Joseph Pilates

Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. As a child, he was sickly and suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. So he dedicated his life to becoming physically stronger. He studied Martial Arts, Yoga and Tai Chi and eventually became a professional Boxer, Gymnast and Skier.

At age 32, he moved to England where he taught self-defence to English detectives, boxed professionally and even worked as a circus performer. When World War I broke out, he was detained along with other German nationals in a prison camp. There, he began training other internees with his method of physical fitness exercises which he called "Contrology". The exercises kept the inmates in good health, and are said to have helped them resist the influenza epidemic that killed thousands in 1918.

After the war, Pilates returned to Germany where he continued training boxers, police officers and martial artists until 1926. Then he left for the United States, meeting his future wife and partner, Clara, on the way. Together they founded a studio in New York City, where he continued to refine his method into what we know today as The Pilates Method.

Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 87. He handed the studio and his legacy to his protégé, Romana Kryzanowska.