aboutPilates

He became a boxer and a gymnast and moved to England in 1914 to pursue further training. WW1 broke out and being a German national, he was sent to internment camps. While there, he taught his fellow inmates wrestling and self-defense. At one camp, he worked in a hospital where patients languished, injured and sick. He pulled springs from the beds, to help in their rehabilitation,using the natural resistance of the springs to strengthen the muscles. Their physical and mental improvement was dramatic. After the war he moved back to Germany and there continued to develop his training methods and equipment. In 1925, he left for America.

He met his wife Clara on the boat and they arrived in New York City in 1926. They opened a gym in a building that rented studio space to dancers and other performers. One of those neighbors was George Balanchine who sent his dancers from the New York City Ballet. Martha Graham came to work with him and brought her dancers. Soon word spread and athletes as well as ordinary people came to study this new method. Joseph Pilates named it “Contrology”.He taught his system for 41 years, continually developing and refining his methods and his equipment. He died in 1967. Clara, his wife, taught for another ten years, until her death in 1977
“Correctly executed and mastered…these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities. Contrology exercises build a sturdy body and sound mind fitted to perform every daily task with ease and perfection..”Joseph Pilates “Return to Life Through Contrology”


	ABOUT PILATES Pilates is a system of exercise that creates strong and lean muscles. It restores flexibility to the spine and creates a powerhouse of core-abdominal strength to support you in your daily life, whatever it is that you choose to do. With a focus on the connection of mind to body, this is a workout that will leave you refreshed, stimulated and balanced.

		Joseph Pilates was born in 1880 in a small town near Dusseldorf, Germany . For the first several years of his life, he suffered from rickets, rheumatic fever and asthma. His father was a gymnast and his mother a naturopath. Joseph became determined to grow healthy and strong. Through careful study of human anatomy, animal movement and various systems of exercise - yoga, martial arts, wrestling, he built his body up and was modeling for anatomy charts by the time he was 14.
	He became a boxer and a gymnast and moved to England in 1914 to pursue further training. WW1 broke out and being a German national, he was sent to internment camps. While there, he taught his fellow inmates wrestling and self-defense. At one camp, he worked in a hospital where patients languished, injured and sick. He pulled springs from the beds, to help in their rehabilitation,using the natural resistance of the springs to strengthen the muscles. Their physical and mental improvement was dramatic. After the war he moved back to Germany and there continued to develop his training methods and equipment. In 1925, he left for America. He met his wife Clara on the boat and they arrived in New York City in 1926. They opened a gym in a building that rented studio space to dancers and other performers. One of those neighbors was George Balanchine who sent his dancers from the New York City Ballet. Martha Graham came to work with him and brought her dancers. Soon word spread and athletes as well as ordinary people came to study this new method. Joseph Pilates named it “Contrology”.He taught his system for 41 years, continually developing and refining his methods and his equipment. He died in 1967. Clara, his wife, taught for another ten years, until her death in 1977 “Correctly executed and mastered…these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities. Contrology exercises build a sturdy body and sound mind fitted to perform every daily task with ease and perfection..”Joseph Pilates “Return to Life Through Contrology”