I often have clients, teacher trainees, and workshop attendees ask which books about Pilates are the best. Some don’t know that Pilates is more than a method of exercise, but it’s also a person! Pilates was created by a man named Joseph H. Pilates, and he led a very interesting life. He was a very smart, creative man. He is also the one who designed all of the Pilates apparatuses still in use one hundred years after his first studio in New York opened.
I’ve learned the history of Pilates (the man and the method) over the years through teacher training, by attending workshops, conferences, taking courses, and doing additional teacher training. Some teacher training programs don’t teach history at all, or it is very brief, which is unfortunate, because it’s so important to understanding Joseph’s method.
There are so many great ways to learn about Pilates, but books about Pilates are based on lots of research and fact finding. As I’ve expanded my own knowledge, I’ve found out that some of the things I thought were true were inaccurate.
For example, I’ve heard that Joseph used bedsprings for his reformer, but his first patent actually used pulleys and weights. It’s also been said that he was a prison guard, when in fact he was actually a prisoner on the Ilse of Man. He had been in England and back to Germany and back to England to escape having to fight in the war, only to end up having to go to the prisoner camp on the isle of man. He was born in Germany, where he was a boxing promoter, among other jobs. While he developed his method in Germany, he didn’t open his first studio until he moved to New York. That first studio opened in 1926 when Joseph was 43, and he was still running it when he passed away in 1967. It’s amazing to me that he taught Pilates for 41 years, and then his clients kept it going.
When you read about him, you’ll see that Joseph Pilates had such a passion for what he was doing, and that he had led many lives before settling in New York. I could go on and on, jumping from one tidbit of history that I find interesting to another, but I think it will be much easier to follow if you read it for yourself.
There have been several people who have done a deep dive on researching Joseph Pilates, interviewing people who trained under him, worked for him, or were his friends. You can also read about Pilates from Joseph’s own books.
The Best Books About Pilates
- Return to Life Through Contrology, by Joseph Pilates. Get an older version if you can. Here you’ll find some of his famous quotes and understand the context of what he meant by them. It also provides you with most of the mat exercises, including a full description of how to do them.
- Your Health, by Joseph Pilates. A corrective system of exercising that revolutionizes the entire field of physical education.
- The Caged Lion – Joseph Pilates & His Legacy, by John Howard Steel. John Steel was a client of Joe’s who went on to become a friend, his lawyer, and eventually one of the people who got Romana to take over Joe’s studio after he passed away. I had the pleasure of hearing John speak in person twice before he had written his book. He is funny and full of facts.
A few other books about Pilates that are worth a read are:
- Get To Know Joe Pilates, by Cathy Strack
- Joseph Pilates, A Biography, by Eva Rincke
- The Pilates Effect: Heroes Behind The Revolution, by Sarah Holmes & Stacey Redfield
You can also learn a lot by reading his patents or studying archival photos of Joe and his studio. That, or they will spark more questions for you to seek answers for.
Enjoy your reading or listening!
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