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