The Pilates method has been around for over 80 years and was founded by a man named Joseph Pilates. He suffered with several childhood diseases associated with poverty such as Rickets, Rheumatic fever and Asthma. In his determination to overcome his health problems Joseph Pilates studied and developed an exercise programme that assisted in restoring him to optimal health. Many of the exercise beliefs he researched dated back to the Greeks and Romans and through his programme he gained enough strength to become an accomplished body builder, diver, skier and gymnast.

Joseph Pilates studied many types of body conditioning, he found weight training and the usual forms of strengthening and stretching boring and monotonous, and realised they had the potential to make you stiff and tired.

 During World War 1 Joseph Pilates was interned by the British authorities in a camp. During that time, he trained other interns, many of whom needed serious rehabilitation. He continued to develop his interest in health and physical fitness. At the time there was an influenza epidemic and his method was praised when none of the internees became infected.

After the war, he moved to New York and set up a studio which he ran with his wife, Clara a former nurse. It was here that he taught his method of exercise, which he named 'Contrology' It was later renamed Pilates after his death in 1967 and was introduced to the UK by Alan Herdman in the early 1970s.