Joseph Hubertus Pilates (December 9, 1883 - October 9, 1967) was a German physical trainer famous for discovering and promoting Pilates's physical fitness methods.
Video Joseph Pilates
Biography
Joseph H. Pilates was born on December 9, 1883 in MÃÆ'¶nchengladbach, Germany. His father, Heinrich Friedrich Pilates, was an enthusiastic metal worker and gymnast, and his mother was a housewife.
Pilates is a sickly child. She suffers from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever, and she dedicates her whole life to improving her physical strength. He was introduced by his father to gymnastics and body formation, and to martial arts such as jiu-jitsu and boxing. At the age of 14, he is fit enough to pose for an anatomical chart. Pilates came to believe that the "modern" lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing lie in the roots of ill health. He eventually devised a series of training exercises and techniques, and engineered all the equipment, specifications, and adjustments needed to properly teach his method.
Pilates was originally a gymnast and bodybuilder, but when he moved to England in 1912, he made a living as a professional boxer, a circus performer, and a martial arts trainer at the police schools and Scotland Yard. During World War I, the British authorities followed him, along with other German citizens, at Lancaster Palace, where he taught wrestling and self-defense, boasting that his students would appear stronger than before their imprisonment. It was there that he began to refine and teach his minimal gymnastic equipment system which later became "Contrology". He was later transferred to another internment camp at Knockaloe on the Isle of Man. During an accidental break, he began to intensively develop his concept of a comprehensive integrated physical training system, which he himself called "Contrology". He studied yoga and animal movements and trained fellow inmates in fitness and practice.
After World War I, he returned to Germany and collaborated with important experts in dance and physical exercises such as Rudolf Laban. In Hamburg, he trains police officers. He emigrated to the United States around 1925. On board to America, he met his future wife Clara. The couple founded a studio in New York City and immediately taught and supervised their students up to the 1960s. Contrology, associated with encouraging the use of the mind to control muscles, focuses on the posture's core muscles that help keep the body balanced and provide support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and strengthen the inner muscles and abdominal muscles.
Joseph and Clara Pilates soon formed a loyal following in the local dance community and performing arts in New York. Renowned dancers like George Balanchine, who arrived in the United States in 1933, and Martha Graham, who came to New York in 1923, became devotees and regularly sent their students to Pilates for training and rehabilitation. The exercise regimen builds flexibility, strength, and stamina. As soon as it became known that the ballerina was attending the Pilates gym on 8th Avenue, the women of the community followed.
Joseph Pilates wrote several books, including Back to Life through Contrology and Your Health, and he is also a prolific inventor, with over 26 patents quoted. Joe and Clara have a number of students who continue to teach variations of his method or, in some cases, focus exclusively on preserving the methods and techniques of instructor training they have learned during their studies with Joe and Clara.
Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 83 in New York.
Maps Joseph Pilates
Books
- Joseph Hubertus Pilates; William John Miller (1960). Back to Life Through Control . Christopher Pub. House.
- Your Health by Joseph H. Pilates (1934)
- Back to Life Through Control by Joseph H. Pilates and William J. Miller (1945)
Movies
- Joseph Pilates is featured in the 2013 documentary, "A Movement of Movement" made by Mark Pedri.
References
External links
- The German-British Pilates blog-biographer Eva Rincke in which she shares background information about her research on Joseph Pilates's life.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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