Archive for the ‘Pilates Equipment’ Category

Joseph Pilates – Fifty Years Ahead of His Time

Monday, December 12th, 2011

When you’re stretching out on the refromer, do you ever think to yourself – “who came up with this?”  We all owe a debt of gratitude to the forward thinking master of “contrology” or “Pilates” to Joseph Pilates.

German born Joseph Pilates was working in England when he was placed in forced internment in England at the outbreak of WWI. While in the internment camp, he began to develop exercises that eventually evolved into what we now know “Pilates”.

In the camp, Joseph Pilates worked to rehabilitate other detainees who were suffering from diseases and injuries. It was invention born of necessity that inspired him to use items that were available to him.  Bed springs and beer keg rings became resistance equipment, and were the unlikely beginnings of the equipment used today, like the reformer and the magic circle.

Joseph Pilates was quoted to say “I’m fifty years ahead of my time”, and “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness”. He was right on both accounts.  He would be astounded to see what his method of exercise has developed into, but he might also be thrilled and surprised to see how well Pilates has been accepted.

Pilates was an educator, entrepreneur, businessman, self-taught fitness guru and author. His books “Your Life” written in 1934 and “Return to Life Through Contrology” written in 1945 give you peek into the mind of this confident and seemingly tireless man.

It’s safe to say the exercise and fitness world would not be the same with out his contributions.

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A Brief History of Pilates Equipment

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Joseph Pilates and student on his Trapeze Table (Cadillac)

Joseph Pilates on his Reformer

The history of Pilates equipment – an amazing story about an incredibly resourceful man!

 As a young man, Joseph Pilates was the picture of health and fitness, and was working as a boxer and circus performer in England.  In 1914, soon after WWI broke out, he was held along with other German nationals in an internment camp for enemy aliens in Lancaster.  While in captivity, he taught his fellow captives wrestling and self-defense, boasting that his students would emerge stronger than they were before their internment. It was here that he began teaching his mat exercises that later became “Contrology”.

Pilates was subsequently transferred to another camp on The Isle of Man where his interests in health led him to help out in the sick bay. He became something of a nurse and worked with many internees suffering from illness and injuries.  Although the convention wisdom of the day was bed rest, he recommended exercise for his patients.   According to the legend, he was told, “you can do anything you like with the patients, as long as they stay in bed”. So Pilates took the springs from the beds and rigged them up to the bed posts to allow his patients to exercise while lying in bed!  This was the first Trapeze Table (also known as the Cadillac)   

It is reported that when the 1918 flu epidemic swept the world, (it killed millions, and an internment camp is an ideal breeding ground for such epidemics to hit hard), none of Pilates’ followers succumbed.

 Joseph Pilates is quoted “I invented all these machines.  I began back in Germany, and was there until 1923. I used to exercise rheumatic patients. I thought, why use my strength? So I made a machine to do it for me.  It resists your movements, in just the right way, so those inner muscles really have to work against it. That way you can concentrate on the movement! You must always do it slowly and smoothly, so your whole body is in it.”

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