Joseph Pilates-the Man Behind the Method

Who was Joseph Hubertus Pilates? While millions ofKnockaloe, thus proving to Joe that he was right.After
people do Pilates exercises everyday, most do notthe war Pilates was deported back to Germany,
even know that Pilates was a person, let alone anwhere he continued to develop, practice, and teach his
extremely interesting and colorful personality who wasexercises until 1925. He trained the Hamburg Military
at the leading edge of exercise science. It is interestingPolice, took on some private clients, and worked as an
not only to hear about his life story, but also to exploreearly Physical Therapist, exercising patients who
his story in the context of the important social andsuffered from the same illnesses he had, including
political events of his time, as they all impacted his liferheumatic fever. Joe met and collaborated with
and work. Of course, most of what we know camemovement analyst Rudolf van Laban and famous
from Joseph Pilates himself, so the veracity of someGerman dancer Mary Wigman, and began developing
of his claims is questionable.Joe Pilates was born inspring based exercise equipment. "I thought, why use
1880 in Moenchengladbach, a town near Dusseldorf,my strength [to exercise rheumatic patients]? So I
Germany to a gymnast father and a naturopathicmade a machine to do it for me. Look, you see it
physician mother. Moenchengladbach, located inresists your movements in just the right way so those
West-Central Germany, was a center of industry andinner muscles really have to work against it. That way
production, specifically cotton textiles. Pilates was a frailyou can concentrate on movement. You must always
and sickly child who suffered from rickets, rheumaticdo it slowly and smoothly. Then your whole body is in
fever, and asthma. Other children constantly made funit."Post war Germany was not doing well either
of both his name (they called him "Christ killer") and hispolitically or economically. The Weimar Republic was
frailty, and Joe was too weak and skinny to ever fightnot accepted by many Germans, inflation was up due
back. He resolved to get stronger in his breathing andto wartime debts, and unemployment was at an all
his movements so that he could defend himself.Onetime high. By 1923 French and Belgium troops had
day Joe's doctor gave him an anatomy book, and themoved in to Germany as she defaulted on war
seeds of Contrology were sewn. Of this book Pilatesreparations payments. The government began printing
said, "I learned every page, every part of the body Iso much money that the mark became worthless in
would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I1914 the US dollar was equivalent to 4 marks, in 1920
would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching40 marks, in 1922 200 marks, in 1923 18,000 marks, and
the animals move, how the mother taught the young."by 1924 4.2 trillion marks. Things had literally gotten to
While attending school and studying history, philosophy,the point where you needed a wheelbarrow full of
and engineering, Pilates also studied Eastern andpaper money just to buy groceries.In 1925 Pilates was
Western forms of exercise. The young Joe sent forinvited to train the New German Army. However,
more books and haunted the University libraries ingiven the situation in Germany, he had already decided
Dusseldorf. The more he learned the more questionsto leave. Boxing expert Nat Fleischer and Olympic
he had. He tried yoga, Buddhist meditation, and ancientboxer Max Schmelling convinced Joe to come to the
Greek and Roman gymnastic exercises, and keptUS, specifically to New York City. Here he could train
meticulous written records of what the exercises didboxers and continue to work on his equipment,
for him and how he progressed. Pilates held fast toinventing and patenting his new machines. He met his
the ancient Roman credo "Mens sana in corpore sanofuture wife Clara, a kindergarten teacher, on the boat
(A sound mind in a sound body)." By the time he turnedto Ellis Island. The story goes that Clara suffered from
14 he was not only strong enough to be considered anarthritis and Joe worked with her to increase her
accomplished skin diver, gymnast, boxer, and skier, hemobility and relieve her pain. Once in New York they
also modeled for anatomy charts.We know thatopened their gym at 939 Eighth Avenue, in the same
Pilates traveled to England when he was in his 30s, butbuilding that housed rehearsal studios for George
there are at least two different equally plausible storiesBallanchine's New York City Ballet.Joseph Pilates never
about how and why he went. The first story tells usreceived the level of recognition that his brilliant work
that he went there to box, having exhausted most ofclearly deserved, and even today it is difficult to wade
the prizefighting venues at home. The second claimsthrough the myth and find the true story. This is partially
that Joe had begun successfully performing in thetrue because most of what we know about his life
circus with his brother, and they had a Greek statuehas come from students of students of his
act that was so popular they took it to England.students.While many facts about Joe's life are
Whichever is true, Pilates was in England in 1914 whenverifiable, sources still disagree on the basics. In fact, I
WW I broke out and was interned by the British as anjust reviewed several sites and each gave a different
enemy alien. He first went to a small camp nearyear of death (1966, 1967, 1968) as well as a different
Lancaster, where he began teaching self defense andcause of death (he died in a fire as a result of a fire
wrestling to the other Germans, claiming that theyas a result of smoke inhalation from a fire etc.).
would be stronger when they left than when theyAccording to his New York Times obituary Joseph
entered. It was here that Joe began to develop hisPilates died in 1967 at Lenox Hill Hospital, but the Times
system of Contrology. Then he was transferred.Duringnever mentions cause of death. And there was indeed
both World Wars, the British set up their Alien Civiliana fire on the same floor as his studio in 1965 where
Internment Camps on the Isle of Man. Interestingly, theyJoe suffered a bad leg scrape while inspecting the
only interned males women were not interned. Forstudio. But, according to Pilates Elder Mary Bowen, "To
WW1 (1914-1918) a very large camp was establishedset the record straight - no, Joe did not die in a fire. He
on the west coast of the island at Knockaloe. Thedied two years later...of advanced emphysema from
Knockaloe camp, intended to house 5000 men, endedsmoking cigars for too many years...." Apparently all the
up expanding to hold about 24,000. It was 22 acresgood breathing in the world could not keep his scarred
large, divided into 23 compounds split into 4 separatelungs (recall that he was rheumatic and asthmatic as a
camps. Each camp had its own hospital, theater,child) from feeling the effects of smoking. As Joe left
cafeteria, printing presses, etc. and the hospitals wereno will, Clara took over and ran the studio until she
used to treat soldiers injured on the front lines of battle.retired in the mid-70s. This is where the story gets
The Knockaloe camps were built from wooden huts,interesting...The Question of LineageMost Pilates
and became extremely depressing after severalteachers out there today can trace his or her lineage
years. To make things worse, the camps did not closeback to Joe and Clara, and this includes such
right at the end of the war, since there was a longheavyweights as Winsor and Stott. I, for example,
period of postwar hostilities. The camps finally closed inoriginally was a client at SUNY Purchase where I
late 1919, and most of the internees were deportedlearned under Steve Giordano who studied with Joe's
back to Germany.It was while interned at Knockaloestudent Romana Kryzanowska. Then I worked with
camp that Joe Pilates began to really experiment withKaren Carlson in Philadelphia who studied with Mary
his exercises and theories. It was obviously his priorityBowen and Kathy Grant who both studied with Joe.
to maintain his own strength and conditioning, whichAnd I received my certification from both Michelle
was not easy given the basic lack of hygienicLarson and her teacher Eve Gentry who studied with
conditions and the presence of injured and sickJoe. Since then I have worked directly with Romana,
internees and soldiers, but Pilates also had to deal withwith Eve before she died, and with Kathy. So even
the great influenza epidemic of 1918. In a time whenthough my studio training affiliation is with the
there was no physical or exercise therapy andPhysicalMind Institute I trace my lineage as a student
medicine was relatively archaic, Joe began to workand teacher back to Pilates himself and when people
with the sick and injured men. He taught them toask me what style of Pilates I teach I can honestly say
breathe and attached bedsprings with straps to thethat it is my own, but informed by all of my
walls by their hospital beds so they could begin toteachers.Of the 10 students of Joe's who taught
stretch and exercise by pushing or pulling on thePilates either at his studio or opened their own (yes,
springs before they could even get out of bed. Histhere were other New York Pilates studios open in the
patients got out of bed much faster, and Joe's50s!), only 6 are still alive and 5 are still actively
experiments were encouraged. Outside of the hospitalteaching in their 70s and 80s! Each individual took what
he took large groups of internees through his exercisehe or she learned from Joe and Clara and expanded
regimen every day believing wholeheartedly that thethe work with their own knowledge and expertise.
more everyone breathed and moved the better offAdditionally, many of the Elders worked with one
they would be. "Out with the bad germs and in with theanother. Hence, the different styles of Pilates, all of
fresh new oxygen," he would counsel. England lostwhich can ultimately be traced back to Joseph Pilates
tens of thousands and while the camps were hithimself.
extremely hard by the flu, only 200 men died at