The history of Pilates exercises is fairly unique. It is named after its creator – Joseph Humbertus Pilates whose aim was to develop a system of exercises which would stretch and strengthen all muscles in the body. His task resulted from his personal need because, as a child, Joseph Pilates was sickly and he suffered from asthma and rickets, among others. Despite his limitations, Pilates practiced many sports, skiing being one of them, and his love for physical activity led him to become a boxer, a self-defense instructor who trained Scotland Yard policemen, and a circus artist. He transformed from a sickly child into an athletic young man – a model for anatomy drawings.
Joseph Pilates believed that his system of exercises can not only affect one’s health but also shape human character. In its assumptions, his method was to help in learning to achieve one’s life goals. As a system, Pilates was based on elements of gymnastics, yoga and ballet and developed in most disadvantageous circumstances – during World War I when its creator was interned.
The tremendous success of the Pilates’s method can be ascribed, among others, to the fact that all persons who practiced it with him during the influenza epidemic of 1918 in England survived. At the beginning, the method drew attention of ballet dancers but it soon became popular among physicians who were recommending it to their patients. Nowadays, Pilates exercises are popular all over the world and many chiropractors and physiotherapists use the method as an element of physical rehabilitation.
