Hopefully, my information is correct! I have to rely on the internet since I cannot get to the library today!


Pilates is a full body workout without the pain of aerobics and weight lifting. The creative and dynamic exercises intrigue one’s mind in stark contrast to many hours of mindless activity. In addition, Pilates did not believe in doing 100 repetitions of an exercise, he believed that 4-5 reps done well were sufficient. All the exercises focus on building strength and endurance without building bulk, leading to longer leaner muscles.

Joseph H. Pilates was born in Germany in 1880; he died in New York in 1967. Pilates was a frail child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever and learned to overcome this weakness through his own exercise regime. He overcame his physical limitations and was posing for anatomical drawings by the age of 14.

Pilates went to England in 1912, where he worked as a self-defense instructor for detectives at Scotland Yard. At the outbreak of World War I, Pilates was interned as an "enemy alien" with other German nationals. During his internment, Pilates refined his ideas and trained other internees in his system of exercise. Pilates saw amputees dying simply because they were not moving and their bodies wasted away. He rigged springs to hospital beds, enabling bedridden patients to exercise against resistance, an innovation that led to his later equipment designs. An influenza epidemic struck England in 1918, killing thousands of people, but not a single one of Joe's trainees died. This, he claimed, testified to the effectiveness of his system.


The exercises and equipment that he designed 70 years ago are now finding a large audience because conventional programs have failed. Pilates works the deeper muscles to achieve efficient and graceful movement, improve alignment and breathing, and increase body awareness. They deliver simultaneous stretching and strengthening in a non-impact balanced system of body/mind exercise.

The pilates method of exercise has been very popular with dancers since the 1940s but it is now becoming much better known. Today his followers include dancers, athletes, physiotherapists, fitness trainers, health care providers and other professionals who appreciate the significant role exercise plays in restoring and maintaining good health

Joe continued to train clients at his studio until his death in 1967 at the age of 87. In the 1970s, Hollywood celebrities discovered Pilates via Ron Fletcher's studio in Beverly Hills. Where the stars go, the media follows. In the late 1980s, the media began to cover Pilates extensively. The public took note, and the Pilates business boomed. Today, five million Americans practice Pilates, and the numbers continue to grow.