Joseph Pilates
Joseph Pilates was born in 1880. Unwell as a child he trained his body relentlessly until at age fourteen he was able to model for anatomical drawings. He continued to be very active and was later to take his ideas from the fields of gymnastics, skiing, diving, boxing, swimming, yoga, and circus training.
In 1912 he left Germany and taught self defence to detectives at Scotland Yard and interned during the WW1 he helped many of the injured back onto their feet by applying his techniques and by utilizing bed springs as rudimentary equipment. This equipment he later developed and these machines can now be seen in any Pilates studio around the world.
After briefly returning to Germany he moved to New York where his Pilates studio attracted dancers such as Martha Graham and George Balanchine. These days the method is taught internationally thanks to people like Alan Herdman who first introduced Pilates to the UK in the 1970's and Lynne Robinson who founded The Body Control Pilates Association with Gordon Thompson and Helge Fisher.
