The Pilates Method was created by Joseph Pilates (1980-1967).

Joseph Pilates was born in Monchengladach, Germany, A small town near Dusseldorf in 1880. Born to Parents of Greek and German ancestry.   He was a frail child who suffered from rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever and thought of ways to make himself stronger and fitter.  He designed a series of exercises to help himself. He did lots of different exercise methods (gymnastics, boxing, body building, diving, skiing) and learnt from these methods to develop what he called "Contrology"

Joseph went to England in 1912 and worked as a self-defense instructor at Scotland Yard. When World War 1 broke out he was interned as an "enemy alien" along with other German National. During this time he developed more of his method and worked with other interees. He would take the springs of the beds and hook them up so people could exercise. This was the beginnings of the "Cadilliac" During 1918 when the influenza epidemicv struck England killing thousands of people, none of Joseph's trainees died. This he said was a direct result of his exercise methods.

After World War 1, he went back to Germany, but didn't feel his future was there and decided to goto America. On the boat to America he met Clara, a nurse, who he clicked with and who would become his wife and a major contributor to his work. They arrived in New York in 1926 and set up a Pilates Studio in New York in the same building as the New York Ballet Company so worked very closely with a lot the top dancers working on rehabilitation of injuries.  George Balanchine and Martha Graham, two very well known dancers became devotees and regualary sent their students to Pilates for training and Rehabiliation.

For more Information visit http://www.joseph-pilates.info

Joseph was a prolific Inventor, whom had over 26 patents cited.
4 of the main pieces of equipment are; the Reformer, Cadiliac, Combo Chair and Ladder Barrel.

"I invented all these machines. Began back in Germany, was there until 1925 used to exercise rheumatic patients. I thought, why use My strength? So I made a machine to do it for me. Look, you see it resists your movements in just the right way so those inner muscles really have to work against it. That way you can concentrate on movement. You must always do it slowly and smoothly. Then your whole body is in it." Joseph Pilates