Today, everyone knows about Pilates exercises, similar to Yoga. Interestingly, both are associated with cats. But in the case of Pilates, did you know it was originally inspired by cat-watching on the Isle of Man?!
The beginnings of Pilates rose out of a dark chapter in British history when as many as 23,000 people were forced to go to the Knockaloe Internment Camp on the island in the Irish Sea. Among them was Joseph Hubertus Pilates from Germany.
Pilates was living in England at the time and traveling with circus performers at the outbreak of World War I. Not long after the war started, he and his troupe were rounded up and taken to the camp on September 12, 1915. Like thousands of others, the government branded them “enemy aliens” in the panic.
Images of the Knockaloe Internment Camp Isle of Man via Facebook, Mannin Collections Archive
Despite the grim circumstances, Pilates quickly made the most of the situation. Fifteen days after arriving, a century-old postcard suggests he took part of a gymnastics festival with the men.
Images of the Knockaloe Internment Camp Isle of Man via Facebook, Mannin Collections Archive
Historians believe he also became an intern in the camp’s hospital. There, he helped the patients keep moving, despite low morale and confinement in beds. He innovated with what he had, using the springs from the bed frames to create the first Pilates apparatus. And his workouts, destined to spread worldwide, are inspired by the local cats saw from the grounds.
Images of the Knockaloe Internment Camp Isle of Man via Facebook
Cats Inspired Pilates During Dark Days
While a prisoner in the camp for three and half years, Pilates passed the mundane time by studying cats. On the Isle of Man, tailless Manx cats are common. So, he might have been watching these outgoing cats which tend to behave more like dogs.
Image of Manx cat via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
While the men were feeling down and starving due to a German submarine blockade, the limber hunting cats around them were bright-eyed although maybe not bushy-tailed. Whatever the case, their natural vigor inspired Pilates, and he attributed it in part to their constant stretching movements.
Manx cat via Pxhere, Public domain
“Why were the cats in such good shape, so bright-eyed, while the humans were growing every day paler, weaker, apathetic creatures ready to give up if they caught a cold or fell down and sprained an ankle? The answer came to Joe when he began carefully observing the cats and analyzing their motions for hours at a time,” stated a 1962 Sports Illustrated interview with Pilates. The article was titled “Learning to Be an Animal.”
Manx cat on the Isle of Man via YouTube
“He saw them, when they had nothing else to do, stretching their legs out, stretching, stretching, keeping their muscles limber, alive,” the article continued.
Stamp with Manx cats from the Isle of Man, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED
Big Cats Also Inspired Pilates
After his release in March 1919, Joseph returned to Germany and then departed to New York at age 40, eventually opening his first gym, making many famous clients, and the rest is history.
One of his last surviving students, John Howard Steel, wrote about Pilate’s obsession with Contrology, the original name for the exercise system. And, cats continued to inspire the exercises. Steel went with Pilates to the Central Park Zoo, where they observed the caged big cats. Pilates could relate on a deep level to the caged cats from his days as a prisoner of war.
“Joe was transfixed watching large caged cats,” Steel wrotein the book Caged Lion. “Every time an animal made a move that caught his attention, he would tap me on the leg and point it out. He would then tell me why the animal was doing what it was doing, and how he had incorporated that stretch or exercise into Contrology… I realized he was watching himself in that enclosure. He knew what it was like to be caged.”
Images of the Knockaloe Internment Camp Isle of Man via Facebook, Mannin Collections Archive
Pilates had learned how to “live in the prison of life,” taking great inspiration from cats. That feline inspiration is why we think cats have ruled the internet for over 30 years as we adjust to modern-day confinements.
Video by The Wisdom Daily about Pilates:
Fit Like a Cat
While fitness is also popular on social media, Contrology doesn’t seek to build overdeveloped bulging muscles but emphasizes sleek, cat-like flexibility.
“Normal muscles should function naturally in much the same manner as do the muscles of animals,” states Pilates in Return to Life Through Contrology. “For instance, at the very next opportunity, watch a cat as it lazily opens its eyes, slowly looks around, and gradually prepares to rise after a nap. First, it gradually rises on its hindquarters and then gradually lowers itself again, at the same time sprawling out on the floor, leisurely stretching its forepaws (with extended claws) and legs. Observe closely how all its back muscles actually ripple as it stretches and relaxes itself. Cats as well as other animals acquire this ideal rhythm of motion because they are constantly stretching and relaxing themselves, sharpening their claws, twisting, squirming, turning, climbing, wrestling, and fighting. Also observe, too, how cats sleep–utterly relaxed whether they happen to be lying on their back, side or belly. Contrology exercises emphasize the need for this constant stretching and relaxing.”
You can learn more about the Knockaloe Internment camp from the Visitor Centre on the island, which is also on Facebook. In 2016, over 1,000 people took part in a Pilates class at the Knockaloe Visitor Centre, and classes have continued annually since.
Video about Pilates by PBS:
