Joseph Pilates was born in 1880 in Germany. His sickly childhood inspired him to study the healthy and strong bodies of the ancient Greeks and Romans. He also practised Hatha Yoga and Zen meditation. Determined to overcome his physical ailments he became a highly accomplished sportsman - boxer, gymnast, skier and swimmer.

His life was a colourful one. As a young man he travelled to the United Kingdom where he performed in a circus and then went on to work as a martial arts and physical fitness instructor in the police force When World War I broke out, he was interned in the UK. During his incarceration, he assisted both guards and prisoners with a daily work out. The credibility of his exercise regime was proven with the outbreak of the great ‘flu pandemic of 1918-19, which claimed some 40 million victims, more than the war itself. Not one member of Pilates’ camp was lost to the illness.

The British authorities then sent Pilates to the Isle of Man to work as a nurse, where he pulled hospital beds apart, using their springs as resistance devices for
the legs, even though patients might be confined to bed. This piece of apparatus
is fundamental to the Pilates studio today and is known as the Reformer.

After the war Pilates returned to Germany and being an innovative inventor, continued perfecting his equipment. Nazism reared its head, and Pilates, ordered to work with the German army, chose to leave his homeland for the United States. He opened a studio in New York, co-incidentally in the same building as New York City Ballet. He soon had a strong following among the dancers, assisting them in building strength and rehabilitating those who were injured. Herein lies the brilliance of his method - it is as suitable for those who are injured, as for the super fit.