Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1880 and suffering as a child from rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever. He was determined to overcome his own afflictions and worked his body into a state of better health. He studied musculature of human body and eastern forms of exercise like yoga. As a teenager he became skilled in gymnastics, skiing and diving.

He moved to England where he became a boxer, circus performer and self-defence instructor. During WWI he was incarcerated in Lancaster where he trained his fellow internees with his exercise regime called Contrology. In the hospital he developed resistance equipment by removing the bedsprings from beneath the beds and attached them to the walls above the patients’ beds, allowing them to exercise while lying in the bed. This later developed into reformer and magic ring.

After the war he returned to Germany and he was asked to train the German army, but he decided to take a ship to New York instead. During this journey he met a nurse, Clara who became his wife. Together they established a studio with Pilates Method in New York and it became very popular with the dancing community nearby. They trained Pilates instructors to continue their work and the studio existed from 1926-1966. Joseph Pilates died 1967 at the age of 87.