Body Evolution Pilates Studio
Strengthen, Stretch and Balance to Your Highest Form
Pilates History
Joseph H. Pilates was born in Mönchengladbach Germany, in 1880. His father was a prize-winning gymnast. His mother worked as a naturopath. He was a sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever, and he dedicated his entire life to becoming physically stronger. He sought out, and studied, many types of self-improvement , including practices such as Yoga and Zen Buddhism.
He was also inspired by the ancient Greek ideal of man perfected in development of the body, mind and spirit. Joseph Pilates also studied anatomy, and developed himself as a body builder, a wrestler, gymnast, boxer, skier and diver. He fine-
tuned his wellness regimen while interned in England during the First World War and, legend has it, it helped him and his fellow internees resist the influenza epidemic of 1918. While working as an orderly at the infirmary, he engineered a way to rig the springs of hospital beds to offer light resistance exercises to the bedridden patients, and thus the seed for the Pilates equipment work was planted.
After WWI, Joseph briefly returned to Germany where his reputation as a physical trainer/healer preceded him. He worked briefly training the Hamburg Military Police in self-defense and physical training. In 1925 he was asked to train the German army. Instead, he packed his bags and took a boat to New York City. On the boat to America he met Clara, a nurse, who would become his wife.
