In the last few years, Pilates has become increasingly popular, with more and more people going to regular classes and really feeling the benefits of this incredible form of movement. Although massively popular now, Pilates has actually existed for over a hundred years and was founded by a man called Joseph Pilates in the 1920s. The reason why he created Pilates is really interesting and comes as a surprise to many people!
During the war, Joseph Pilates started working in a war hospital in the Isle of Man in 1912. During his time at the hospital, he realised that everyone there wasn’t doing any exercise! People were bedridden and not doing any movement which is something he wanted to change. Joseph believed that if the patients did some form of exercise and movement, they would recover quicker.
So, Joseph Pilates came up with a series of exercises that he started implementing at the hospital that focused on balance, posture, strength and flexibility. These exercises are very similar to the classical Pilates exericses today that we know have so many benefits!
The doctors at the hospital noticed that the people who were taking part in his exercises were doing much better and recovering significantly more quickly than those who weren’t doing these exercises. So, Joseph was right! Movement was absolutely key in helping these patients recover and shows how amazingly benefical Pilates is.
With this knowledge, after the war in the 1920s, Joseph and his wife set up a Pilates studio in New York. He started teaching classes using his method of classical exercises focusing on the six key elements of Pilates which Joseph stated to be Breath, Concentration, Control, Precision, Centre and Flow. He got together a small team of instructors and introduced equipment such as the cadillac and reformer which are also growing in popularity today.
Over 100 years later, Pilates is becoming more popular than ever before, with people of all ages taking part in classes and feeling the benefits of this kind of exercise. In the words of Joseph Pilates himself, “Change happens through movement and movement heals.” Pilates is magic and this is proof of just that!
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