.  The benefits of his teachings were evident even during the flu epidemic of 1918, not a single prisoner who followed his methods died. After the war, Joe returned to Germany and  immigrated to the US, making the US his new home (becoming a naturalized citizen in 1935). Aboard the Westphalia, he met his future partner, Anna Clara Zeuner. There is no record of a marriage license, but Joseph referred Clara his wife. Joseph and Clara were partners in life and in business. 

Joseph Pilates opened his “Body-Conditioning” gym in 1926 in the Van Dyke Studio building. The dimensions of the gym were about 15 feet wide and 20 feet long. It was located at 939 8th Avenue in New York City. Photos of Joe performing various exercises covered the walls from floor to ceiling. Joe wore canvas shoes, black exercise briefs and was often bare chested. Clients arrived in street clothes and changed into their exercise uniform. The workout uniform for women consisted of black or white leotards and men wore in black shorts with no shirts. Once dressed in their workout clothing, sessions lasted for about 45 minutes. The cost of a session was $5.  During Joe’s time, private lessons did not exist, he ran an open gym. Clients did not book appointments, they came when it was convenient. Joe was all about this work, he never learned people’s names. He was not interested in his clients as individuals only interested in them being part of his work.  He was a stickler for form, precision was crucial. His instructions given in this thick German accent were always positive “do this” instead of “don’t do this”. (p. 16, Caged Lion by John Howard Steel)  There was no visiting or talking on the studio floor, people were there to work. Post workout showers were not optional, Pilates was obsessed with clean skin. First time clients received a post workout shower lesson from Joe, which introduced them to the intense scrub brush. The stiff brush and cold water left clients with a strong memory and red skin. 

Joseph Pilates believed modern lifestyle with rampant poor posture and inefficient breathing was detrimental to optimal health. He created a series of exercises to counteract the negatives of our modern society. Joe had an uncanny sense of the human body.  Healing injuries was his gift. Pilates’ gym was popular with the dance community, he rehabilitated dancers. George Balanchine, famous American ballet choreographer and Martha Graham, American modern dancer and choreographer sent suffering dancers to him. They knew Pilates would fix their dancers after devastating injuries. Many injured dancers were told to “go see Joe” by their peers. Pilates elders--Kathleen Stanford Grant, Carola Trier, Ron Fletcher, Romana Kryzanowska, Eve Gentry and Lolita San Miguel were all dancers who came to Joe to be healed. Pilates elders directly trained at New York City studio by Joseph Pilates and helped bring Contrology to the world. Pilates was popular not only with dancers, but also socialites and creatives like Katharine Hepburn, Roberta Peters and Sir Laurence Olivier.

During his lifetime, Joseph authored two books, Your Health, booklet published in 1932 and Return to Life through Contrology, a book who wrote with the assistance of a coauthor in 1945. He was 43 when he fully developed Contrology as an exercise regime--the work developed over time as he created 500 plus exercises. He was an innovative genius, who invented a number of apparatuses and held many patents for his various creations.  These inventions include Wunda Chair, Tens-o-meter, Universal Reformer, and Cadillac to name a few. The equipment supported the work on Contrology and assisted in the rehabilitation efforts.  In Return to Life through Contrology, Contrology is defined as the “complete coordination of body, mind and spirit.” Pilates exercises were corrective in nature, fixing the body’s imperfections. These exercises were a way of life. 

He maintained that his work was 50 years ahead of his time. His hopes for the method had not come to fruition during his lifetime. Two days before Joseph Pilates died, he prophesied that the whole world would be doing his method. The heavy cigar smoker died of emphysema on October 9, 1967 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. In his obituary found in the New York Times, Joseph Pilates was described as “a white-maned lion with steel blue eyes (one was glass from a boxing mishap) and mahogany skin, and as limber in his 80’s as a teenager.”This German-born exercise genius was a lifelong mover and his philosophy emphasized the power of movement. He had the gift for sensing how the human body was to move optimally and created a method of corrective exercise that strengthens the whole body.