The name Pilates comes from it's founder, Joseph Pilates (pronounced Pi- LA -tees) born in Germany a century ago. A frail child, susceptible to rickets and asthma, Jo pilates went on to become an expert in exercise regimes in the pursuit of perfect health and fitness. He became an all round athlete - bodybuilder, boxer, gymnast and diver. During the period of WW1 however, he turned his attention towards reconditioning the wounded and disabled in hospitals.

Experimenting with springs on hospital beds, he started to devise a series of rehabilitative exercises that worked the whole body. These exercises were to become the fundamentals of the Pilates technique.

After the war he and his wife Clara, a nurse, moved to New York and the first studio was born. For a long time Pilates was kept as a relatively unknown exercise technique practiced only by a select few: dancers and athletes in particular.(George Balanchine and Martha Graham were both devotees)

Since then the technique has progressed and there are now hundreds of Pilates variations.

In the past ten years Pilates has seen a strong revival, now making it more universally popular amongst everyone, as well as gaining much respect and .acceptance in the medical, physiotherapy and rehabilitative fraternity.

Joseph H. Pilates at age 57

Joe Pilates demonstrates use of his Gymnastic Apparatus