Joseph Pilates was a sickly child and suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. Due to his ailments he dedicated his entire life to improving his physical strength. Besides skiing frequently, he began studying body-building, yoga, kung fu and gymnastics. Pilates came to believe that the "modern" life-style, badposture, and inefficient breathing lay at the roots of poor health. He ultimately devised a series of exercises and training-techniques and engineered all the equipment, specifications, and tuning required to teach his methods properly.

"Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness"

Pilates was originally a gymnast, diver, and bodybuilder. He earned a living as a professional boxer, circus-performer, and self-defense trainer at police schools. He studied yoga and the movements of animals and trained inmates in fitness and exercises. 

Joseph and his wife Clara would eventually establish a name in the local dance and performing-arts community of New York. Well-known dancers and instructors became devotees and regularly sent their students to the Pilates for training and rehabilitation. His exercise regimen built flexibility, strength and stamina. Soon after it became known that ballerinas were attending the Pilates gym society women followed.

By practicing Pilates methods, dancers were now able to expertly control the movement of their bodies by creating flow through the use of appropriate transitions. Once precision has been achieved, the exercises are intended to flow within and into each other in order to build strength and stamina. In other words, the Pilates technique helps you become strong with the ability to move freely. Joseph Pilates wrote several books, including Return to Life through Contrology and Your Health, and he was also a prolific inventor, with over 26 patents cited. Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 83 in New York.