“If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old; if it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.” Joseph Pilates

Joseph Pilates was living proof of the rapid transformative potential of his methods. Suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a child, Pilates transformed himself through a combination of weights, yoga, gymnastics and martial arts into a 14 year old who was fit enough to pose for anatomical charts.

During the First World War, he was interned with other German nationals. During this time he developed his technique of physical fitness further, by teaching his fellow internees. During the latter part of the War, he served as an orderly in a hospital on the Isle of Man where he worked with patients unable to walk. He attached bed springs to the hospital beds to help support the patients' limbs, leading to the development of his famous piece of equipment known as the 'Cadillac'. Much of his equipment, although slightly adapted, is still in use today in many Pilates Studios.

Pilates emigrated to the USA in the early 1920s with his wife Clara, and together they developed and taught the method in their 'body-conditioning gym' in New York in 1926.

The studio featured much of the Apparatus designed to enhance his rehabilitation work. It soon became very popular, particularly with the dance community, as it offered a chance to improve technique or recover from injury.

In 1932 Pilates published a booklet called 'Your Health' and followed this with another called 'Return to Life Through Contrology' in 1945. Through these writings and his students, his method was passed on after his death in 1967. During his lifetime this method of exercise was called Contrology. It was only after his death that it became known as the Pilates Method.