Pilates came to believe that the "modern" lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing lay at the roots of poor health. He ultimately devised a series of exercises and training techniques, and engineered all the equipment, specifications, and tuning required to teach his methods.

A frail child plagued by rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever, Joe yearned for a healthy, strong, attractive body. Not yet a teen, he began researching many types of exercise to aid in his strength-training program. He studied yoga, Zen meditation and several ancient Greek and Roman exercise regimens.

Born Joseph Hubertus Pilates in December 9, 1883 in Monchengladbach, Germany, Pilates was originally a gymnast and bodybuilder, but when he moved to England in 1912, he earned a living as a professional boxer, a circus-performer, and a self-defense trainer at police schools and Scotland Yard.

INVENTING THE APPARATUSES Over the course of his career, Joseph Pilates developed more than 600 exercises for the Mat as well as on the various apparatuses he invented, such as the Cadillac, the Reformer, the Wunda Chair, and the Spine Corrector.