• Longer, leaner muscles
• Increases core strength, stability and peripheral mobility
• Improves postural problems
• Helps prevent injury
• Enhances functional fitness and ease of movement
• Balances strength & flexibility
• Can be customized to suit everyone from rehab patients to elite athletes
• Improves performance in sports (golf, skiing, running, etc.)
• Improves balance, coordination & circulation

During the first world war, German-born Joseph H. Pilates (1880-1967) created a series of exercises designed to overcome injuries and postural problems. Before the war he had been an accomplished boxer, gymnast, and circus performer. He had overcome a number of physical ailments, including asthma and rheumatic fever, by practicing athletics.

Interned in English camps, he began to train his fellow prisoners of war in his matwork exercises. He also devised rudimentary exercise aids by attaching springs to hospital beds so injured patients could exercise safely. Modern versions of this original equipment (the reformer) and others that Pilates devised, are found in studios today.

In the 1920's Joseph Pilates immigrated to New York and set up a studio. Dancers and athletes were drawn to his work and began to trumpet it's benefits. It has since entered the mainstream of exercise regimes for all populations ranging from conditioned to couch potato to post-injury rehab.