Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in 1880 near Düsseldorf, Germany. His father, had been a prize-winning gymnast, while his mother was a naturopath who believed in the principle of stimulating the body to heal itself without artificial drugs. No doubt they greatly influenced Joseph's later ideas on therapeutic exercise.

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Small and sickly as a child, he was afflicted with asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. He quickly became determined to overcome his physical disadvantages. Joseph began to self-educate himself in anatomy, bodybuilding, wrestling, yoga, gymnastics, and martial arts. He soon achieved an almost Adonis-like "anatomical ideal," to the extent that at the age of 14 he was posing as a model for anatomy charts.

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He came to believe that our modern lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing were the roots of poor health. His answer to these problems was to design a unique series of vigorous physical exercises that help to correct muscular imbalances and improve posture, coordination, balance, strength and flexibility, as well as to increase breathing capacity and organ function. He also invented a variety of machines, based on spring-resistance, that could be used to perform these exercises, which later became known as the Cadillac and the Reformer.

 

In 1926, Pilates decided to emigrate to the United States. He opened the first Body Contrology Studio in Manhattan with his wife Clara, in the same building as a number of dance studios. Professional dancers, who were repeatedly injuring themselves, responded well to Joe's methods. From there the the exercise, caught on and grew into the well recognised Pilates it is known for today and practised worldwide. Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 87 years old.