Have you ever wondered how the Pilates method came about? Our humble Enoggera Pilates Studio is the result of over 100 years of the method in development! Let’s get into the history of Pilates:

In 1912 Joeseph Pilates lived in England and worked as a boxer and self-defence instructor and even a circus performer (busy guy, right!?)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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During the latter part of the War he served as an orderly in a hospital on the Isle of Man, where he worked with patients unable to walk.

Being the innovator he was, Joseph attached bed springs to the hospital beds to help support the patients’ limbs, leading to the development of his famous piece of equipment known as the ‘Cadillac’. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Fast forward a few years to the early 1920s – Joeseph and his wife Clara emigrated to the USA. Together they developed and taught the Pilates method in their ‘body-conditioning gym’ in New York in 1926. Word spread quickly and many celebrities of the day visited his studio! Interestingly, 60% of his client base were men.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Joeseph published two books on his method, ‘Your Health’ and later ‘Return to Life Through Contrology’. During his lifetime this method of exercise was called Contrology. It was only after his death that it became known as the Pilates Method. ⠀⠀

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So there you have it, thats just a snippet of the history of pilates. We think it is pretty cool that the Pilates Method that we practice today in our Enoggera reformer studio is steeped in the movement patterns designed by Joseph Pilates over 90 years ago!