Where it started
A century of controlled movement.
Pilates began with Joseph Pilates — a German-born nurse and anatomist who, while rehabilitating injured soldiers during WWI, rigged springs to hospital beds. That idea became the reformer, and his method — controlled movement, balance, body awareness — is the practice taught in every studio today.
He called it Contrology — controlled movement, balance, and body awareness.
Joseph Pilates · New York City · 1926
The method
1883Joseph Pilates is born near Düsseldorf, Germany, to an athletic father and a mother who believed the body could heal itself.
ChildhoodA sickly child — asthma, rickets, rheumatic fever — he trains relentlessly to overcome it; by his teens he's fit enough to model for anatomy charts.
1912Moves to England, working as a boxer, circus performer, and self-defense trainer at Scotland Yard.
WWIInterned as a German national, he keeps fellow internees moving daily — and rigs bed springs into resistance equipment for bedridden patients, the earliest version of the Reformer.
PostwarReturns briefly to Germany, trains police, and crosses paths with pioneers of modern dance before leaving for the U.S.
1926Joseph & Clara open their NYC studio; the method — Contrology — draws dancers and performers.
1934 & 1945He publishes Your Health, then Return to Life Through Contrology, codifying the exercises still taught today.
1967Joseph Pilates dies at 83; his students — later known as the Elders — carry the method forward.
Club Pilates & Spartan
2007Club Pilates is founded in San Diego — reformer Pilates as an accessible group class.
2012–13Club Pilates begins franchising.
2015Anthony Geisler acquires Club Pilates; it later joins the Xponential Fitness platform.
2020Spartan begins building its Club Pilates platform.
TodayThe largest Club Pilates portfolio in the world — 170+ studios across 16 states.
Watch the full story
Knowledge check — required
Before you move on
Answer all five. You need 4 of 5 to unlock the next module.
01Which condition did Joseph Pilates not have as a child?
02Which of these happened last?
03What became the earliest version of the Reformer?
04In what year was Club Pilates founded, and where?
05What is Spartan’s position in the Club Pilates system today?
