A brief history

Born an asthmatic child in Germany in 1883, Joe Pilates was determined to overcome his ailments. At a young age Joe studied the body, as well as Eastern and Western forms of exercise such as Yoga, wrestling, martial arts, gymnastics, acrobatics, and boxing, among many others. Joe developed a series of floor routines that demanded balance, flexibility, strength, power, agility and acute mental focus in order to execute them correctly. He called his method “Contrology” (using the mind to control the body). He went one step further by combining his engineering skills with his knowledge of health and the body to design specialized exercise apparatus using springs, pulleys and movable platforms to create variable-resistance workouts.