The Pilates Method (sometimes simply Pilates) is a physical fitness system that was developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates. Pilates wrote at least two books about the Pilates method: Return to Life through Contrology and Your Health: A Corrective System of Exercising That Revolutionizes the Entire Field of Physical Education.

Pilates called his method Contrology, which refers to the way the method encourages the use of the mind to control the muscles. It is an exercise program that focuses on the core postural muscles that help keep the body balanced and are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and strengthen the deep torso muscles, which are important to help alleviate and prevent back pain.

History

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Born in 1880 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Joseph Pilates, a German national of Greek descent,became an avid exercise enthusiast (skier, gymnast, diver, martial arts student) and developed his body into superb condition. In his teens, he was used as a model for fitness charts. Traveling to England before the first World War, he worked as a boxer and circus performer. During WWI, he was interned in the Isle of Man with other German nationals and POWs. A trained nurse in his native Germany, he was investigating ways that he could rehabilitate bed-ridden victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Thus he created a series of movements that could be practiced within the confines of this controlled environment. The Pilates Reformer (a piece of [http://unionsquarepilates.com/_wsn/page4.html Pilates equipment) is based on an old hospital bed. Returning to Germany briefly after the war, he then began training professional boxers, notably heavyweight champion Max Schmelling, and police officers. He then moved to the United States and opened his own training studio in New York city in 1926 with his wife Clara.

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