Although Pilates has been shown to be effective in a number of different capacities for improving human health, it would be fair to say that for those who do not practise it, a major element of their interest and questioning regarding the exercise process is in the question “So, why is it called ‘Pilates’?”. The answer is straightforward and simple. It was devised by the German health expert Joseph Pilates. What is not widely known about Pilates is what a remarkable man he was.

Born in Moenchengladbach in 1883, Joseph was a sickly child in the fullest sense of the term, having to deal with asthma, rheumatic fever and rickets. Not one to be cowed by the hand life dealt him, he took this as a springboard to develop a program whereby he worked on his physical strength and condition, the better to deal with the problems he had. This he did by focusing on a number of existing programs, including some learnt from his gymnast father and his mother, a naturopath (or what would now be referred to as an alternative medicine practitioner). By the age of 14, he was in good enough condition to be asked to model for development charts.

In 1912, Joseph Pilates moved to England and while he was there the First World War commenced. The British government interned him and other German nationals as a “precautionary measure”, and while in confinement he took the opportunity to train his fellow inmates in physical conditioning. It was this training that was credited for the fact that he and other inmates were left largely untouched by the flu pandemic of 1918.

Having returned to Germany shortly after the war, he became strongly disillusioned with the direction in which the country was moving, and he left for America. It was there that he and his wife Clara founded a studio dedicated to the practice of “Contrology” – his name for the training regime – and it was there that his methods were taken up in earnest for the first time. Since his death in 1967, the practice has taken on his name and has become one of the most popular physical training procedures in the world.