Childhood brought Joseph Pilates the experience that shaped his masterpiece method of exercise, the experience of unhealthiness. Born near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1880, Joseph Pilates suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a child. The troubles of being a weak, defenseless boy in a rough world, inspired Pilates on his lifelong pursuit for health and strength.
Pilates engaged in diverse movement arts studies as a youth, including yoga,
martial arts, ancient Grecian and Roman regimens, and boxing, all in with
the singular determination to become healthy. Either from his diverse
studies, from that heightened sensitivity between body and mind of the
invalid, or from a combination of these, Pilates constantly developed mind
and body together, focusing on their relationship in his combination of more
spiritual with more physical arts. Joe's recollections of studying an
anatomy book as a child, of observing the movements of his own muscles, and
of watching animals move in the forest indicate that the intuition that
created the method already operated in his mind.
By age fourteen, Pilates had achieved the goal of his youth, boasting now a
body exemplary of perfect fitness, which he modeled for German medical
anatomy charts.
Pilates continued diverse work
as a physical trainer and athlete in Germany, in boxing, gymnastics, skiing,
and diving.
Between 1912 and 1914, Pilates traveled to England an unspecified type of
athletic work there. One account claims Pilates went to England as a boxer,
another that he went as a circus performer.
At the onset of World War I,
authorities interned Pilates in a camp for "enemy aliens" in Lancaster,
because of his German nationality. However, even exiled wartime conditions
couldn't quell the master, who trained fellow prisoners, and began to
develop his original method of exercise, which he would call Contrology.
Sometime during his internment, Pilates got transferred to another alien
camp, this time on the Isle of Man, working in some ambiguous capacity with
fellow inmates, many of whom had suffered from diseases or serious wartime
injuries. During his time there, Joe began to construct the first apparatus
to rehabilitate these injured prisoners.
He initially constructed these apparatuses for maimed men; but later he
created apparatuses, like the Reformer and Cadillac, utilizing spring
resistance to open movement in all bodies. He constructed the first machines
with bedsprings, mattresses, and other materials available to him in an
English prison camp; but later he created apparatuses with universal use for
all through Contrology, from the same simple materials.
In 1918, an influenza epidemic spread worldwide. Accounts vouch that not a
single person in Pilates' camp was infected. Furthermore, the very warden of
Pilates wartime home in England, made the Method mandatory for all in the
camp, prisoners, guards, and the warden himself.
After his release from wartime
internment, Pilates returned to his native land, and engaged in training the
Hamburg Military Police in the movement arts of his expertise, and also
began to work one-on-one with clients, just as instructors now do in Pilates
studios worldwide.
His diverse work brought Pilates some renown, to the point that, in 1925, he
was invited to engage as the trainer of the German army.
However, Pilates decided to leave Germany again, unable to compromise his
unfavorable opinion about the country's current political direction.
Pilates left Germany, and
settled in New York City, upon the recommendations of some colleagues in the
world of athletics.
Whilst aboard the steamer that brought him to America, Pilates met the
intelligent, charming Clara, a Yankee nurse who then suffered symptoms of
arthritis. They developed an acquaintance when Joe offered to cure her
arthritis through his method. Pilates shared with Clara his dreams of
opening a studio devoted to his developing method of exercise, they fell in
love, and contemplated the potential of Pilates' work.
When Pilates arrived in New York, he continued to develop his method of
exercise. Clara and Joseph Pilates were married, and opened the world's
first Pilates studio, in New York City of the 1920s.
For decades, Pilates dedicated the strength of his life to training others
in his method, developing exercises, routines, and apparatus, and expressing
his ideas in writing. He always considered himself the test of the validity
of his method of exercise, and continued to have young, vibrant strength,
even into his eighties.
He trained various teachers, thereby beginning the tradition of Pilates
exercise, and the tradition of arguing about the right, or "traditional" way
to execute the movements of the method. He also rehabilitated and trained
famous dancers and companies, some of whom had studios in the same building
as Joe's studio. His work with these dancers, as much as anything else he
did, created the culture of Pilates exercise, which has lived on in the
conditioning workouts of premier companies to this day. Some have claimed
that the flowing, controlled character of the exercises composing Contrology
resemble a dance, and famous choreographer George Balanchine was so enamored
of the Pilates method's movements that he incorporated them into his "Seven
Deadly Sins."
Pilates dedicated his life and
great, humanitarian intellect to his method, even to the extent of
sacrificing his life to save his meticulous documentation from burning in a
fire, which started by some mishap in January 1966. At the time, Pilates was
thriving still with youthful vitality, in his mid- to late eighties. Without
consideration of his age or the outcome, Pilates dashed into the studio to
salvage what he could of his documentation, scores of photographs, and
apparatuses. Much of the studio's contents suffered ruin, and Pilates
sacrificed his vibrancy, poisoning and burning his lungs with smoke and
fire. One anecdote runs, that Pilates clasped the studio rafters as the
floor collapsed beneath him, and he hung there for two hours, with his
indomitable physical power.
In 1967, at age 87, Pilates' powerful body died from lung injuries sustained
during the blaze, leaving the world the cherished remains of the creations
of his mind: his method, apparatus, writings, and the teachers he'd trained,
some of whom still live and work today.
Viewing the aerobic revolution
all around him, with its placebo dosages of reps, Pilates declared that no
one would understand the importance of his method of exercise for fifty
years. He witnessed and worked within an environment speeding off in
directions contrary to the tenets of Contrology, but had the optimism to
believe that our age would understand and respond to the need for his
method.
In spite of the predominance of aerobics, running, weight training, and
sport as exercise since Pilates' death, his method lived on in the culture
of premier dance companies, in the studios of his scattered groups of
followers, and as a form of physical therapy. However, the general public
only began to learn of Pilates over the last ten years, and the Method only
became a buzzword in most cities over the past few years. Following Yoga's
much-publicized renaissance into the faddish fitness press, Pilates has
become a household name, and cities worldwide contain studios bursting with
excited clients from all walks of life.
The tragic fire in Pilates' New
York studio, and his even more tragic death thereafter, left his students to
complete the daunting task of universalizing the method. As Pilates has
spread worldwide, it has obtained a cosmopolitan diversity of styles.
As each of Pilates' students began to attract followers who'd never worked
with or met the late Joseph Pilates, they found themselves in positions of
authority, to define the correct or traditional method for completing the
exercises, and to articulate the ideas of Contrology in their own way.
Ironically, as these teachers insisted on doing Pilates their own way, they
perpetuated a key important aspect of Joe's style: to working uniquely,
because each body is unique.
Recently, a court decision was made, that Pilates is a name for a general
type of exercise, a conflict that had arisen an attempt was made to
copyright Pilates' name, method, and numerous other pieces of documentation
the master had left behind without indicating a successor. However, even
throughout this conflict, studios and instructors who disagreed with the
attempted copyright continued to develop and spread worldwide.
Pilates studios have continued to form an overall community with diverse
perspectives and methods, but in spite of their disagreements, these studios
have continued the spread of Pilates.
Hand in hand with the increase of media attention, Pilates studios have
spread from city to city, blossoming in response for the increased demand
for Joe's method of exercise.
Pilates undoubtedly continues to grow in popularity because of its
effectiveness. As science has continued to increase our understanding of the
body and kinesiology, Pilates has gained legitimacy because of its medical
consistency. Also, people all over continue to rave about the long, lean
muscles, and youthful vibrancy they gain through Pilates' method of
exercise.
