In the last issue Joseph Pilates and other German nationalists were interned in a “camp” for enemy aliens in Lancaster, England. During this time, he taught wrestling and self-defence and boasted that his students would leave the camp stronger than they were before they were interned. Here is where he started devising his system of original exercises that later became known as Contrology.
He was transferred to another camp on The Isle of Man where he worked with internees suffering from disease and incarceration. This is where he began devising equipment to help rehabilitate them. He did this by taking springs from beds and rigging exercise apparatus for the bedridden. In 1918 an epidemic of influenza attacked the world killing millions and tens of thousands in England. Even though the camps were the hardest hit, none of Joseph Pilates’ followers succumbed. From what Joseph Pilates did with his form of exercise up to this point it can be said that Joseph Pilates became a nurse / physiotherapist of sorts with a powerful, life enhancing, and therapeutic exercise. The book Return to Contrology by Joseph Pilates explains his approach in greater detail.
After the war Joseph Pilates returned to Germany and began training the Hamburg military police in self-defence. He also started taking on personal clients. He said, “I invented all these machines. Began back in Germany, was there until 1925 I used to exercise rheumatic patients. I thought, why use my strength? So I made a machine to do it for me. Look, you see it resists your movements in just the right way so those inner muscles really have to work against it. That way you can concentrate on movement. You must always do it slowly and smoothly. Then your whole body is in it.” In 1925 he was invited to train the New German Army but due to the political direction of Germany he decided to leave and spent the last half of his life in America. It was on his way to the United States that he met his second wife, Clara. Clara was a kindergarten teacher who suffered from arthritic pain. Joseph Pilates worked with on the boat trip to the United States. He helped heal her giving her new start to life.
Once Joseph and Clara arrived in New York City they opened a gym on 939 Eighth Ave. This gym was in the same building as many dance studios and rehearsal spaces. It was the close proximity of Joseph’s gym that made Contrology an important part of life, rehabilitation and training of many dancers. Dancers were sent to Joe to be “fixed”.
Certified Stott instructor. Experience with teching, instructing, owning a Pilates studio and meeting people and postures.