Joe Pilates spent much of his life restoring his body and health due to a lifelong battle with asthma. It worked, and over the years he became a skier, boxer, gymnast, diver and yogi.
The Cadillac
During World War I, Pilates, who was living in England at the time, was interned in a British prisoner of war camp. As a keen fitness instructor, he began training his fellow inmates. However, many of them were suffering from injuries. He rigged springs above hospital beds using items that were available to him, such as bedsprings or beer keg rings, to create resistance exercise equipment to rehabilitate patients while they were lying on their backs. These were the beginnings of what we now know as the cadillac, reformer, wunda chair and magic circle, some of the main pieces of modern day Pilates equipment.
Martha Graham
He emigrated to the US in 1923 where he settled in New York City. He opened a studio on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and started working with new rehabilitation techniques for professional dancers. Two of his students were ballet master George Balanchine and Martha Graham. He started with a series of mat exercises, a basic workout designed around the eight Pilates principles, to build abdominal strength and body control. Later he developed various pieces of equipment to complement his mat work and expand the exercises.
Pilates Elders
Way ahead of his time, he saw fitness as holistic and emphasised working the body as a whole. Despite his childhood illnesses, Joseph Pilates managed to keep incredibly fit his entire life. There are many photos testifying to his amazing physical shape even as he grew older. He died in 1967 aged 87. Although he had written several books on fitness he did not set up an official manual or training programme. However, some of his original students, now called Pilates Elders, carry on with his work. Many went on to open their own studios and several are still well-known today.
Among these are Kathy Grant who was certified to teach Pilates by Joseph Pilates himself and Romana Kyrzanowska who was one of his students. Romana took over as director of his studio a few years after he died and now has her own studio where she continues to teach the method. Mary Bowen became a Jungian therapist and continued to study with Joseph Pilates. She also still holds workshops and intensive classes.
Although the Pilates method is still firmly rooted in the original teachings, modern exercise science has helped teachers develop the techniques into a 21st century safe and effective programme that can be adapted to suit everyone.
