What is Pilates? A Journey Through Its History and Evolution

Pilates. You’ve heard of it or maybe you teach it, swear by it, or recommend it to clients. But how well do we really know its origins?

Far beyond today’s fitness studios and Instagram reels lies a deeper, often-overlooked history. The Pilates method is not just a modern wellness trend or a celebrity-endorsed workout. It is a thoughtful, structured system of movement — one that grew out of a European tradition of healing, strength, and functional mobility.

This is the story of shared roots: of how two movement philosophies, Swedish gymnastics and Joseph Pilates’ Contrology  evolved from the same soil but grew in different directions.

From Weak to Warrior: The Making of Joseph Pilates

Born in Germany in 1883, Joseph Pilates began life with multiple health challenges: asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever among them. Rather than accept a lifetime of weakness, he took his health into his own hands. His lifelong study of movement included gymnastics, boxing, martial arts, yoga, body-building, and anatomy. He was especially influenced by nature, animal movement, and the breath-focused practices emerging across Europe at the time.

During World War I, Pilates was interned in England along with other German nationals. Here, he began refining his system,  training fellow detainees, attaching bed springs to hospital beds to create resistance equipment, and developing the seeds of what we now call the Reformer.

He believed that the modern world was damaging the body, with poor posture, shallow breathing, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles. His solution? A method that would restore the natural strength, alignment, and resilience of the human form.

Ling’s Legacy, Sweden’s Forgotten Influence

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Ling’s Legacy: Sweden’s Forgotten Influence

But long before Joseph Pilates began to form his method, Sweden was already leading a movement revolution. In the early 1800s, Pehr Henrik Ling created a holistic physical education system rooted in anatomy, therapeutic gymnastics, breathwork, and posture training. The goal wasn’t muscle mass — it was vitality. Strength through form. Health through motion.

Ling’s "Swedish gymnastics" spread throughout Europe and became a cornerstone of physiotherapy and early sports medicine. Sweden and Germany were deeply connected in their physical education philosophies, often sharing research, methods, and teachers. In fact, German "Turnvereins" (gymnastic societies) were modeled in part after Ling’s approach.

It’s no coincidence that Joseph Pilates, raised in this environment, echoed many of the same principles: controlled movement, breath as a guide, precision, alignment, and the balance between effort and ease.

And that iconic piece of Pilates studio equipment, the wall bars, or as we call them in Sweden, ribbstol? That’s a straight-up Swedish invention. You’ll still find them lining the walls of most Swedish schools today,not just one, but entire walls filled with them. A quiet legacy of movement, still going strong.

Two Systems, One Philosophy,Then Divergence

Though Pilates would later give his system a new name, Contrology. It’s clear that his philosophy was not born in isolation.

Both he and Ling believed,

• The body and mind are deeply interconnected

• Breath is a powerful tool for control and vitality

• Movement can heal, align, and strengthen the entire being

• Physical training must be purposeful and functional

But over time, the systems took different paths. As did Pilates throughout the years, so today we have quite a few different ideas on what Pilates is and how we can practice. There are een people really fighting over this issue.

In Sweden, Ling’s legacy evolved into a national movement culture. Public health became a cornerstone of physical activity. This philosophy lives on today in organizations like Friskis & Svettis roughly translating to "Healthy & Sweaty", a nonprofit fitness movement that’s engaged millions of Swedes in joyful, accessible exercise. Movement for everyone, everywhere. From the beginning it was different in Sweden when these methods developed, because in Sweden everyone exercised for health improvement, even children and women. This was not the case in other countries at this period of time.

Pilates’ method, on the other hand, took a more artistic and individual route, first embraced by dancers and elite athletes, then spreading across the wellness world as a premium method of mind-body conditioning.

Why This History Matters

So why revisit the past? Because understanding its origins deepens our respect for the method. It reminds trainers and practitioners alike that Pilates is more than just choreography or fitness content. It's a living tradition, shaped by centuries of European bodywork philosophy. Understanding history is essential to understanding the present.

For international trainers especially, recognizing these shared roots opens new doors:

• To integrate historical movement principles into modern teaching

• To better understand why Pilates works  and how to make it work for more bodies

• To reconnect with a broader, richer tradition of healing through motion

A Living Legacy

Joseph Pilates didn’t invent the idea of conscious movement. But he did translate it into something uniquely powerful, a system that’s stood the test of time and continues to evolve.

As Pilates practitioners, we don’t just inherit his exercises. We inherit his questions, his innovations, and yes, his influences. Including one from a snowy little country up north.

So the next time you roll down from the ribbstol, take a deep breath, and feel the strength of a method shaped by both history and hope. And for me as a swede I am actually trained on the system, because the ribbstol has add-ons and can be wonderful workout. Want to see?

Welcome back to the roots!