A man ahead of his time: Who was Joseph Pilates?

Joseph Hubertus Pilates (December 9, 1883 – October 9, 1967) was a German physical trainer notable for having invented and promoted the Pilates method of physical fitness.

Born in 1880 in Mönchengladbach, Germany, a small town near Dusseldorf, he was a small and sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever.

His father was a prizewinning gymnast and his mother a naturopath. He studied both Eastern and Western forms of exercise including yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman regimens. By the time he was 14 he had worked so hard he had developed his body to the point that he was modelling for anatomy charts.

Growing up in Germany, he achieved some success as a boxer and a gymnast – in addition to being a skilled skier and diver. There are two versions of how he travelled to England. One version has it that in 1912 he decided to go there to work as a boxer and another, that by 1914 he had become a star circus performer and toured England with his trouAll Postspe. In this version he and his brother were performing a Greek statue act!

In 1914, after WWI broke out, he was interned along with other German nationals in a “camp” for enemy aliens in Lancaster. There he taught wrestling and self-defence, boasting that his students would emerge stronger than they were before being interned. It was here that he began devising his system of original exercises that later became “Contrology”. He was transferred to another camp on The Isle of Man where he became something of a nurse and worked with many internees who suffered from wartime diseases and incarceration. He then began devising equipment to rehabilitate them, taking the springs from the beds and rigging exercise apparatus for the bedridden!

In 1918, a terrible epidemic of influenza swept the world, killing millions of people, tens of thousands in England. None of Joe’s followers succumbed even though the camps were the hardest hit!

After the war Joe returned to Germany and began training the Hamburg Military Police in self defence and physical training. It was at this time that he met Rudolf von Laban, a famous movement analyst, who is said to have incorporated some of Joe’s theories and exercises into his own work. In 1925 he was invited to train the New German Army but because he was not happy with the political direction of Germany he decided to leave. On the urging of boxing expert, Nat Fleischer and with the aid of Max Schmelling he decided to come to the U.S. It was en route to America that Joe met his future wife, Clara. She was a kindergarten teacher who was suffering from arthritic pain and Joe worked with her on the boat to heal her.

Upon arriving in New York City they opened a gym at 939 Eight Ave, in the same building as several dance studios and rehearsal spaces. It was this proximity that made “Contrology” such an intrinsic part of many dancers’ training and rehab work and many were sent to Joe to be “fixed”.

Although Joe Pilates was a health guru, he believed in fitness supporting your life’s rich goals. He was renowned for liking cigars, whiskey, and women and was to be seen running on Manhattan streets, in the dead of winter, in a bikini! Joe’s definition of physical fitness was: “the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneously zest and pleasure”.

Joe believed in “natural movements” with the emphasis on doing and being. He has stated, “Everything should be smooth, like a cat. The exercises are done lying, sitting, kneeling, etc., to avoid excess strain on the heart and lungs.”

The method is based on the movement of animals; everything about the method is based on moving naturally.” Carola Trier, a long-time student of Joe’s and teacher of his work said “The method emphasizes restoring the body to true balance, ease and economy of movement and a channelled flow of energy.”

In January 1966 there was a fire in their building. Joe returned to his studio to try and save anything possible and fell through the burnt out floorboards, hanging by his hands from a beam for quite some time until rescued by the fire-fighters. It is assumed that this incident directly led to his death in October 1967, at the age of 87. Clara, regarded by many as the more superb teacher, continued to teach and run the studio until her death 10 years later, in 1977. At this time Romana Kryzanowska took over the business and has dedicated her life to teaching Joe’s work as he himself devised it.