| Who was Joseph Hubertus Pilates? While millions | | | | extremely hard by the flu, only 200 men died at |
| of people do Pilates exercises everyday, most do | | | | Knockaloe, thus proving to Joe that he was |
| not even know that Pilates was a person, let | | | | right.After the war Pilates was deported back to |
| alone an extremely interesting and colorful | | | | Germany, where he continued to develop, |
| personality who was at the leading edge of | | | | practice, and teach his exercises until 1925. He |
| exercise science. It is interesting not only to hear | | | | trained the Hamburg Military Police, took on some |
| about his life story, but also to explore his story in | | | | private clients, and worked as an early Physical |
| the context of the important social and political | | | | Therapist, exercising patients who suffered from |
| events of his time, as they all impacted his life | | | | the same illnesses he had, including rheumatic |
| and work. Of course, most of what we know | | | | fever. Joe met and collaborated with movement |
| came from Joseph Pilates himself, so the veracity | | | | analyst Rudolf van Laban and famous German |
| of some of his claims is questionable.Joe Pilates | | | | dancer Mary Wigman, and began developing spring |
| was born in 1880 in Moenchengladbach, a town | | | | based exercise equipment. "I thought, why use |
| near Dusseldorf, Germany to a gymnast father | | | | my strength [to exercise rheumatic patients]? So |
| and a naturopathic physician mother. | | | | I made a machine to do it for me. Look, you see |
| Moenchengladbach, located in West-Central | | | | it resists your movements in just the right way |
| Germany, was a center of industry and | | | | so those inner muscles really have to work |
| production, specifically cotton textiles. Pilates was | | | | against it. That way you can concentrate on |
| a frail and sickly child who suffered from rickets, | | | | movement. You must always do it slowly and |
| rheumatic fever, and asthma. Other children | | | | smoothly. Then your whole body is in it."Post war |
| constantly made fun of both his name (they called | | | | Germany was not doing well either politically or |
| him "Christ killer") and his frailty, and Joe was too | | | | economically. The Weimar Republic was not |
| weak and skinny to ever fight back. He resolved | | | | accepted by many Germans, inflation was up due |
| to get stronger in his breathing and his | | | | to wartime debts, and unemployment was at an |
| movements so that he could defend himself.One | | | | all time high. By 1923 French and Belgium troops |
| day Joe's doctor gave him an anatomy book, and | | | | had moved in to Germany as she defaulted on |
| the seeds of Contrology were sewn. Of this book | | | | war reparations payments. The government |
| Pilates said, "I learned every page, every part of | | | | began printing so much money that the mark |
| the body I would move each part as I | | | | became worthless in 1914 the US dollar was |
| memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods | | | | equivalent to 4 marks, in 1920 40 marks, in 1922 |
| for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, | | | | 200 marks, in 1923 18,000 marks, and by 1924 |
| how the mother taught the young." While | | | | 4.2 trillion marks. Things had literally gotten to the |
| attending school and studying history, philosophy, | | | | point where you needed a wheelbarrow full of |
| and engineering, Pilates also studied Eastern and | | | | paper money just to buy groceries.In 1925 Pilates |
| Western forms of exercise. The young Joe sent | | | | was invited to train the New German Army. |
| for more books and haunted the University | | | | However, given the situation in Germany, he had |
| libraries in Dusseldorf. The more he learned the | | | | already decided to leave. Boxing expert Nat |
| more questions he had. He tried yoga, Buddhist | | | | Fleischer and Olympic boxer Max Schmelling |
| meditation, and ancient Greek and Roman | | | | convinced Joe to come to the US, specifically to |
| gymnastic exercises, and kept meticulous written | | | | New York City. Here he could train boxers and |
| records of what the exercises did for him and | | | | continue to work on his equipment, inventing and |
| how he progressed. Pilates held fast to the | | | | patenting his new machines. He met his future |
| ancient Roman credo "Mens sana in corpore sano | | | | wife Clara, a kindergarten teacher, on the boat to |
| (A sound mind in a sound body)." By the time he | | | | Ellis Island. The story goes that Clara suffered |
| turned 14 he was not only strong enough to be | | | | from arthritis and Joe worked with her to |
| considered an accomplished skin diver, gymnast, | | | | increase her mobility and relieve her pain. Once in |
| boxer, and skier, he also modeled for anatomy | | | | New York they opened their gym at 939 Eighth |
| charts.We know that Pilates traveled to England | | | | Avenue, in the same building that housed |
| when he was in his 30s, but there are at least | | | | rehearsal studios for George Ballanchine's New |
| two different equally plausible stories about how | | | | York City Ballet.Joseph Pilates never received the |
| and why he went. The first story tells us that he | | | | level of recognition that his brilliant work clearly |
| went there to box, having exhausted most of the | | | | deserved, and even today it is difficult to wade |
| prizefighting venues at home. The second claims | | | | through the myth and find the true story. This is |
| that Joe had begun successfully performing in the | | | | partially true because most of what we know |
| circus with his brother, and they had a Greek | | | | about his life has come from students of students |
| statue act that was so popular they took it to | | | | of his students.While many facts about Joe's life |
| England. Whichever is true, Pilates was in England | | | | are verifiable, sources still disagree on the basics. |
| in 1914 when WW I broke out and was interned | | | | In fact, I just reviewed several sites and each |
| by the British as an enemy alien. He first went to | | | | gave a different year of death (1966, 1967, 1968) |
| a small camp near Lancaster, where he began | | | | as well as a different cause of death (he died in a |
| teaching self defense and wrestling to the other | | | | fire as a result of a fire as a result of smoke |
| Germans, claiming that they would be stronger | | | | inhalation from a fire etc.). According to his New |
| when they left than when they entered. It was | | | | York Times obituary Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at |
| here that Joe began to develop his system of | | | | Lenox Hill Hospital, but the Times never mentions |
| Contrology. Then he was transferred.During both | | | | cause of death. And there was indeed a fire on |
| World Wars, the British set up their Alien Civilian | | | | the same floor as his studio in 1965 where Joe |
| Internment Camps on the Isle of Man. | | | | suffered a bad leg scrape while inspecting the |
| Interestingly, they only interned males women | | | | studio. But, according to Pilates Elder Mary Bowen, |
| were not interned. For WW1 (1914-1918) a very | | | | "To set the record straight - no, Joe did not die in |
| large camp was established on the west coast of | | | | a fire. He died two years later...of advanced |
| the island at Knockaloe. The Knockaloe camp, | | | | emphysema from smoking cigars for too many |
| intended to house 5000 men, ended up expanding | | | | years...." Apparently all the good breathing in the |
| to hold about 24,000. It was 22 acres large, | | | | world could not keep his scarred lungs (recall that |
| divided into 23 compounds split into 4 separate | | | | he was rheumatic and asthmatic as a child) from |
| camps. Each camp had its own hospital, theater, | | | | feeling the effects of smoking. As Joe left no will, |
| cafeteria, printing presses, etc. and the hospitals | | | | Clara took over and ran the studio until she |
| were used to treat soldiers injured on the front | | | | retired in the mid-70s. This is where the story |
| lines of battle. The Knockaloe camps were built | | | | gets interesting...The Question of LineageMost |
| from wooden huts, and became extremely | | | | Pilates teachers out there today can trace his or |
| depressing after several years. To make things | | | | her lineage back to Joe and Clara, and this includes |
| worse, the camps did not close right at the end | | | | such heavyweights as Winsor and Stott. I, for |
| of the war, since there was a long period of | | | | example, originally was a client at SUNY Purchase |
| postwar hostilities. The camps finally closed in late | | | | where I learned under Steve Giordano who |
| 1919, and most of the internees were deported | | | | studied with Joe's student Romana Kryzanowska. |
| back to Germany.It was while interned at | | | | Then I worked with Karen Carlson in Philadelphia |
| Knockaloe camp that Joe Pilates began to really | | | | who studied with Mary Bowen and Kathy Grant |
| experiment with his exercises and theories. It was | | | | who both studied with Joe. And I received my |
| obviously his priority to maintain his own strength | | | | certification from both Michelle Larson and her |
| and conditioning, which was not easy given the | | | | teacher Eve Gentry who studied with Joe. Since |
| basic lack of hygienic conditions and the presence | | | | then I have worked directly with Romana, with |
| of injured and sick internees and soldiers, but | | | | Eve before she died, and with Kathy. So even |
| Pilates also had to deal with the great influenza | | | | though my studio training affiliation is with the |
| epidemic of 1918. In a time when there was no | | | | PhysicalMind Institute I trace my lineage as a |
| physical or exercise therapy and medicine was | | | | student and teacher back to Pilates himself and |
| relatively archaic, Joe began to work with the sick | | | | when people ask me what style of Pilates I teach |
| and injured men. He taught them to breathe and | | | | I can honestly say that it is my own, but |
| attached bedsprings with straps to the walls by | | | | informed by all of my teachers.Of the 10 |
| their hospital beds so they could begin to stretch | | | | students of Joe's who taught Pilates either at his |
| and exercise by pushing or pulling on the springs | | | | studio or opened their own (yes, there were |
| before they could even get out of bed. His | | | | other New York Pilates studios open in the 50s!), |
| patients got out of bed much faster, and Joe's | | | | only 6 are still alive and 5 are still actively teaching |
| experiments were encouraged. Outside of the | | | | in their 70s and 80s! Each individual took what he |
| hospital he took large groups of internees through | | | | or she learned from Joe and Clara and expanded |
| his exercise regimen every day believing | | | | the work with their own knowledge and expertise. |
| wholeheartedly that the more everyone breathed | | | | Additionally, many of the Elders worked with one |
| and moved the better off they would be. "Out | | | | another. Hence, the different styles of Pilates, all |
| with the bad germs and in with the fresh new | | | | of which can ultimately be traced back to Joseph |
| oxygen," he would counsel. England lost tens of | | | | Pilates himself. |
| thousands and while the camps were hit | | | | |