BEST PILATES LESSONS PARIS

Who is

Joseph Hubert Pilates ?

The man who invented his method of "mind/body" fitness.

(9 December 1883 – 9 October 1967) was a German physical trainer, and notable for having invented and promoted his Pilates method of physical fitness, during the WW I.

During this World War  the British authorities interned him, along with other German citizens, in Lancaster Castle, where he taught wrestling and self-defense, boasting that his students would emerge stronger than they were before their internment. In fact his students never succumbed to the flu pandemic of that time.  It was there that he began refining and teaching his minimal equipment system of mat exercises that later became know as "Contrology".  Only several years later the method became known as Pilates.

He and his wife Clara founded a studio in New York City and directly taught and supervised their students well into the 1960s. "Contrology", related to encouraging the use of the mind to control muscles, focusing attention on core postural muscles that help keep the body balanced and provide support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and of alignment of the spine, and strengthen the deep torso and abdominal muscles.

From being a sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever, he was determined to build his own body to its ultimate strength.  With the help of his father's physical training and his own studies of Yoga, body building circus training, as well as many other disciplines in  body strengthening he later created his method.  He continued, with his wife,  to pass on his findings to the many people who came to his New York studio.  These students included the dancers from New York City Ballet, Gymnasts, Acrobats and actors.